Cool Tricks you have learned over the years.

This is for all you you experienced brewers out there to help us noobs.

I have came across a bunch of neat tricks on this site in terms of making the brewing process easier, such as using a tennis ball to aerate, steeping in the oven, bottling over dishwasher, etc.

What are some other cool techniques you have found helpful.

use speant grain for bread or cookies. Use bunk messed up beers for chili and marinating meat or braising.....Starsan in a garden sprayer to reach down inside the carboy to save sanitizer....

Instead of the dish washer door for bottling I place the bucket on the counter and place the bottling bucket on top it (lid on) to bottle right on the counter.

Getting StarSan inside the carboy? Autosyphon about a 1/2 gal of it into the carboy and shake it to get the insides coated, pour SS back into holding bucket.

At capping time place 3-4 bottles in a line/row leading away from you leaving a little room between bottles and cap each one. It goes 1, 2, 3, 4 done. Set aside. Line up 3-4 more and repeat. Capping goes pretty fast this way when working alone.

Pre-measure DME into 1 lb bags per your recipe to add them 1 at a time after flame out (late addition method). Adding each pound then stirring in to dissolve before adding the next pound.

Just a few...

Hmm, harvesting yeast saves cash and forgoes the need for a starter 90% of the time, I find I really don't need to aerate ales. You can be quite scientific about brewing, but it really is not an exact science to make good beer. Much as great chefs don't measure, they just put what they think is right. RDWHAHB.

p4ck37p1mp said:

Much as great chefs don't measure, they just put what they think is right. RDWHAHB.

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I'm not sure this is a great comparison. Great bakers always do measure precisely. Since baking and brewing both involve fermentation and chemistry and cooking usually does not (and when it does, like maillard reactions, the cook usually does measure which is why a steakhouse can tell you what temperature they cook a steak at), I want to be like the baker.

Try to always remember you brew for fun. It is a hobby and is a way to spend some time away from the rest of your life. If you enjoy taking temp reading every 3 seconds then take temp readings every 3 seconds. If you do not want to check the temp then don't. You will have some fun, and still have beer.

BierMunchers Bottle Filler is very nice if you keg (https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/we-no-need-no-stinking-beer-gun-24678/). I do not use it as often as i should.

You can save on toilet paper by using both sides.


Oh, and Revvy's bottling tip is the greatest!!

Laughing_Gnome_Invisible said:

You can save on toilet paper by using both sides.

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But you spend more on soap. I hope you do anyway....

My greatest piece of advice: The bent part of the racking cane goes at the top part of the bucket. The first time we racked, I thought it went down into the bucket so that it would sit up off the bottom and not pull in the yeast. But that just meant that it kinked up the hose and made it pull in air cause of a bad connection.

Clothes clip on your racking cane lets you suspend the tip above the trub.


Some perforated hose on the end of your racking cane creates a simple aeration device.



Some holes in a bucket create a very simple fly sparge system using gravity.
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-3WNUXtA64]YouTube - Fly Sparge Bucket[/ame]

Keep your horny uncle away from your hound dog when she's in heat.

BierMuncher said:

Keep your horny uncle away from your hound dog when she's in heat.
View attachment 9099

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Oooooooooo..........that picture makes me shudder!

You can reseal the bags of hops you get from hopsdirect with a hot iron.

If you are fermenting in a basement or other room that is a bit on the cool side, you can set up amazing temperature control with a big plastic Rubbermaid container and an aquarium heater. Fill the Rubbermaid container with water, put the aquarium heater into it and simply dial in the temperature you want (those heaters are usually very precise). Then put your fermenter in the water bath.

The nice thing about this system is that the water has a lot of thermal mass, meaning that any fluctuations in ambient temperature are buffered by the water bath. The same principle applies to the fermentation -- there is a lot of heat generated when fermentation really starts to get going, but the water bath buffers this, too.

If you want to start fermenting cool, then slowly ramp up the temps (say for a Belgian yeast), this system is fantastic. I also have a fridge on a temperature controller, but I like the heated water bath FAR better. It is also a MUCH cheaper and easier solution.

Here's a shot of the same thing, but using a cooler that can hold two fermenters:

Flyguy... awesome. I've been using a heating pad in a box... and it sucks.

