95% sure it is your water.
What water are you using?
If using tap water you need to filter it with an activated charcoal filter and add ascorbic acid or sodium metabisulphite for good measure. This will remove the chlorine from the water which will stop the production of chlorophenols during...
You need to clean and sanitise. Its a two step process.
Cleaners will remove the bulk of the solid from surface, a sanitiser will kill any microorganisms still lurking.
I take it you are using PET bottles. If so don't use boiling water. PET does not like boiling water and they will deform if...
What are you brewing in? Are you measuring the mash temp accurately?
How are you measuring the SG?
I'd suggest backing off the pressure to about 1 bar (15psi). Not all yeast respond favourably to pressure either. Give Nottingham a go.
Frothy bottles can be caused by a sanitation issue. You can end up with bacteria or wild yeast in the bottle that will ferment some of the more complex sugars that your brewers yeast couldn't leading to over carbonation.
Are you sanitising the bottles with starsan prior to bottling?
Some...
No worries, you can substitute in the late hops for whatever you like. Motueka goes well with its distinctive lime characteristic, if you prefer that over grapefruit/passion fruit of Galaxy.
You could also try Nelson Sauvin, El Dorado, Citra, Mosaic, Riwaka etc.
Try to add the whirlpool...
What lagers in particular have you been enjoying? I think most of the craft lagers are 'new world' lagers and are late hopped with modern US/NZ/AU hop varieties.
Recipe might look something like this
90% Pilsner
5% Caramalt
5% Carapils
25 IBU Magnum FWH
2g/L Galaxy Whirlpool
Saflager W34/70
Yes, any brew software worth its salt will be factoring in hop utilisation.
Remember though that hop utilisation can only be calculated in terms of IBU, that is isomerisation of alpha acids. There is currently no method for calculating the extraction of other flavour compounds from hops, for...
Hop utilisation is gravity dependent so you will need to use more hops to hit your IBU targets.
ie, less bitterness will be extracted from hops at 1.1 that at 1.06
Sounds like he added about 14L.
I think the 'pre boil' reading he took was actually the pre sparge reading because his pot is too small to do a full volume boil.
I would tip it and start again, or you could add some enzymes to the fermenter. As it is that beer is going to be very sweet and not very alcoholic.
Next time, don't have your strike water above 75c, or you will kill the enzymes.
You don't need distilled water to calibrate the refractometer...