What are some of your tricks that have not been discussed?

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cockybitz

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^^ Simple as that.

I use a 2 oz syringe to start my siphon.
I bottle a couple of single serve champagne bottles as testers, so I don't waste 12 oz of great beer. Caps fit right on.
As a bartender by trade, I will never pay for bottles
I bottle a couple of champagne bottles of beer from every batch (great for taking to a party)
I had a ceramic coated BALL canning pot for my stove-top boil.
I bought another 5 gallon pot for 10 bucks from the cheapie dept. store
I use a paint strainer bag to strain the wort. I pour from one pot into the other which is lined with the strainer
I use pie tins which I've stabbed holes into to pour water atop my mash when lautering. This prevents disturbing the grain bed.
My brew room is too cold to ferment ales so I bought a pipe wrap heater to warm the fermentation chamber.
I use a candy thermometer and a meat thermometer. I had them already so I did not need to buy any.
I use my MLT to bottle. It saves me needing to have a separate bottling bucket. I attach the siphon to the out spigot to ensure "quite transfering"
If I ship beer I bottle in the bud light aluminum bottles
 
Instead of going to the store to buy beer, I make my own in the comfort of my own home. It rocks! :)

Oh, also, a flat wireless server can be used as an effective heater for a stubborn yeast starter. Along with a few towels, flexible heat control!

I don't think my tips are as good....
 
Always have a backup. Even if it's a dusty and forgotten piece of equipment. If Plan A fails you'll likely know where said forgotten equipment to implement Plan B is, if not, wing Plan C.

Case in point: Just tonight my recirculating whirlpool was completely clogged with whole leaf hops. My ancient IC that hasn't been touched in years was promptly dug out and put into service. The day was saved.

Also, experience is something you don't have until right after you needed it. I now know whole leaf hops are not my pump's friend.

Another one! Don't get toasted and then brew. This has happened before; rendering point two moot, but does it count if I was toasted the first time?
 
I bottle a couple of single serve champagne bottles as testers, so I don't waste 12 oz of great beer. Caps fit right on.
Awesome. I need to check that out.

I had a ceramic coated BALL canning pot for my stove-top boil.
I don't understand what that is...

My brew room is too cold to ferment ales so I bought a pipe wrap heater to warm the fermentation chamber.
That's a great trick -- I need to look into that, too.

I use my MLT to bottle. It saves me needing to have a separate bottling bucket. I attach the siphon to the out spigot to ensure "quite transfering"
This one scares me. I don't know why.. just scared of some crazy infection getting in. Maybe it's because I never really clean and sanitize my MLT. I only rinse it (and occasionally wash it out).

Thanks for all these tips. Great thread, too!
 
This one's probably been covered before, but a 1" PVC elbow fits perfectly on the inside of the spigot that comes with the homebrew store bottling buckets, making a perfect dip tube. Now when I bottle, I leave less than one beer behind in the bucket without having to tip the bucket to get the last bit out.

*I know some folks dislike PVC, but my beer has had no ill effects so far.*
 
I have a wooden dowel with etch marks showing where each gallon mark is for my boil kettle. Makes it easy to know my volumes.

I always attach a hop bag to my siphon to make sure no hop trub gets into my secondary.
 
I have a wooden dowel with etch marks showing where each gallon mark is for my boil kettle. Makes it easy to know my volumes.

I always attach a hop bag to my siphon to make sure no hop trub gets into my secondary.

I marked my brew spoon/mash paddle in gallon increments up to the 25 gallon limit of my kettle.

I use a jumbo paint strainer in the MLT. I've never had a stuck sparge, dumping spent grains is as easy as can be, and cleaning out the MLT takes 2 minutes with the hose.
 
I brew indoors in my apartment, so I straddle my wide 10 gallon pot over two of the electric burners. Brings 6 gallons of water to a boil in 25 mintues!

