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Just for an additional data point, I used 1 pack in 5 gal of 1.050 wort and it dropped pH to 3.3 at 68F with no issues at all and no discernable off flavors. Took 48 hours or more to show activity and fermented out fully in less than 2 weeks.

My water is like yours and I use phosphoric acid to set the brewing water to a desired pH before mashing. For pils I effectively eliminate the bicarbonate by adding acid to achieve a water pH of 5.5. For pale ales or IPA I set the water closer to 6pH. I used to dilute with or use straight RO...

Pickling lime is a good alternative to baking soda for bringing pH back up with soft water and dark grains.

When you say it has a caramel flavor that you don't expect, especially at room temp, I think of diacetyl. No idea on the floaty except that you may have picked up some pedio or wild yeast and that's just a mini pellicle. Pedio would also explain the diacetyl if the fresh beer didn't have any.

What he said, and lactobacillus dies in the presence of hops and pedio takes forever to sour. The only way to make a sour IPA is to kettle sour with lacto and then do your boil and hop additions after the wort is already sour. You can then ferment with Sacc or Brett of your choice...

Buy a new one. Get another 6 years out of it and plus you get another chance to build a collar or make the improvements you've always wanted. They're cheap on CL or even brand new.

You don't have to actually boil in the flask. Bring temp up over 180 then shut the burner off and let it sit for 15 min before cooling. Boiling isn't really sanitizing any better than 180. To truly sanitize you'd need to pressure cook or autoclave anyway.

Build an insulated box with a mini fridge at one end. Put a little ceramic heater in there and some fans. Use a hot/cold switching temp controller and then set it and forget it. Tons of fermentation chamber resources around here. Also I would suggest you make it twice as big as you think...

US05 has given me peach or white grape flavors a couple times when I tried to ferment around 65 or 66 on mid gravity beers. I only ferment at 68 now and have zero problems.

Just bend the dip tube in your keg so it points away from the center. This will leave a pint or so in the keg but all the excess trub and gelatin and whatnot will collect below the dip tube. You will also not suck up yeast and trub when the keg kicks and your beer lines will stay cleaner.

Otra Vez is an awesome introduction into the Gose style and sour beers in general. I can see not liking it if you're not expecting a tart salty beer, but it is very well made and far from disgusting. Sierra Nevada does not put out bad beers.

I do 90 min boils because that way I can use more water to sparge with. I think it helps my efficiency and I also think the maillard reaction creates a little more richness and depth of flavor. I wouldn't add hops over 60 min though.

As mentioned before you can cold crash to solidify the yeast cake, but that stuff will already be pretty set up from the weight of the beer on it. If using an auto siphon it has a cap on the end that pulls beer about 1" from the bottom of the siphon. This will pull a small area of yeast/trub...

Tip the bucket by putting a stopper or something under one side. Put your autosiphon all the way into the yeast/trub on the bottom furthest away from the stopper where it will suck up every last bit of beer. Start auto siphon and walk away. You will only get a little yeast/trub from the...

I thought refractometer post fermentation didn't work right because of alcohol. Also, the raspberries and crushed but not really that much. Mostly whole with some juice, not sure you would see be able to measure all the available sugars.

I used 2 lbs of frozen crushed raspberries in a 5 gallons batch.

I have that book and have read it. Maybe I need to revisit it, but I was kind of interested in the opinions of multiple people, not just one author. I agree that it is an excellent book full of great info.

I'm now pretty sure that the layer of hop residue from a 100 batches of hoppy beers in my kettle is what did this batch in. The pH stopped at 3.8 and nothing I do gets it dropping again. I've added probiotics 3 different times now and 5 gallons of this 10 gallon batch started to spontaneously...

So how do you keep a supply of healthy lacto around? Make a starter and then keep it at room temp or in the fridge? Feed it every couple of weeks?

Because I force carb and keg I'm more concerned with bottling an already carb'd beer that I know isn't done fermenting. For example I have a raspberry gose I made that I kettle soured, boiled, fermented out, then put on raspberries for 4 days before kegging. I liked the idea of fresh fruit...