There is a great article on homebrewtalk about how to polish your kegs.  Really quite amazing how good they look when they are all cleaned up.

There is a great discussion on the northern brewer forums about the best way to use coffee when brewing stouts. The biggest thing I take from this discussion is that cold extraction (as discussed in Radical Brewing) is the best way to extract coffee flavor without the harsh bitterness that comes from boiling coffee. Once I come up with my recipe for the stout I will post it.

Last year I brewed a pumpkin Saison that turned out pretty well. I just wanted to record some notes for the brewing of pumpkin beers.

A couple notes on it:
1. This is not a pumpkin pie beer. The spices come from the yeast. You could probably do cinnamon and nutmeg if you desired but I would advise tasting it first post fermentation and using a spice tea to add spices after the fact if you so desire.
2. It is a big beer.
3. The hops are not “typical” but they seemed to work fine. Substitute as necessary.
4. Mashing the pumpkin can take a long ass time. A mashout helps but, running this bad boy off took a very long time. Rice hulls are recommended. If you are mashing any pumpkin (that is not in a chunk state) you will probably face this.
5. Ferment as hot as you dare. Mine fermented at 85+.

Recipe: Saison de Potiron
Brewer: Brian
Asst Brewer:
Style: Saison
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (35.0)

Recipe Specifications
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Batch Size: 5.50 gal
Boil Size: 7.04 gal
Estimated OG: 1.089 SG
Estimated Color: 11.1 SRM
Estimated IBU: 30.1 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.0 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
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Amount Item Type % or IBU
3.63 lb Canned Pumpkin (3.0 SRM) Extract 18.7 %
10.00 lb Pilsen (Best Malz) (1.8 SRM) Grain 51.6 %
2.00 lb Munich Malt (9.0 SRM) Grain 10.3 %
2.00 lb Victory Malt (25.0 SRM) Grain 10.3 %
0.75 lb Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain 3.9 %
0.50 oz Chinook [13.00%] (60 min) Hops 24.1 IBU
0.25 oz Simcoe [13.00%] (20 min) Hops 4.1 IBU
0.25 oz Simcoe [13.00%] (2 min) Hops 2.0 IBU
1.00 lb Palm Sugar (4.0 SRM) Sugar 5.2 %
1 Pkgs Belgian Saison I Ale (White Labs #WLP565) Yeast-Ale

Notes:
——
Pumpkin caramelized in the oven at 350 for over 1 hour

This looks like a great source for lactose for brewing.  At the time of writing the price per pound was $3.33 which is much lower than the five dollars it normally costs at brew shops.  They have $4 flat shipping rates.  Seems like a good deal to me.

I have been doing some research on adding a pump to my brewing system.  I would like to implement a new chiller also and the pump will facilitate that.  More on this later, I really just want to document what I have found so far.

The best price on the pump, chiller, and clear tubing is from MoreBeer.com.

Here is a good site for the food safe plastic quick disconnects for brewing, it looks like the best prices on them are here.