Jim's Beer Kit

They're going to clag up your syphon, have a little nylon bag handy to wrap around and use as a filter.

Why do they need to weighed down?

With pellets you either need a filter before the bazooka, so bag them up or use a spider, or you just get rid of the bazooka altogether and dump the lot into your FV. Precious little difference in the end product so no problem with going with whatever feels easiest.

Not peel, just the zest else it gets too bitter. And not just the zest, lob the flesh of the grapefruit in there too. I boil mine for a few minutes then bag it and add directly into the FV, takes less than a week to deplete anything useful and leave you with a bag of bland mush. Never tried adding t...

A good place to start looking for something like that is Wikipedia, not the article but the list of references at the foot of the page:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_beer

I made a coffee stout a while ago but did it by just pouring freshly made espressos into the FV. What's the advantage of cold steeping?

I make mainly 15L batches. I start them off in a 30L FV and then transfer them into 15L secondaries when the time comes. 30L gives plenty of headspace, I've never needed a blowoff although it's probably still possible, and 15L gives very ilttle headspace, which I figure reduces the likelihood of con...

The Fermentis "Beer Yeast for Craft Brewing" document list all their yeasts in tables to describe their various properties, and in the alcohol tolerance table US-05 is shown at the top of the table in the same box as T-58 and S-33. Doesn't put any numbers on it though.

I'm a week away from bottling my first batch made with this, been using s-23 up until now. Looking forward to see the contrast.

I've never bothered with a fridge heater. I only use the fridge for lager and any warm temp fermenting I do I just leave the bucket on countertop with a belt on it. Means I can do two brews at once without needing a second heater.

I tried Beersmith but found the interface to be a bit daunting. Brewer's Friend is a bit more accessible, and free.