Gotten any cool equipment lately?

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Janx

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Has anyone gotten any cool toys lately? I placed a big order at morebeer recently...got a LOT of grain all shipped free. I don't know how they do it.

But I also got a few cool new things. One is a new 4 inch grain mill called the grain gobbler. I haven't tried it out yet, but I hope it has a nicer grind and works faster than my old mill. The rollers certainly look top notch.

ALSO, I got a stainless racking cane. Too cool! I've broken probably 4 of the plastic ones in the past 6 months. Plus they get discolored and I'm always worried they'll be a contamination vector. No more worries with a stainless one. And they even had a half inch model (I'll never go back to the smaller canes...if you haven't, you should see how fast a half inch cane racks). Pretty cool!

On my wish list: a pump to recirculate wort, a counterpressure bottler.

Anyone else gotten any fun stuff recently? :D
 
homebrewer_99 said:
Yeah, I just got a auto-syphon. It works pretty neat. No more filling hoses with water and draining off, etc.

I'm very pleased. I got a wine thief a few weeks ago. It's a great piece of equipment also.


I made sure I had that stuff before my second batch. :) Makes life WAY easier!

As far as new equipment, I blew my wad on that kegerator--but I've got my eye on all-grain here real soon. My wife is deploying this summer (Afghanistan) so I should have some extra cash-money to make a nice set-up. :D I'm researching the heck out of RIMS and HERMS right now--hoping to build my own brewery set-up possibly.
 
I had a RIMS before my current setup, and I'm really familiar with them and HERMS. If you want to talk about the ins and outs of it, start a thread sometime.

Not to ruin the ending, but I went back to a 3-tier infusion setup when I built this setup...after building two RIMS setups before this one. ;)
 
Janx said:
I had a RIMS before my current setup, and I'm really familiar with them and HERMS. If you want to talk about the ins and outs of it, start a thread sometime.

Not to ruin the ending, but I went back to a 3-tier infusion setup when I built this setup...after building two RIMS setups before this one. ;)


I'm not positive I want to do either of those systems--but I'm finding in my limited brewing space and with this basic equipment that transferring buckets and equipment back and forth between garage, outside, kitchen, etc., I'm eventually going to get bitten by a sanitizing issue. I want to brew in one place, meaning I can brew, chill wort, rack, and do other things in the same general area. From the VERY limited experience I have with brewing, I'm just exploring options right now. I'd be interested to see your set-up Janx. Someone posted the other night that you have displayed it for us before. Must have been before I became a regular. :)

Anyway, sorry to hijack this thread. :eek:
 
I had a nifty electronic thermometer with temp alert and a time. Lasted two batches, so now I'm back to the old candy thermometer. :D
 
Like 99, I just picked up one of the auto-siphons. Much nicer. I recommend!
 
I picked up an Auto-Syphon as well. Definately a great thing to have.

Im looking at getting an All-Grain brewing Mashtuns and Hot Liquor Tanks from MoreBeer. It looks like a good set up, and seems like it wouldnt cost too much less to make it myself.
 
Tony said:
I picked up an Auto-Syphon as well. Definately a great thing to have.

Im looking at getting an All-Grain brewing Mashtuns and Hot Liquor Tanks from MoreBeer. It looks like a good set up, and seems like it wouldnt cost too much less to make it myself.
i just got an auto-siphon much better then huffing. i bought a new car-boy. i definitly want to get into all-grain would like to see janx set-up.
 
But I also got a few cool new things. One is a new 4 inch grain mill called the grain gobbler. I haven't tried it out yet, but I hope it has a nicer grind and works faster than my old mill. The rollers certainly look top notch.
How did this work out Janx? I am looking to purchase one soon in my pursuit of going all grain! I also noticed it has a bucket which they say would hold about 3 lbs. of grain. I would think filling this and then turning it back over to attach it again would be a pain. Would you give any thought to cutting the top out of this to make it more like a funnel?

Anyone else have an opinion on grain mills they care to share ? :)
 
Got me some new toys to try tonight or tomorrow. Being new to brewing it is the little things that are exciting right now. I got my first wort chiller; can't wait to use this and not have to way hours or ice around kettle. I also got a bottle washer to attach to the sink; hopefully this will make it easier although I still see most of the batches going in the keg. And last I got a new stainless steel boiling kettle. I am excited today:D .

Janx, did you take them pictures. curiosity has me on the set up you have.
 
1/2" auto siphon racking cane......... so much faster and easier to transfer the beer around

also use a turkey thermometer has the round face with the stick out the back...... just drilled a small hole in the cover of my brew pot and it just sits there on the cover nicely.......
 
well i just made the jump to all-grain and all i have left is the kettle. anybody know where i can get one cheap?
 
crum said:
Janx, did you take them pictures. curiosity has me on the set up you have.

Doh! Forgot. I'm doing a Wit this weekend and I'll take some pics. I guarantee it's not the prettiest system you ever saw. Nothing fancy at all.

I'll really try to remember to take some this weekend.
 
hawktrap74 said:
well i just made the jump to all-grain and all i have left is the kettle. anybody know where i can get one cheap?

If you have a membership then Costco is a good possibility. I got a 6G stainless three-ply with lid for $40.
 
DyerNeedOfBeer said:
How did this work out Janx?

I like it pretty well. (Grain gobbler from morebeer.com)

Pros:
It has a fantastic grind.
It's adjustable.
When you hook a drill to it, it grinds a ton of grain in no time.

Cons:
I had to take it apart a bunch of times when I was getting started because the rotating of the roller caused the screw holding it in to loosen. That would cause this tiny ball bearing and spring to come out (part of the adjustment spinner), and thankfully I never lost those parts. I finally solved it by *really* torquing it down, but a better solution would be to reverse the thread directions on that screw so the spinning mill would tend to tighten it. In any event, it didn't loosen again so far after grinding about 35 pounds of grain. This wouldn't be a problem if you hand cranked it (screw that ;))

It's kind of hard to get the rollers going at first. One roller is powered, and the other spins as grain rolls between them. So you have to kind of spin it to get enough grain lodged between them so it causes the other roller to spin, Once you do that, it tears it up. Fantastic grind. I kept running it empty, though, and then I'd have a different kind of grain to do and I'd have to get it all started again. So, the smart thing to do is to not run it empty between different grains so you only have to "prime" it once.

General:
In general, it's a cool mill. I got a 5-gallon bucket to hook it to (it doesn't come with one). It comes with a hopper that's just a big plastic jar like restaurants use. Works fine and holds about 5 pounds of grain I guess. It would be very easy to replace.

Hooking it to the bucket is OK. It has two threaded arms that hook under the lip on the side of the bucket...easy to figure out. I want to replace the nuts on it with wing nuts so I can finger tighten it.

As far as taking it on and off the bucket, you'd ideally want to just hook it to the bucket once because it takes a minute or two. I just leave mine hooked to the bucket. You can dump the grain out of the bucket with the mill attached. The bucket holds a pretty big batch's worth of grain.

I'll take some pictures of it, too.
 
Janx said:
Doh! Forgot. I'm doing a Wit this weekend and I'll take some pics. I guarantee it's not the prettiest system you ever saw. Nothing fancy at all.

I'll really try to remember to take some this weekend.

I ain't worried about the prettiest pictures. I just want to see a semi pro(haha) setup that you talk about.
Just starting out seeing some of the equipment in action would be great. I am just trying to figure out how to get my wort chiller to work and where to run the water off to.
 
i bought a gott cooler for a mash tun. still havent tried it though no cash for grain :mad: just need a kettle to boil the wort with and then ready to go.
 

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