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Those are a lot of specialty grains. What are your reason behind each of them? I'd go with the 2-row, 1x crystal type, and the roasted barley. Try 4-5% roasted and you can probably get by without the crystal 120. Skip the Munich and use just the crystal 80 instead. MAYBE add one more type of...

Is 70-72F the temp you want to ramp up to? Then yes, room temperature should be fine. Have you been keeping it cooler than room temp for the initial stages of fermentation?

I get what you're saying now. You bring up a good point. I do not adjust my water profile to account for top off water post boil. Perhaps I should. But no complaints so far. Interesting to hear about mash effects on mineral profile. Are you saying the mash takes out all minerals? Haven't heard...

That's how I brew. Gets me 10 gal batches with a 10 gallon mash tun and 10 gal brew kettle. Upper limit for OG with this method is about 1.060. I've gone higher by adding DME and/or sugar in the boil, but not much higher. If I want true high gravity beer I stick to 5 gal batches. Math got a...

Regular secondary fermentation made sense 20 years ago with crappy yeast. With modern practices and new, fresh yeast there's no need. I ferment in primary, dry hop in primary, age in primary, cold crash in primary, then rack directly to the keg and enjoy crystal clear beer. Not only is...

Why did you move it to secondary when you did? Was that based on time or gravity reading? Possible that it wasn't done before you racked to secondary and that process cause the fermentation to stall out. Worst case, 5 gravity points isn't a big deal. You probably wouldn't even notice the...

Concur with suggestion to let it warm up a bit after pouring. Also, carbonation will change the flavor some anyway. You said those were new kegs, but how did you clean them before racking the beer?

Some folks have put a lightbulb in a coffee can. I use a small electric heater I bought off amazon. Any heat source will do, doesn't need to be the $300 dollar Blichmann special. A free solution might be even as simple as moving it closer to a heat vent or warmer room.

Once you're a day or two into fermentation I'd bump the temp up a few degrees. The flavor profile is mostly set at that point and the warmer temps can encourage a more complete fermentation and higher attenuation.

I have a similar one. It works ok, but the calibration drift is pretty bad. Might not notice it if you used it all the time, but if you're just using it once a week or every other week it'll be off by at least 0.3. You must calibrated prior to each use. I ordered buffer solution off amazon. The...

Without getting into complicated formulas, it's simply the sugars extracted divided by the potential maximum extraction. I find it easiest to work in points per pound per gallon. That's PPPG to be correct, though most folks abbreviate it PPG for ease and simplicity. Reference this table in How...

The latter. Larger mash volume with longer boil will just concentrate the wort and make for a higher OG. Mash for your final volume and top off with plain water to compensate for expected boil-off volume. Curious though,why the longer boil?

2nd the question on the age of the yeast and yeast storage. Old, weak yeast sounds like most likely explanation. What was the temp of the wort when you pitched the yeast? What temp are you fermenting at? Same as the others? A couple degrees difference in the mash temp won't make any...

You make a starter? For comparison, I pitched a healthy glob of slurry of Wyeast 1098 saved from previous brew day 6 months ago. I aerated and used DAP, but no starter. Normally I would, but excuses, etc. No signs of fermentation until today, but now I have the beginning of a krausen. Here's...

Interesting. What SG was your Christmas Ale pre-boil? I guess in theory SG makes a difference Ii just never thought it would be one that was noticeable on the home brew scale.

I thought Weyermann was an American company? I've bought Mutons from Midwest. It's certainly not American (it's from Suffolk, England), but it's at least another extract brand you can buy in the US.

Substituting a couple pounds of DME for simple cane sugar will help it finish dryer. Also, you can try adding some of the sugar/D-180 a few days into fermentation. That allows the yeast to consume the more complex maltose first. Your fermentation temp plan sounds spot on. Warning, the...

I've never had the separation that others have. My re-used yeast looks exactly like yours. I've done an actual cell count with a hemocytometer and came up with a 1 bill cells per ml of dense slurry. Dense meaning it sat in the fridge for a week and settled. There was a bunch of trub junk in...

I've had that before, even with other yeast. I don't top crop though, I harvest the slurry from the bottom. Don't know what is, but I skim it off and just pitch the thick stuff on the bottom of the jar.

That perfectly explains my problem. I calibrated my pH meter with new distilled water and a buffer solution. The plain distilled water read 7.0. I put the distilled water bottle on the shelf. A couple weeks later I wanted to check the calibration of the meter. I used some of the previously...