I have started doing this fairly often. Saves lots of water. Also gives you a bit more time to build yeast starter if you overlooked that. :)

What was the pH on that water? That is pretty unusual water. Really high bicarb. A little calcium chloride and pH correction and you will probably have pretty good results.

If it is too tart, but otherwise ok, no off flavors other than the lacto tartness, you can correct that with the addition in the keg of a number of different syrups. For instance, a hazelnut syrup from your local coffee supplier would be very nice in a brown. Just be sure that you underdose your...

If you are concerned, just submit your recipe, but not the entire recipe. You know, leave out a key ingredient here or there. I suspect most of the recipe copies of famous beers from breweries like Russian River or the like are approximations of what they really brew. If they do decide to brew...

I have used clarity ferm is several different beers. Base recipe, followed the directions on the package. Regular ingredients and the beers taste great. I have a couple friends with celiac disease, not sensitivity and they have not had issues with these beers.

I messed around with the cooler and ice for awhile as well, cheap, but lots of upkeep and hassle. There are some DIY glycol chiller plans out there, the cost is largely dependent on how cheap you can acquire an air conditioner for. Overall though, having the unitank is a huge upgrade in quality...

It is a nice tank. Now you need a glycol chiller. Did it come with the heating pad around the cone? That is a nice addition as well. You need the CIP ball for cleaning, get the small one.

I too like the Danstar, BRY97 as a dry, clean fermenting yeast. Also a fan of the 04.

With your new set up, you would really like a hopback. Blichmann makes a nice one.

You might check out the Brulosophy site, I believe they did an experiment with dextrine malt, with and without. Didn't seem to matter.

I was counting on it not restarting. That was the reason for the cold crash first.

Or, just give up on all the bottles and get yourself a kegerator set up. So much easier.

I highly recommend the finish hydrometer for measuring FG. The scale goes from .9-1.2 and is easier to read. You can get the polycarbonate ones that don't break near as easily.

I have made a couple of fruit beers. I added 5# of blueberries, pureed, to the primary fermentor after the beer was ready to keg, and after cold crashing. This dropped the yeast out and fermentation did not restart. I left them in the fermentor for about 24 hours and then transferred off to the...

Also, when brewing your lighter, session beers, you can always use a tsp or two of amylase after primary fermentation is complete to drive down residual fermentable sugars (carbs) further. This will push your beer toward lower body, light status.

Generally you want less than 4% of your grain bill as acid malt. The water calculator on this site works well for water adjustments.

You can use acid malt, usually .5 lb to 1 lb in most recipes (9-18 lbs of total grain bill). However, if you ever invest in a good pH meter, I bet you will find that most water/grain combos drop into the acceptable range without acid malt. You are trying to get the mash under 5.5.

So, it would seem like your are done with primary fermentation when the activity stops and your gravity drops and stabilizes. However, the beer benefits from another week or two of just sitting there. The yeasties are cleaning up and making your beer better. Most of your beers with tend to clear...

I would not give much thought to the trub that flows on to the fermentor. Doesn't really cause any trouble. I do have a screen in my kettle to keep the leaf hops behind. I put all the pellet hops into the spider to keep them from plugging up my screen. This seems to work well.

Not quite sure why you would need a thermometer in the mash tun. I do recommend the Thermoworks instant read thermometer though. Take your reading after mashing in, shouldn't change all that much over the next 45 minutes.