That^^^ I used paint strainer bags for grain a lot before I moved to a 15 gallon mash tun. They work very well. Still use the 1-gallon ones for hop bags in the boil.

That's a theme for a beer club meet-up!! Head to Head Hefe night!!! :)

Yeah...I lived in Chicago through the 80s and I still visit there relatively often. For some reason, there's always been a good German Hefe on tap at a lot of places -much more common than other places I've been. I can't remember if Hacker-Pschorr or Paulaner is the one that's more common but...

I bottled a lot of beer with my DIY Pluto beer gun. At first I worried about O2 and purging but I quickly realized that CO2 is escaping suspension at a very high rate as the carbonated beer fills the bottle and pushing oxygen out as it goes. By the time you're capping on foam, there's no room...

Beer gun works great for bottling carbed beer out of a keg...adding the cork is a very handy thing. It's possible to keep foaming to nearly nothing. No need to buy one for $120...get the Pluto beverage dispenser for less than $20 and add a stainless steel tube to it. When I have beer on tap...

Yeah...I think of bubblegum as a sort of generic fake fruit flavor. I seldom really like the hefeweizens offered by local craft breweries, though I order them occasionally. When I find a German hefe on tap, I remember why I like the style.

That^^^ I usually add roasted barley late in the mash when I do an Irish Stout. Otherwise, everything goes in for the full ride. I utilize late addition steeped malts when I'm doing split batches but only to keep things separate.

Phenolic is most often used to describe an off flavor that's harsh, chemical, band-aid, medicinal, among other things.

Agreed...Hefeweizen is seldom if ever particularly "spicy" and if it is, it's low-level, vaguely cinnamon-ish. I can see the white pepper, but I get a lot of earthy barnyard/leather/tobacco notes from that. though there's no denying the aromatic nature of it. In hefeweizen, there's far more...

If you want fizzy malt flavored soda, that's easy to find - Malta Goya or similar in most any supermarket "latin food" aisle. If you want a "beer" experience, take a quantity of your beer and simmer it to remove alcohol (extra points if you cobble together some pots, bowls and ice to actually...

Hard cider has considerable carb content - around the same as regular beer. Wine, especially dry wine has very low carb count but not zero. Low-carb beer can be quite low in carbs. I'd say to the OP that if carbs are a serious health concern, then sticking with a known quantity like commercial...

Yes...you'd collect and treat your full volume - mash and sparge - and make adjustment with brewing salts to hit a target range for sulfate, chlorides, etc. Mash pH is handled with grist ingredients. Further acidifying the portion you use for sparge is strictly for pH control. Final wort pH...

There is a separate addition of lactic acid specifically to the volume of brewing water that's reserved for the sparge. Mash pH is impacted by various malts and is controlled through the use of salts and ingredients like acidulated malt or lactic or phosphoric acid. Mash pH and sparge water pH...

I fly sparge...the point is to keep the pH moving in the right direction throughout the sparge. If I have a mash pH of 5.4 and then dump a lot of 7 or 8 pH water into it, it changes things drastically. I've never argued with the logic of it and I get great efficiency and quality beer. :)

Yeah, you're doing it right...there's no reason that the Brewfather software wouldn't be accurate. I've followed the BF calculator recommendations and measured the pH and gotten the predicted outcome. My additions are considerably higher but I'm using local water with a high pH to start.