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For what it's worth, my process: 1-mr malty to determine starter size. I never exceed two liters as I want to use my flask and stir plate. Take yeast out of fridge at start of process to warm to pitching temp. 2-Sanitize. Place a bit of water, I do half liter, in your flask and place on stove...

+1 on this method. Only difference is I typically do 45PSI for 24 hrs at 35F the back off to about 15-20PSI for 24 hrs depending on how it's doing. After that I vent and put at serving pressure. I actually really like the feel on carb I get from this method.

Good brief article on the topic below. All oak contains the compound vanillin which gives you that vanilla character. When oak is toasted it's stronger compounds come out more. Based on the article I would go with a medium toast Hungarian oak or American as a second choice. I have always used...

You might try turning the serving pressure way down, just enough to push beer through the line, and see if you can pour it without all foam. It tastes flat because all your CO2 is immediately escaping the liquid (the foam) when you pour. A gentler pour may do the trick. If not, thn it's just way...

In my experience if you still have hops floating on top after 5 days of dry hopping, simply swirling the carboy should do the trick followed by a day at cold temps to clear out the remainder. Usually the hops are saturated enough to sink but probably have a thin layer of CO2 from fermentation...

You could just as easily create a clean slobber free siphon by boiling some water (for sanitary reasons) or at least some water you havent spit in, fill up your tube with the water (put your thumb on one end of the tube like getting water in a straw), then quickly put one end in your beer and...

Has got to be the yeast. As long as you're priming properly (sounds like you are), capping properly to get a good seal (hard not to), storing at ale temps (65F is fine) then it should be working. The Nottingham ale yeast is highly flocculent (settles out of the fermenter) which may be causing...

Strange. 65F Room temp should be pretty ideal for bottle conditioning and ale fermentation. Are these your only two batches so far or have you had luck bottle conditioning in the past?

Morebeer sells them. I bought one for around $30 I believe. Good for toting your own brew around but I wouldn't count on breweries filling it up as it doesn't hve the brewery name and other abc requirements for them to send beer out the door.

To date my strongest chocolate character (flavor and aroma) has come from cacao nibs. In my personal experiences haven't liked the effects of cocoa powder. Always seems to impart a slight chalky mouthfeel in the beers I've had although i know others have had success with it. I will add 8oz+...