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Boiling the alcohol away? Never heard of that, but the same thing as distilling and keeping the opposite part, so makes sense. Any idea how long I'd need to go for?

Anyone tried before? Thinking about brewing a super low OG (so it's not a sugar bomb) with some monster hops, then immediately dry hopping and force-carbing.

Thanks, I'll give that a whirl. I have a second regulator, so I'll try that too. It is happening on all 4 lines independently of one another. Interested in any other ideas people have as well. I just don't get why this would be happening based on everything I've read.

I have done some searching on my particular issue and am not seeing anyone have the same problem. The first pour of the day comes out cold and with perfect head. When I pour from the same tap more than a couple minutes later, it's then 80% foam. The next day this repeats - perfect first beer...

You sold me...thanks!

I currently use gravity to get the wort from my brew kettle through my plate chiller and into my fermenter. At the end, I typically tip my kettle to get another .5 gallon or so of wort out, but i notice it seems to defeat the purpose of the whirlpool. Not a ton of junk gets into the fermenter...

Yeah I started harvesting with hefe yeast figuring if it does get a little funky, that works to the style anyway. Haven't yet gone past 1 generation though which I'm thinking will start to open it up even more. Did you re-harvest that yeast again? I guess if it's alive and hasn't gotten over...

It's not like I'm never going back to home depot again haha. I'm there a couple times a month anyway.

I was just messing around on yeastcalc.com, and noticed that once yeast gets to be 4 months old, it puts its viability at 10% for at least another 4 months after that. Is that accurate? I have some hefe yeast I forgot about in the fridge that was harvested 6/10/12. I was going to toss it...

Haven't opened anything yet. I'm going to run to home depot in the next few days and will pick up everything I could potentially need and return whatever I don't use. Then I can install it all at the same time. I assume that if the wire is a true 4 wire with an intact ground, I should just go...

I would probably do a 2-stage starter now before too much dies. Then, considering you're doing a lager, I'd do another 2 stages the days before you brew. http://www.yeastcalc.com/

Check out this page http://www.rackers.org/calcs.shtml to help figure out exact temperatures. Definitely put some HOT water in your MT while heating the strike water to bring it up to temp in the meantime. I use iBrewmaster for the iPad for calculating temps (among other things), and love it...

Often time dirty/soapy glassware can cause it. Try cleaning your beer glasses in oxyclean instead of the dishwasher. Also, remember some beers are supposed to have substantial head - especially wheat-based beers. Throughout Europe if you pour a beer without a noticeable head, it's considered bad.

That's krausen. I usually wait at least 2 weeks before racking from primary, by which time there's almost never any left. Measure your FG...if it's where it's supposed to be based on the recipe you brewed, then rack to secondary. If it's at all higher, wait longer. Personally, I'd give...

That makes a ton of sense. My current plans have no need for the 110V anyway. The line feeding the outlet says on it "Columbia 10/3 with ground type nm 600V (UL)". From my research, that's a 3 wire romex. The spa boxes start at $65 and then I have to wire it. I have a GE breaker box...

Apologies if these questions have been asked before...I've been searching for some time now and believe I know what my plan is, but am curious about a few things. The previous owners of my house switched the dryer from electric to gas, so I have an unused 10-30R (3-wire 240v) in the basement...

Buy a digital thermometer at radio shack that tracks high/low temps and let it hang out for a couple days there and see how it does. Personally, the back part of my basement is about 50 degrees from late December through early March while the front at the same time is about 60. It can be a...

I agree with Bsquared. The bad part of using a cooler in this case is that assuming you're using a stainless valve in the cooler, this combined with some form of bazooka screen means the actual port your mash can flow out of the cooler through sticks out .5" to 1" into the cooler. This means...

I haven't tried it myself, but I've heard of people filling the empty space in their mash tuns with styrofoam/blankets to help slow the heat loss. Worth a shot if you don't want to invest in a new cooler.

Assuming you were at 170deg F after sparge, according to this: http://hbd.org/cgi-bin/recipator/recipator/hydrometer.html You were really at 1.047