Depending on how far in advance I make my starter, I either just dump the whole thing if I started it too late and wasn't able to cold crash it or I just decant 75% of the liquid off the top, swirl and dump.

It looks like they are growing them in a greenhouse out in Arizona. By the way, check their shipping info to see how many days it'll take to get to you so you order appropriately. But yeah, I thought it was pretty cool to have the opportunity to make a wet hop beer in the middle of winter.

Disclaimer: I have no affiliation with this site, just throwing it out there for those interested. I'm not sure if you guys have heard of 24 Hour Hops but they have a wet hop harvest scheduled for January. I've never brewed with wet hops before and my hop harvest this year (1st year) was quite...

As others have said, pH is really only important with all-grain mashing and not steeping. With steeping, you are just rinsing the sugars off the grain and there is no conversion happening. So don't worry about pH at this point and focus more on your overall process and sanitation.

My go to place is RiteBrew but they don't always having everything. It also helps that I live close enough to get next day shipping for $7.

What is the same between the 2 beers? Grain bill, hops, etc, and I'm more interested in the hops and if you've ever used them before. Because it seems like there are certain hops that my wife thinks taste soapy, which are fine to me.

I don't brew lagers so I can't answer your 2nd question but as for the 1st. Being at 1026 from 1055 seems pretty high for a finishing gravity. I would maybe try swirling the yeast or bringing up the temp a bit. If you bottle it in 2 days at 1020+, I would expect some bottle bombs or at least...

The less you have to do to it, the better. At this point in the fermentation, you don't want to introduce oxygen and shaking could do just that. As long as your temps are good, just leave it be.

Welcome from SE Wisconsin!

I'd still stick with the last 7 days before packaging. I'd give it 2 weeks, then dry hop for 1 more.

I wouldn't waste the money on pitching more. The pack is made for 5 gallons of 1.06 gravity wort. You're brewing half that amount so there are more than enough yeast cells for your batch.

I mean others may have different thoughts on dry hopping but some suggest that dry hopping for too long can cause grassy flavors. I don't have enough experience dry hopping to say one way or the other though.

I take dry hop times to mean that's how long they stay in there. So 4 days to me means you're throwing them in there 4 days before you're packaging the beer. Or at the very least, leave them in there for 4 days and them pull them out. The whole point of dry hopping is to get the aroma so my...

Unfortunately there is no easy way to determine how much lactic acid to add because, if you're using tap water, the ion concentrations could change with the seasons, different beers will affect pH differently and all these things will change the buffering capacity of the water. So it's sort of...

I guess the real question is, have you brewed this yet and what was your OG?

My next beer will be a 15 min saison inspired by the guys as BasicBrewing. I'm putting my own little spin on it and pitching 3711 and 3724. https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/570638/15-minute-saison

I just finished watching Channel Zero. It's like American Horror Story in that the different seasons are different stories completely. Highly recommend just skipping to season 2.

Or even a "I don't feel comfortable serving a minor" would have probably been better than a rant.

I'd say you want to start trying to bring that temp down. Once it gets high, you can get off flavors like fusel alcohol or other esters you may not want. I'm sure it'll be ok in the end though.

My guess is the carbonation is the issue. You may have dissolved the gelatin in water but there was probably enough particles around to create nucleation sites and which triggered the eruption. I think just keep adding it before you begin carbing it and you'll be fine.