Thank you everyone for such great responses and ideas!! I really appreciate it , gonna tackle this very soon!! Outdoor temps have been brutal here in Ohio winters, with temps around 10 F sometimes so gonna have to do something better than what I've been doing!!

Hi all, Need your opinion on insulating my mash kettle. I do all grain, BIAB, have a 15 gallon kettle, and am currently using R13 wall batting insulation wrapped around the kettle held in place by bungee cords (several layers). Pro = low cost, highly effective, and relatively simple (remove...

Thanks for all the ideas everyone! Very cool cleaning device! Wish I had more mechanical know how to build stuff like this!

Hi everyone, I've found it a challenge to clean the gunk off the bottom of a spent keg, especially when I want to refill the same keg on the same day I've been using oxy clean with a warm water swirl. However, there's often a bit of gunk on the bottom of the keg nevertheless. My first idea...

Agreed with above on the water - that would include other water profile variables besides alkalinity.

How widely available is Great Western? I think I've seen it at a couple of online ingredient suppliers but not sure.

Oops. Here is the brew session link https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/brewsession/407039

@Herm_brews something you saw in my recipe made me take a second look and find an error on my part when entering the recipe. I only was supposed to have 5 specialty grains plus the base grain in this kit, so I double checked and corrected the errors. Too much grain would definitely make...

Sorry, try this one:. https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/1056645/irish-red-ale-5-gal

Here's a link to my brew session https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/brewsession/407039 I took a gravity reading while the bag was still in the pot and measured the total volume of wort with the bag still in. I got: 11.75 gal. 1.012. @ 96 deg I think this is a measurement error because...

I'm brewing another batch tomorrow and will report back on my numbers. Hopefully gain some insights, thanks for everyone's insights!

Right, I am definitely shooting for a consistent conversion and/or brew house efficiency so I can plan better. If I know I can only get 60 percent conversion efficiency, I'd be ok, but it is just all over the place (49-88).

After reading more replies, and reading BFs info on conversion efficiency, I wonder if I'm measuring it correctly? Could you weigh in please? For "mash complete", I usually measure SG with cooled wort in a hydrometer and measured the volume of wort AFTER the bag is pulled out. (BF indicates...

Thanks everyone those are a lot of great ideas, it would probably help if I made the same beer over and over to see what's going on to cause this but I think that has the potential to get boring after about 5 pale ales of the same gravity, etc. Maybe some SMASH pale ales with different hops...

Hi there! I've been brewing all grain BIAB for 3 or so years now, about 27 batches documented in Brewer's Friend. I'm looking at my efficiency numbers (conversion, but also brew house) and they are all over the board. They range from a low of 49% to a high of 88% with an average of 65. The...