This is what I got, one looks better than the other. Looks like yeast layer is sandwiched between beer and trub.... Plan is to chill overnight, decant top layer, wash and repeat if necessary . Am I on the right track ? I honestly expected a cleaner result... Is it normal for it to look...

I picked up oak cubes because I read they will sink on their own. Soaking them in bourbon for a few days but they're floating... Is this due to the alcohol content of the bourbon ? and can I expect them to sink once added to my wort ?

I understand that, the question was related to my original post that started this thread. Basically, could you pressurize a keg and disconnect the gas. Would keg carbonate ? Read thread.

Bought a second keg, will keep one on deck now. May even try carbonating the keg naturally by using priming sugar. That thought got me thinking again about my original post again. If a keg can be carbonated with priming sugar at room temp., we should be able to mathematically predict how much...

That answers it, thanks.. Yeah, ran out of space and wanted to get away cheap and not buy another tank and regulator. .

I was wondering if I could pressurize the keg, disconnect the gas and put the pressurized keg into a fridge not connected to CO2, would the beer carbonate that way. Would the keg pressure need to be adjusted for it work that way ?

I have a keg, and it may be worth a shot, but I'm thinking the bottling sugar is going to affect the flavor if I force carb it now....

OG:1.128 FG:1.027 Primary 2 weeks, secondary 2 weeks. Into bottles with 4oz priming sugar for 4gal bottling volume. 3 weeks later at room temp there's zero carbonation. Any way to salvage now that beer has been primed & bottled ? Hate to lose this batch.. It tasted great when I sampled it...

All things being equal, is it better to split the sparge water in half to rinse the grain twice, or is one rinse sufficient or even more effective ?

So I'd be wasting $60 buying a "better" one.. ? P.S. I must admit the reading glasses do help though.....

Mine is cheap (Amazon ~$20), and it has a blurry line even with focusing, and if all is as it should be... Has anyone experienced this, would the investment of ~$60 be worth it for a quality built refractometer ?

Can't really take credit, was a late night solution found on a forum somewhere, and it worked..... Was not cheap though, and even though I'll be using ferm-cap soon enough I'm sure, I'm wondering if I could use what I have left just not to waste it..

My curiosity is whether simethicone if added to fermentation will ultimately intefere with head retention. Adding it to the yeast starter worked, my concern about fermentation is separate, original post wasn't as descriptive as it should have been. Just adding to the fermenter, without...

I picked up some simethicone for use as an anti foaming agent in a yeast starter, a drop worked great. Will it interfere with head retention if used during fermentation ? Any guess on 5 gal batch dosing ? I paid $12 for this little bottle late at night at CVS because my starter was boiling...

Awesome feedback, will save me from making unpalatable batches unnecessarily. Still learning and enjoying this hobby immensely. Thanks all for the responses...

When putting together a recipe and in say beersmith for example, when I approach the upper limit of the alcohol content according to style, I'm reluctant to go past that. What would happen if I did make a pale ale with an 11% alcohol content.

Is it terribly difficult to add a thermometer to a Rubbermaid cooler mash tun ? All the hardware I've seen for adding thermometers are for a thin-walled kettles, not for a thermos/cooler.

I use a nylon bag / hop spider so hop matter is not an issue.

The other concern I have is when adjusting my beersmith equipment profile to leave 1 gallon behind causing a 1 gallon dilution of the wort to account for the volume, but beersmith is still anticipating the same gravity.. It should be slightly less.

I was thinking of pointing my dip tube up and leaving behind about a gallon of wort in the pot. This gallon hopefully containing all the hot and cold break, after allowing it to settle, so not to put it into primary.. My efforts to eliminate break in the primary by other means havn't been...