What are some BACKUP accessories to always have on hand?

What are some accessories that you should always have on backup? Things that could halt or even ruin your night because you don't have one...

I almost transfered to my bottling bucket last night but checked and noticed the plastic spigot had broken. I have to get a new one at the local shop after work.

I was thinking, what else should I buy there to store as backup supplies?

*Airlocks
*Sanitizer
*Priming sugar
*Caps
*Extra Hops

Anything else?

Sanitizer is certainly one to make sure to have on hand, hydrometer as well, they have a tendency to break.

Dry yeast
DME
Corn sugar
Cold beer
A regular racking cane if you have an auto-siphon

DME
Dry yeast
tubing....lots of tubing
bits of 14 gauge copper ground wire to use as tubing clamps when they do not fit perfectly
Leatherman-type multi tool to tighten tubing clamps be they real hose clamps or the wire listed above

+1 on the DME, and extra tubing.
+1 on the dry yeast, if you don't use starters. although, it doesn't hurt to keep a pack of notty or US-05 around anyways.

spare pump too, if you rely on pumps.

O-rings for kegs, valve seals, etc.

US-05, clean neutral yeast
Bottle filler, if you bottle
Bottle capper or bottles with Grolsh style overs
Always have enough bottle caps to cover everything you have fermenting
DME, pilsen of golden light

+1 on bottle capper

Just lost a full batch of porter when one of the handles snapped capping the third of 52 bottles. So sad.

I always have DME, bottle caps, lots of tubing, extra airlocks, amylase enzyme, keg o- rings, keg connectors, and thermometers. With as many hydrometers as I have broken I don't know why I don't keep more then one of them on hand... soon!!

an extra long tip lighter! i have one that doesnt make a flame but the spark still lights my burner. the other day the spark didnt work and i had no other lighter to light my burner. so away i went to the store, at least that was something easy to find, but still was a PITA.

Propane!

Also, hydrometer, hose clamps, picnic taps, airlocks, O-rings, quick-disconnects, and other things already mentioned.

My buggest almost disaster was having a capper __ALMOST__ die on me on the first bottle, after I had pre-filled all the bottles with caps just placed on top.

Luckily I would cap but had to rotate it around and squeeze three times.


Yeast.

Star San.

Edit - seriously, almost one of everything, thinking of buying a second "beginners brewing kit" just to have backups.

Mentioned already, but worth mentioning again, an extra thermometer. I have found the digital stick thermometers quite reliable and accurate FWIW...only about ten bucks.

Grommet for the airlock on a fermenter bucket.

saeroner said:

What are some accessories that you should always have on backup? Things that could halt or even ruin your night because you don't have one...

I almost transfered to my bottling bucket last night but checked and noticed the plastic spigot had broken. I have to get a new one at the local shop after work.

I was thinking, what else should I buy there to store as backup supplies?

*Airlocks
*Sanitizer
*Priming sugar
*Caps
*Extra Hops

Anything else?

Click to expand...

Mixed sixer.

I would have found a hammer, dismantled that capper and got my beer capped. It would have sucked but less than throwing away two cases of beer.

My pump crapped out on me last brew day while chilling on my plate chiller. Luckily I kept my immersion chiller around.

dgr said:

I would have found a hammer, dismantled that capper and got my beer capped. It would have sucked but less than throwing away two cases of beer.

Click to expand...

In the heat of battle my temper got the best of me. Lesson learned, but it did taste and smell great. Oh well.

Weezy said:

... it doesn't hurt to keep a pack of notty or US-05 around anyways.

Click to expand...

+1 US-05 is a good one to keep around. I use liquid yeast, but if something goes wrong, I like knowing I have a backup in the fridge.

a blowoff tube

1 liter of beer. A glass.

+1 on hydrometer and yeast (dry).

I recently had a yeast snafu and wished I'd had some us-05 handy. Two packets in the fridge now....won't happen next time.

Having another kettle around somewhere is helpful if you brew all grain and run into a stuck sparge. Perhaps a kettle with a bag large enough to dump your grain into that while you figure out your mash tun.

I keep two floating thermometers, a set of four nested SS stick pots, one for BK, the others for different size mashes & sparging. Extra spigots & such for the Cooper's Micro Brew FV, 3 blow off jugs. I always buy 3-4 144 count bags of O2 barrier caps to always have plenty for a few batches. Enough bottles to do four batches at a time, whether 5 or 6 gallon. Plenty of tubing for racking, auto siphon, blow offs, etc. A whole bag of bath-size plastic cups for weighing out hops, etc. Long handled paddle & spoon. And those little plastic containers from Butterball or Oscar Mayer deli-style meats for soaking things to clean or sanitize. Also good for weighing out priming sugar. A Home Depot orange bucket for soaking tubing or getting water to soak FV's & such. Lowe's blue bucket for my grain crusher.

Tubing, dry yeast, extra grommet for lid, and

a half drunk helper with a strong back

Or a strong son to do the heavy lifting.:rockin:

two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a saltshaker half-full of cocaine, and a whole galaxy of multi-colored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers... Also, a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of beer, a pint of raw ether, and two dozen amyls...
Sorry, this isn't Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas...

Backup things to have are a spare propane tank (if you use a burner) (make sure it's full.
Spare thermometers, and know how far off each one is.
spare airlocks and tubing for a blowoff.
Spare pack of dry yeast, DME (extra light) and priming sugar.
clean and sanitize far more bottles than you can possibly need when bottling, and have a couple ready to go when kegging, too.
plenty of sanitizer, by the way, mixed up on brew day.

Aluminum foil and a spray bottle full of vodka.