How's the little lady taking all that in the kitchen?
As far as the beer goes it should be Ok, maybe not aged as much as I would like but should do just fine.

Have Fun.

Good Luck Scotty, and for what it's worth I use Nottingham Ale yeast made by Lallemand. I have'nt taken it above 12% but I believe it would go higher. Most of my Ales are around 8% give or take 1%. When I take it higher the grain flavor/body seems to get overpowered by alcohol, but I do like a strong Ale so for my taste 8% is a good balance.

Have Fun.

"Scotty, your outta time, you better getta cooking. I think you said AG, that will need some 25-30 days to ferment and then it will need to age so it can carbonate. Now if you keg and your gonna use co2 that will speed up the second half but still time is a must with most beers. I know the directions say 2 weeks and your drinkin but I have ruined more than I want to admit before it sunk in --- it takes time dammit.
Now with a AG the easiest way is the BIAB method and works great with AG. You do everything right in the boil pot and then remove the grain bag and boil, it just dont get easier than that.
Oh and you can add honey right at the end of the boil, that will give better flavor careover but not much with honey anyway. The honey will up the abv% a little too.
If its for Thanksgiving ----getta cookin!!!"

Well not that it matters, but after you cool your finished wort and its cooled I just use a autosyphon and put it right in the fermenter, that way I can leave all that other stuff in the bottom of the BOP. Then add the yeast starter and put in my ferm/chiller cooler that ya'll saw. Are you sure that spigot idea is gonna hold under the boil conditions??? I hope it works out for ya.

Hi Scotty, is that spigot the type that has a flang on the outside going up against the pot an a washer and nut on the inside? If so I've had good success useing a silicone baking sheet as gasket material. Just cut to fit, it's good to 400 degrees and seems to be chemical tolerant, and leaves no flavoring behind. Most of my Ale's ferment out in less than 10 days. That should leave you enough time in the bottle for carbonation by Thanksgiving. Just because I like to age mine longer does'nt mean I can't drink some it right away, and my wife and I do just that.

Honey at the end of the boil will add some good flavor but not much in the way of fermentables.

Chocolate malt is always good.

Your Lady sounds like an excelent help mate, tell her Hi.

Hey, for what it is worth, I wouldn't even think about using a silicone sealant or jb weld on my brew kettle. I would be afraid to drink it with the chemicals leached in to the brew. I don't know about posting links on here so I will just say do a google search for 1/2 stainless bulkhead fitting. It looks like a 1/2 valve anyways, if not, search for your size. That fitting will seal perfectly and you screw your valve into it. Most all homebrew stores carry them as well as just about any plumbing store. As for brewing, I have been brewing for about 10 years. It sounds like you don't have a much of a recipe yet. Try brewmasters warehouse, they have a great selection of recipes stored on their site for free. You should be able to get an ale fermented in less than 7 days easily if you keep the temperature up in the high 60's or low 70's. As for kegging, you can carbonate the beer pretty quickly. The trick is, put the beer in the keg, charge the keg up to about 30-40 PSI and lay the keg on it's side. Roll the keg back and forth slowly for about 5 minutes several times a day. Basically, you lay the keg on it's side to allow more beer contact with the co2. You will know when to stop rolling because you will hear your regulator stop allowing co2 into the keg. Wait a few hours and try again, when you start rolling the keg you will hear the regulator charging again. I have carbed a beer in 2 days doing that but that was with 5 gallon corny kegs. Good luck and shoot me a message if you have any questions or post here.

I went back and reread the post and agree with what you were saying about the silicone baking sheets. These are probably absolutely harmless. I was referring to Scotty's post of waiting for the silicone to set. I don't know what type of silicone it is but I immediately thought, permatex gasket or something. Food grade, I have no argument with if that is what you choose but non food grade would scare the hell out of me. Just the fact that he is considering JB Weld scares me. It may be 100% safe but I wouldn't be willing to bet my liver on it. Maybe I am being overkill here and if so I apologize. When in doubt, I would prefer to lead someone to a safer product than hear about some type of poisoning later on.

The website says non toxix when fully cured 24 hours.

What is your opinion on that statement please????

It is being tested now- ill boil water for one hour--- I did the research on the toxicity. OK after 24 hours. i waited 48 hours.
Thanks for the help.

First of all i couldnt get the 5 gallons to a boil using the 1500 watt hotplate-- Outdoors i will use propane but we are workinh on the deck.

Sooo i put one layer of sticky back duct insulation on the pot and lid.

Bushey i also added 5.2 buffer to get the normally ph8 water down.

Right now i'm trying to get the pot to boil--i will put a second layer of insulation if needed---the worst case is even if i cant boil it with 1500 watts and 2 layers, the boil pot will be more efficient when i use it outside on the propane burner.

I'm just letting off a little steam lol lol