I have both a cooler tun and a BIAB setup. I see no difference at all clarity or quality wise between the two.
The only reason I keep the cooler tun around anymore is for batches too large to fit in my kettle for BIAB.
Not much you can do about it now, huh? :D It'll be ok, I've done it both ways, can't say I've been able to notice a difference one way or the other but I do recommend cooling the priming solution before putting it in to the bottling bucket, to be safe.
My best guess is an inaccurate recipe or an inaccurate OG reading (was the wort 68 degrees F?)
You're right, it doesn't make sense. With less boil-off your OG should be lower than planned.
No idea what's local in AR but using this link:
http://www.seekabrew.com/distro/?s=AR&p=NC&sort=alpha
There's a good list of what is available in AR that isn't in NC. Only things that jump out to me are Tallgrass and Goose Island. I don't know alot of those breweries (might be local AR...
Patience! Don't start pouring out beer yet. RDWHAHB. Or maybe a craft beer if yours aren't ready yet.
Carbonation will likely vary from bottle to bottle if you added the sugar in the bottle.
What temps did you ferment at? That may give away the reasoning for the banana-y flavor.
If you must tinker any further I would boil some malt extract into water and use it. Table sugar is going to cause for a couple of unwanted side effects: 1. Dry-ness, 2. Sometimes in great quantities, a cider-y taste.
Even using DME/LME, you're going to be watering down the hops and specialty...
What night were you in? I was in there last Friday night (7/20) celebrating my birthday! :rockin: Might've seen you there and didn't even know it.
Hank's is a great place. They're super friendly, have some great beers (their own and bottles), and the atmosphere is pretty awesome. I hate that...
I soak them in PBW, rinse, and run star-san through them when I sanitize the entire line (tap and all).
I've never disassembled them to clean. Maybe I should start...
edit: I felt like I could have done something more outlandish for my 1000th post...... :D
I just dump em into the secondary and when I rack to keg I put a fine bag on the output end of my hose. Same principle without trying to dig a bag out of my carboy.
So the lowdown on aeration (oxygenation): Yeast need oxygen to do their jobs, that's why we aerate the wort right as it goes into the fermenter, whether that be with an airstone, vigorous shaking, etc. Once fermentation starts, you do NOT want to introduce any additional oxygen to the beer, it...
That's the way I sanitize my kegs. The leftover starsan in the pickup tube should drain out when you pour out the starsan.
There's starsan in the picnic tap and liquid line anyways so I pour into an empty bucket until beer is coming out