I learned to go through the whole bottling process with sanitizer first.
1. fill bottling bucket with sanitizer
2. insert siphon with bottling wand attached.
3. fill bottles with sanitizer using this setup.
4. empty sanitizer from bottles back into bucket and repeat process with beer.

That way you know everything is clean

I don't have a dishwasher, so I put my bottles in a tupperware box when I'm filling them.

Chase... love your avatar!

--Fly

FlyGuy said:

Chase... love your avatar!

--Fly

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Yeah... I've been meaning to change it. I do mouse genetics, not fruit fly. I just really like that picture.

If your getting to Home Plate when you get her skirt up....

oh wait you wanted brewing tricks...

You can use a low stool instead of sitting on the floor while bottling, it actully makes you more accurate when you bottle cause you can see better.

you can flood a room with Argon gas to avoid oxidation of your beer while racking and bottleing... of course youll suffocate due to lack of O2 but it works if you have an O2 mask and cuts down on rats

Also to settle out yeast sediment in beer before bottleing take a plastic water cask and rack your brew into it and add your priming sugar. Seal up cask and leave covered on counter for a couple of days or set in cool dark place like you would ferment. Beer will start to carb, yeast sediment will fall out into bottom of cask. attach bottle filler to spigot on plastic cask and away you go. Can buy at your local walmart and resure forever... best to use plastic ones because as the pressure become negitive inside the cask the cheap plastic will contract and maintain the pressure. One level falls below spigot and will no long feed, your done bottleing, the rest is turb and your bottles are nearly sediment free.


if you were interested in what i was saying before i remember what i was supposed to be talking about forget it i havent been laid in nearly 500 days so its not like it worked anyway

cheers

don't dump out your Oxy-clean water....put it in your clothes washer, saves water and oxy-clean.

1/2 gallon of star san in a carboy is all you need

use your IC to aerate your cool wort.

put a quick disconnect on your water hose

buy a ½ safety siphon

use hand sanitizer

always buy the 6 gallon (or bigger) carboy, I prefer the plastic ones for safety

BrewinJack said:

i havent been laid in nearly 500 days
cheers

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DUDE!!!!!! you must be married!!!!



Just kidding
you need to get out more

Jaybird said:

DUDE!!!!!! you must be married!!!!



Just kidding
you need to get out more

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I was about to post the same thing.

I have not been doing this for years.

But I recently found out that if I swirl the water around in bottles, then turn them upside down to drain. It will take about 1.5 seconds to drain completely. Opposed to 5 or 6 seconds.

This does not sound like much. But if you are cleaning up to 100 bottles at a time. It really cuts down on the time.


If done correctly, the water comes out of the bottle as a cone shape.

Jaybird said:

use your IC to aerate your cool wort.

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I think I might have had one too many to get this one Jaybird. Shed some light?

Before you empty a full carboy or keg, put your racking cane in there. The air will flow in through the racking cane and totally eliminate the 'glug-glug'. You can empty a full carboy in a few seconds.

Never dump your beer if you think you made a mistake. It's most likely OK.

ajwillys said:

Before you empty a full carboy or keg, put your racking cane in there. The air will flow in through the racking cane and totally eliminate the 'glug-glug'. You can empty a full carboy in a few seconds.

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So now I can shotgun a whole carboy... man am I gonna be drunk!

ajwillys said:

Before you empty a full carboy or keg, put your racking cane in there. The air will flow in through the racking cane and totally eliminate the 'glug-glug'. You can empty a full carboy in a few seconds.

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Guess I'm not visualizing this right.

How would you ever empty a carboy or keg that causes "glug glug"?

When using oxyclean to remove the gunk at the top of a carboy, rather than filling it all the way up, just add the oxyclean, fill it only 1/3 full with water, then put a bucket on top (preferably the 5 gal. type) and flip the whole thing over and let it do it's thing.

BierMuncher said:

Guess I'm not visualizing this right.

How would you ever empty a carboy or keg that causes "glug glug"?

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Like if you have it full of oxyclean or something and you want to pour it out. If you turn it upside down, it will glug as the water leaves and the air rushes in to take its place. If you put a racking cane in there, the air can flow in through the cane and stop the glugging of the air coming in.

conpewter said:

So now I can shotgun a whole carboy... man am I gonna be drunk!

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I might be willing to pony up a few bucks to witness this...

