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These are interesting but the cost-benefit is pretty poor considering vessel size and, accordingly, the number you'd need to do anything fun, even experimentally. As long as you aren't rustling your jars every day a loose-fitting ring is the only airlock you'll ever need.

I've never had a problem with very old pitches of estery strains as long as I build up an appropriate starter. I just did a WLP-550 from over a year ago and it's tasting great so far (in the fermenter anyway). I might be more inclined to fret over an American style strain that old, where stress...

Gonna be sitting on those a while at $60 even for ball locks, that's about what MDHB sells them for last I checked, and they'd vouch for the condition. You can get cosmetically questionable pin locks for almost exactly 1/2 that price, shipped (assuming shipping on 4 of them--so, not bulk).

I don't do a lot of ciders, but I think I might start using this as my main cider yeast. It finishes dry but the esters and funk really bring out the musty notes in the apple, so you get a dry cider that really tastes like ripe fruit. This wasn't even amazing good juice, it was a 64oz grocery...

I didn't see a calculator offhand but there's a chart here: http://www.jaysbrewing.com/2011/11/17/lazy-chart-for-converting-dme-lme-grain/ The ratio is 1 : 0.6 grain : DME at 75% efficiency. Here's BYO's formula for 3# dry malt:

-overpost-

Thinking $5 is too much for the LBK, but I'm grudgy against the leaky old POS I brewed my first beer on. :)

FWIW it took a full two-day cold crash to get that yeast fully out of suspension, the one bad thing I can say about it is that you really have to prod it to floc. It tastes fine with some residual yeast but if your IBUs are up there you may see some yeast bite until it drops out. I didn't bother...

Great input, definitely relevant

Pseudoscientists are OBSESSED with water. Ionized water, deionized water, magicked water, upside down water. Big surprise she's an antivaxxer, too.

You can do it either way, but your beer will attenuate/dry out a little more, and (if it matters) you won't need quite as big of a starter if you add it after fermentation slows. Minimizes blowoff, too. I like three days as a rule of thumb but it depends on lag time and OG and other things, just...

I brewed a 15 gal batch of American-hopped session saison (1.040) Saturday night, pitched about 450ml of belle saison slurry from April. Today (Tuesday) it's done at 1.002. The attenuation is as far as I expect it to go and the yeast cap dropped, though it's still pretty orange-juicy looking...

If you want to bring that closer to 80%, my suggestion is to tighten it whatever you think is "too tight", and then scale it back as you encounter issues. Of course how afraid you are of stuck sparge all depends on your lautering setup, I just think people spend a lot of time obsessing about...

Exactly. It encourages your yeast to eat the "roughage" (maltose etc) before gorging on simple sugars.

Belle Saison doesn't need a temperature rise for attenuation like some saison yeasts. So if you want lots of fruit, start it at room temp upstairs. If you want a more balanced profile with more clove (I would), start it in the basement and let it rise on its own. Either way you don't need to...

Belle Saison is great in the low 60s and very tolerant as it goes higher. I go warmer for lo-grav and cooler for hi-grav to get the right balance. It will attenuate heavily no matter what you do with it, so don't mash low if you're starting around 1.040, but a low mash is fine if you're up in...

Do you get stuck sparges? If not the hulls are an aesthetic concern (and/or equipment pissing contest meets LHBS sales thing), intact or not is irrelevant, tannin extraction is really a factor of temp and pH. My only concern would be how well the endosperm is crushed and exposed with each...

Adding the sugar after fermentation slows (3 days-ish) takes the edge off any underpitch (within reason) and should improve attenuation, if that's what you're after.

That's a good point actually, I have had cracks--mostly in ones I try to put holes in for some reason or another, but some just from use.

@Panache The leak is fine. Ignore the leak. Airlocks (to the extent they're useful at all) are not for judging fermentation activity. A loose lid is as effective as a tight airlock in active primary.