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When I was a kid we used to have a huge family vacation down to the current river. Always stayed at Acre's Ferry (it's closed now, DAMNIT). We always collected a bunch of crawdads for a big boil, the first few years we went those damned things were half the size of lobsters! Man, youth is...

+1 I just ordered a 7.9 gallon bucket for use as a primary. I have been using my 6.5 gal ale pail (bottling bucket) as a primary, but now that the pipeline is full I am seeing big holes in that method.

I have a MIGHTY stack of empties on my kitchen table, against the wall. 5 high and 5 wide... It definitely is a conversation starter for visitors. As far as bottle conditioning, I do that on the floor or wherever I can get them out of the way and out of the light.

As Pappers said, you are good. Getting the wort too cool shouldn't be a problem, your yeast might just take a little longer to get going. Rest assured, though, the low temp won't kill them. The sediment will just settle back down to the bottom, and shouldn't be a problem. Just be more careful...

If you are doing a partial boil I have found that using some ice as top off works very well. Just make sure the ice is sanitary.

I like to use the LCD thermometers that you just stick on the fermentor... Just like the ones commonly used to monitor aquarium temperature. They are pretty cheap and will give you a pretty good idea of fermentation temperature. Edit: +1 on picking a good yeast for your ambient air temperature.

Fruit in the secondary should impart a bit more flavor than from the primary... That being said if you aren't happy with the fruitiness at the end you could always garnish your beer with a hunk of melon.

Ive used mine as a fermentor... It's ok, not too hard to keep it clean. I just take the spigot out and soak it in some oxyclean, then hit it with sanitizer before use. The big draw back is not having a bottling bucket when your pipeline is full. I've managed to get myself into a predicament...

I bought some finings from midwest and followed the instructions... Let stand in COLD water for 1 hour, then bring to a boil to dissolve. I know you guys seem to be dead set against boiling, but it cleared my beer! Perhaps there is a difference between the finings and regular store bought...

Awesome, I was starting to wonder why you couldn't just mash with a grain bag over the stove. You just pushed me over the edge! Time to dig up a recipe and try my hand at AG.

Mine goes to 11!

I ALWAYS drink the full hydrometer sleeve. :mug:

Thanks, I will probably do a split batch. Sorry, I somehow failed to see the other threads on the topic. Oh well.

Ok, I am on my second full batch of apfelwein and was wondering about carbing some.... I bottled my last batch about a month ago in normal 750 ml wine bottles. Pitched montrachet both times, love the stuff uncarbed, but was curious about what it would be like with some carbonation. I was...

15 gallons of beer, 12 gallons of Apfelwein. 27+14497= 14524

I just top off my wort with ice. Works nicely, and you can crash your wort down to 70 in no time. I dumped 20 pounds of ice in on my batch tonight (too much btw had to strain some out so I could get the wort all blended together in a timely fashion). Sure beats the hell out of sitting it in a...

Wait a few days and take another gravity reading. You should leave it in the primary until the gravity is stable. My guess is, that gravity will drop some more. Patience. Will it be ok if you put it in the carboy? Probably, but it is always best to wait it out.

+1 on the Oxyclean... I had a bunch of dirty bottles from a weekend of drunkenness and wanted to get them clean fast and easy. Just filled my bathtub full of oxyclean and hot water and filled it with about 100 bottles. About 6 hours later I rinsed the bottles and spent about an hour picking all...