[meezenplaz]

@Mary...
A few things odd about that recipe.
First, thats a rather low finished gravity for a
stout. Ive brewed IPAs with higher FGs.
15 minute boil for liquid extract, hour for D.E.?
Sparging to fermenter then adding water to volume
is never a good idea, in terms of sanitation. And if you have to,
it needs to be freshly boiled, cooled while sealed then added.
Also seems an 86% attenuation would yield more than 4.2%
alcohol as well, but not sure about that.
Just sayin....

 

[meezenplaz]

Ive done it all grain, and extracts with other grains.
Both are good, extracts are less work.

 

[meezenplaz]

Many top the fermenter off with bottled water which should be pretty sanitary. In brewing sterile conditions never exist, a single dust particle could hold a LOT of wild yeast spores for example.

Many may, but I don't. I boil. I rarely top off 5gal batches, but when I do I boil a small pot and sparge carefully.
Proper sanitation is all about keeping those stray dust particles OUT of your wort. Once you have 5 gallons of beloved
beer you spent $$ and slaved on for a week spoil, you find yourself redoubling your sanitation efforts. The weak spot in my
experience is when sparging.

 

[meezenplaz]

Yeah it did have a brew bag or "kit" brew feel. At least it didnt call for 2 cups of table sugar, as a lot of em do. ! /img/vbsmilies/smilies/eek.gif