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I'd say start with any/all of these that you can manage: good hot break, whirlfloc, rapid chill after boil, cold crash. If that doesn't work, then try gelatin. My beers didn't get super clear quickly until I started using gelatin. Good luck.

6.5 gal plastic Big Mouth Bubbler offers the best of both for me. Easy to clean, safe, light weight and see through. I reuse yeast and being able to see fermentation activity clearly made it easy for me to spot problem ferments, troubleshoot, and ultimately make better beer.

This gives me the best results with ales: 0.5 whirlfloc tab/5 gal at 5 min Primary for 10-12 days Crash to 40F for 2 days Add gelatin to empty keg and rack cold beer on top Carb at serving pressure for 7 days First pint is cloudy, but it's crystal clear after that Good hot and cold...

I struggled with this exact issue for nearly a year. The solution for me was to add Wyeast yeast nutrient to the batches that I'm repitching slurry into. Now, my fifth generation ferment is as good or better than my first. YMMV. Good luck getting it sorted out.

Whatyoutalkinboutwillis?

I'm not. But fortunately a lot of other well-regarded pro and amateur brewers have so I don't have to. 1 billion / ml of slurry seems to be a pretty common average, and it gives me excellent results. YMMV And yet I prefer the results I get from repitching a measured amount of "dirty slurry" of...

Cost and cell count used to be a factor for me too, but here's one way to get past it. Buy a new pack of of liquid yeast and pitch it into a low gravity beer, like Centennial Blonde or an English Bitter (assuming you are using 1056/001 or 1968/002). When you rack your beer off the yeast cake...

So would a beer with a lower FG have less flavor than an otherwise identical beer with a higher FG?

I'm not trying to sound like a jerk, but I've read your posts throughout this thread and I'm having a real hard time understanding what the heck you're talking about. You've been vaguely critical of people who don't secondary (at least I think that's what you've been critical of), without...

Granted, this picture shows one of my beers (the one of the left) that was packaged w/o secondary after 12 days, not 10, but there are no dregs there. It's actually clearer than the commercial version on the right...

Can you elaborate? It's been my experience that a secondary wastes both. It clearly takes more time. And because it didn't produce better beer, I concluded it was also a waste of effort. Again, YMMV.

Most? How do you know this? My personal hunch, based on forum chatter and newer books, is that while this may have been true 10 years ago, it's probably not today. My observation was that I wasn't getting any noticeable benefit from doing a secondary, so I stopped. And since then, it has been...

+1 I calibrate with tap water every time I use mine. Some say to calibrate with distilled, but I never noticed a difference so now I don't bother.

Depending on the fermenter, I'll draw out a sample with either a 1ml or 10ml pipette, or maybe a wine thief if I want extra to taste. I suppose a racking cane with the little black cap on the end would grab enough for testing, too. Many ways to skin that cat.... I've been using a refractometer...

Your first stop should be the 'Articles' section on the mrmalty.com website. There are two yeast starter articles that should answer all your questions, and then some. Next, go to the 'Yeast Tools' section and click on 'Yeast Pitching Rate Calculator' to determine how big your starter should be...

I bottle and keg cold. No need to bring the temp up before packaging. Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

That's what I do. Pull out the hop bag and then turn the temp down to 40F for a few days before packaging.

Not to go off-topic, but there are a couple things about this that don't make sense to me. When you check your FG (which is what the OP asked about), you need to do that before you add your priming sugar. And the only possible scenario I can think of where sample size may be an issue is...

The Fermtech Wine Thief works well because you can pull some beer into the thief, drop your hydrometer into it and then immediately move the beer back into your carboy. A 1ml pipette works well if you ever decide to switch to a refractometer.

I've been using one for several years now. My advice: calibrate it every day you use it. And my tap water gives me the exact same reading as distilled water so that's what I use.