I've been hanging around a brewer at a brewery lately, and he's been helping me a lot. But I still have some questions about things he's told me, and just some general questions.
1) He said he ferments his ale's at 32F, so that when you pour the beer and the people drink it at higher then 32F you don't get precipitation. I'm trying to figure out how to clarify my beer, and I know I can use..."something"...I can't recall the name of the product you can use in the kettle to coagulate the proteins so they sink to the bottom.
2) If you are making a 5 gallon batch of beer, how to you calculate how much water you should use? Or do you just start with 2 gallons, boil your wort, then add cool water to the wort until it reaches desired gravity/Plato? Where can I find a Plato meter to purchase online?
3) Plato vs. Gravity. Which is better, I'm told Plato is more like working with metric (ie: C), it is more precise then gravity.
4) How do I control the thickness of the head on the beer? I'm finding my beer's carbonation has big, round bubbles, and I would like finer bubbles, and a thicker head on the beer. How do I manipulate this?
...I think that's it for now
Cheers