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What's your weather like where you live? I haven't had an infection with ice-bathing my beer, but could easily see how it could happen. Your wort IS covered while you're chilling it right? That's an absolute must! I wouldn't open my kettle at all until I was ready to transfer to the fermentor.

What are you doing to chill your wort? IC? CFC? Plate? Assuming you are transferring into a carboy, installing the carboy cap onto it and using a racking cane into the open hole of the cap will create a more or less sanitary transfer from the kettle. Yes, keep the lid on the pot after the boil...

Yeah. It'll be good for doing shots!!! :ban: Actually, my thought was that it would be a good volume for wild yeast where your sample is basically minuscule... something that would make the dregs of a bottle look almost pitchable by comparison.

Oops! Forgot the pic!

Man I love American Science and Surplus!!! Test tubes, vials, stand, alcohol lamp, erlenmeyer flasks (50 & 250mL size), 100 pH test strips, stirbar, just about all the supplies you need for a DIY wild yeast lab. I even looked at microscopes and got two lip gloss containers with the little brush...

The coolers are straight-sided, same dimensions all the way down, if that's what you mean. Feet alone generally won't work because the grain will sneak around the sides and underneath. But, if you wanted to make that work, you'd want the feet to be really small, so the vertical gap between the...

Well, you need a little bit of space under there for the wort to collect and be siphoned off. There's several ways around that though. You could run silicone tubing around the edge to give it some height. You could also bend it in half at a small angle and put a long skinny triangle along the...

Now that makes a TON of sense! We all have brew kettles already. Why mess with a bottling bucket? It might even have a lid that can be used to minimize the risk of anything falling in during transfer. Actually, all you would need for this is a ball valve on your kettle (which most already...

55 gallon SS drums are actually available in sizes other than 55 gallons... they just don't call them "55 gallon drums". LOL I never thought about it personally, but that might be worth looking into. I'd check out mcmaster carr first, then maybe a few other SS barrel suppliers. Good luck...

Ummmm.. buying a cooler vs having one pre-converted... that difference could be worth an extra $30. SS ball valves alone are $25 or so, and it's already been done for you. A corona grain mill isn't optimal, but if you don't have one, that's another thirty bucks. Ale pales are sorta junky, but...

I'm going to rethink these. I used to use them a lot on my water-cooled computer. But I always had trouble getting them tight enough. Like I edited in my post above though, I'm going to rethink it. It looks like they should work well... I've just not found them to be very dependable... but then...

I have used those before, didn't find them to be much less fiddly than worm clamps... better in some ways, but not quite the perfect solution... I'll rethink this though... maybe they deserve another shot...

Man, I hate those things. They're fine for semi-permanent connections, but when it comes to using them for siphoning, it's kind of a pain. I have found one thing though that helps, and I had a little idea that might also be good. First off, if the connection is solid, but just not quite...

Good point. But it could be rinsed out with soap and water. You could even use a bottle brush to clean the inside, so I don't think it would be too bad. If you did this though, you might want a second lid for mashing, otherwise heat will escape through the holes... OTOH, 10 gallons of mash...

On the cheap, I would probably buy something like a winch on a swivel that could lower a bucket into the mash. Not a perfect solution as you would have to push the grains into the bucket somehow. But what if you were to put a pre-measured fraction of your grains into BIAB bags... Then just fish...

There is. It just isn't food safe and may etch the glass or plastic. Just dump it out on your neighbor's lawn and be done with it

You have to embrace the nastiness. After all, you created it. Didn't your mother ever tell you, "You're the one who made the mess, so now you have to clean it up"? Yeah. That's why I don't add a lot of funky things to my beers anymore. :-P

That's a good temperature. You can improve it further by keeping your carboys in a water bath, such as a large plastic storage tub. But honestly, if I had a steady 66f basement, I don't think I'd even bother unless I wanted to lager or cold crash, or make a really cold ale such as an alt, in...

Look at the issues of time and money. It sounds like you have the time to brew more but lack the funds. If this is the case, go for BIAB. Also, remember that while brewing is a hobby, the end product contributes to the household. If your hobby is cutting grass, your purchase of a lawnmower isn't...

On to a more vinegar related question... I am just finishing up a quart of honey vinegar. I started it with a Tbsp of Apple Cider Vinegar, added a bit of of mead, let it convert, then added some more, let it convert, etc. So, I have a total of 3 slimy mothers in the bottom of my quart...