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Me too!!!!!!!

The best place for the return is just below the top surface of the liquid. This way, the wort from the bottom is being moved to the surface & the entire batch gets thoroughly recirculated. This give the best and fastest cooling.

Yep, Plain ol' inexpensive Knox. No need for the spendy designer gelatins that the homebrew suppliers want to sell you. This stuff works just as well.

It may well be in your head. I have never noticed the smell/taste myself. Of course, maybe I am not sensitive to that flavor. I'll be transferring a batch later today that used gelatin; I'll scrutinize a sample and see if I can detect anything. It's a small session beer so off flavors shouldn't...

RO is very close to distilled. A little bit of minerals do slip past the filters, but it is very a tiny amount. For brewing purposes they are interchangable. RO can be a lot cheaper too. The grocery store I go to has a dispensing machine where I can buy refills for $1.49 for 5 gallons. Some pet...

It is best to prechill the beer as much as possible. In cold temps, the proteins come together and form larger particles. (chill haze, for instance) The larger bits are more easily settled out.

I start with RO and add whatever salts are needed. For the mash, the salts are added right with the grain at dough in. For the sparge, I use straight RO water, and then add the salts directly to the boil kettle for the amount of sparge water needed to hit my preboil level. In the end, my mash...

My suggestion would be to drop the cherry and the chocolate until you get a stout recipe that you are happy with. You should always have an established base recipe before trying to fruit/chocolate/spice/ whatever additives. A common failing of new brewers is to try to conquer the world before...

This might not be a full answer the what you are asking, but a 4 minute wait after whirlpool is pretty much like nothing. Try more like a half hour.

If you are going to use stored yeast that is more than maybe 2 weeks old, definitely make a starter, and use that. I was using old slurry yeast and had attenuation problems. I've become rather fussy about using yeast young.

Alcohol cleaners are just that;cleaners, not sanitizers. To be an effective sanitizer, alcohol has to be over 70%, or 140 proof. And then it is still far inferior to Starsan.

This is for 11 gallons.

I will be making a triple tomorrow, and I want to add the sugar after the wort has almost fermented out. This batch requires a lot of sugar, 4.6 lbs, but I don't want to add a lot of fluid if I can help it. How small a quantity of water can I get the sugar to dissolve into? What's your technique?

Yeah, Erlenmeyer flasks are like volcanoes, particularly if you try to add anything once the boil starts. Add all your ingredients, including the yeast nutrients, before the boil. The real solution is anti-foam goop that goes by the name Fermcap-S. This stuff works wonders. 2 or 3 drops into a...

Both 304 & 316 can be welded. What you really want is 304L or 316L. The L versions are specifically formulated for welding and will produce more reliable welds. You can hear a well informed podcast dealing with that topic here: The Brewing Network.com - Brew Strong: Brew Strong: 09-29-08 Metals...

Racking on to a yeast cake; what a good idea Evan! A boatload of active yeast, and it costs nothing extra. A win/win deal. I'll file that idea away for future use.

Gearbeer, I think that this is what you are looking for, a gas valve that screws into your regulator with a a built in check valve: http://www.kegkits.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=JO-K44BC&Category_Code=SSFG I use them on all my gas lines.

I know the 25' ICs are pretty standard, but they really are undersized for a full batch boil. I tried the same thing, and it didn't work worth a hoot. I finally broke down and bought a March pump and made a Jamil-style whirlpool chiller. Huge difference. Yeah, I know, just like a bigger...

Likewise; at $5.75 these secondary regulators are a steal! Perlick brand. I have 7 of them in my kegerator, 6 for beer I'm drinking, one to carb up the next keg to go in. 2 more on hand "just in case". I might get greedy and want 8 beers on tap. Oh my! I also found some cheap plastic containers...

Yep, I went the same route with a longer stir bar. It got tossed alla the time. The conclusion I've reached is that if the stir bar is longer than the magnet in the stir plate, it will never center properly. One end will catch the stir plate magnet and just stick, making it unbalanced. You are...