BierMuncher said:

Some perforated hose on the end of your racking cane creates a simple aeration device.

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Simply brilliant.

scinerd3000 said:

use speant grain for bread or cookies. Use bunk messed up beers for chili and marinating meat or braising.....Starsan in a garden sprayer to reach down inside the carboy to save sanitizer....

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I've always wanted to make cookies out of the spent grain. But, I am afraid of one thing: what happens to the hulls of the spent grain? Wouldn't they make anything made with the grain taste weird since hulls aren't exactly pleasant to eat?

If you have a carboy that just wont let the gunk go... brew up some nasty hooch and the CO2 bubbling will scrub it clean and the acohol will sanitize any bactieria left... after that dump out the hooch (DONT DRINK IT, DUH) and then sanitize like normal and brew it up... worked well enough on my 3 gal carboy

1. Use a perforated pizza pan atop your mash tun when you add your "sprinkling" sparge water.
2. Take the math out of brew day concerning mash water volume, strike temps, and sparge water volume with this handy dandy online calculator: Mash and Sparge Water Calculator ::: Brew365 - Homebrewing Recipes and Articles
3. Use the cardboard box that your carboy came in when you bought it to keep your beer out of sunlight while it's fermenting. Simply open the flaps and put it over the carboy upside down. This method is better than blankets as blankets trap in the heat during fermentation.
4. Get outside as quickly as you can with one of these: http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/hh46/warassari/Quart-Outdoor-Turkey-Fryer-Kit.jpg
For $39 you'll have a cleaner stove and happier spouse. Trust me.

If you want to ferment in a cornie, just take the liquid disconnect and dip tube out, use a piece of 3/8" silicone tubing to stretch over the threaded connection and then attach your airlock, use the foam control drops to keep it from blowing off.

Figured this out this morning:

If you don't have a wine thief, but you want to take a gravity sample of a 5g batch in a 6g carboy, sanitize your bottling wand and stick a piece of tubing to the end. Dip the wand into the carboy and suck on the other end of the tube to fill it up.

Doesn't matter that the tubing isn't sanitized or touching your mouth, since the stuff you pull out isn't going back into the carboy. Plus, if you're careful not to let the bottling wand touch anything unsanitary as you empty the liquid into your hydro tube, you can go back for more samples (I needed three, since I didn't know how much would be necessary).

rocketman768 said:

what happens to the hulls of the spent grain? Wouldn't they make anything made with the grain taste weird since hulls aren't exactly pleasant to eat?

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All that's left, effectively, is the hulls. They are neutral in flavor and not harsh in any way.

I make dog cookies (outside snacking only, very crumbly!) and add about 1/2c of spent grains to my bread machine when it makes the "add adjunct ingredients" beep sound. Luverly bread, excellent texture.

jrhammonds said:

1. Use a perforated pizza pan atop your mash tun when you add your "sprinkling" sparge water.

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Hmmm. I wonder if this would work during the boil for people who have problems getting/keeping temps up. The perforated pan would let steam (and hopefully DMS) out easily but would keep outside air currents from displacing the hot layer of air over the wort.

Any thoughts? Anyone tried it? My turker frier cranks the heat but stovetop folks might benefit.

Cool tricks I have learned:
Lager fermentation temperature control without a fridge
Keg as a bottling bucket
How to chill to lager pitching temp in the land of 75F tap water

fratermus said:

Hmmm. I wonder if this would work during the boil for people who have problems getting/keeping temps up. The perforated pan would let steam (and hopefully DMS) out easily but would keep outside air currents from displacing the hot layer of air over the wort.

Any thoughts? Anyone tried it? My turker frier cranks the heat but stovetop folks might benefit.

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I think this would be a great idea for stove top brewers! I, too, have made the turkey fryer switch. My only concern is that enough DMS would evaporate if much of the steam is being trapped. Perhaps, one could cover half of the pot?

I save all hot water generated from my immersion chiller in brew buckets.
Previously I just ran the output from the chiller into the garden area which I thought was kind of wasteful. Reusing the hot water to clean brew gear / fermenters / cornies / dishes / floor / watering garden makes me feel frugal

Reusing the fermenter and yeast cake by racking the previous fermented batch on brewday saves alot of time. Its also motivates me to take hydrometer readings / taste samples.

Cheers
BeerCanuck