I use those kettle hop screens for everything except in my kettle. I have two in my MLT attached to a tee for my 'false bottom' thing and one shorter one over my auto-siphon for when I dry hop with whole hops.
 
Whenever this topic comes up I throw this in:

If you use an immersion chiller, get yourself an aquarium pump and fix it up with attachments so you can hook it up to the chiller. I put the pump into a bucket of water, run two buckets through, then start using ice on the third bucket. 15 gallons of water and about 20 minutes later, I'm at pitching temps without wasting tons of water (actually ANY, because I dump the water into my washing machine).

This last brew day, instead of using ice, I went outside and got a bucket of snow. Got it down even faster and didn't have to use all the ice I have saved up in my freezer!
 
If I ship beer I bottle in the bud light aluminum bottles

Hows that work out for you? No problems sealing with a traditional cap and winged capper? I have access to lots of these and would love to use them up. No light in guarantees the freshest beer possible....
 
The only real "trick" I have that I havent seen anyone else doing (I am sure they are, I just havent seen it!).

It is a bottling from the keg trick:

My bottle filling wand fits nicely into the spout of my perlick taps (doesnt work with regular taps). Its not air/liquid tight so I take about a foot of teflon and wrap around until firmly in place. The teflon is enough to keep it sealed as well as hold up to the pressure.

Once the bottling wand is secured with the tape, I open the tap and then bottle away.

FWIW I dont make any adjustments to co2 pressure. Just cap the foam.
 
If I'm racking a beer I used a lot of dry hops in, I use this strainer over the end of my auto siphon. I just bent the handle up so I can hold the autosiphon and the strainer in the same hand. It's deep enough so that I can keep the tip of the autosiphon below the surface of the beer but keep the edge of the strainer above it, which keeps all the nasty hop particals and floaters out.

I started doing this because whenever I'd put a paint strainer over the end of the autosiphon, it would end up getting sucked in and clogging the siphon anyway.
 
Hows that work out for you? No problems sealing with a traditional cap and winged capper? I have access to lots of these and would love to use them up. No light in guarantees the freshest beer possible....

I have to press down on the wing capper pretty good. Basically it does not cap in the same manner as glass bottles, but it does indeed work.
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by cockybitz View Post
I bottle a couple of single serve champagne bottles as testers, so I don't waste 12 oz of great beer. Caps fit right on.

Awesome. I need to check that out.
Search for 187 mL champagne or "splits"
Quote:
Originally Posted by cockybitz View Post
I had a ceramic coated BALL canning pot for my stove-top boil.
I don't understand what that is...
http://www.google.com/products/cata...og_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CE0Q8wIwAA#

Available at walmart for 20 bucks. Ceramic coat protects from acidic mashing too :)
Quote:
Originally Posted by cockybitz View Post
My brew room is too cold to ferment ales so I bought a pipe wrap heater to warm the fermentation chamber.


That's a great trick -- I need to look into that, too.
http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_...9x00001a&ci_src=14110944&ci_sku=SPM2379989502
Available in the plumbing section at Menards. I have the yellow (I think is 12 foot) and it wraps 2 carboys to raise from 50* to 70*. Use a paper clip on the "testor" area of it.
 
I always keep a packet of Champagne, Nottingham, and Safale S-05 in the fridge. I'm pretty much covered that way for any oh crap moments.

I measure out plenty of water in my Kettle for the mash and sparge and dose it with Campden tablets while leaving it sit on top of my stove (gas) overnight. This takes care of any chances of Chloramine in the water. When I get up the next morning for brew day I just turn the gas on high. My stove doesn't get hot enough for a full boil, but it will bring it to mashing temps no problem.

I bottle from a keg, rather than a bottling bucket, even when naturally carbing. Hitting it with 10 PSI and using one of the Biermuncher Bottle fillers works great. I am always certain I have nothing but CO2, and I can thoroughly mix the sugar and any other additives I might need to put in at bottling time (vanilla, coffee, etc).

I use a 12 gallon seafood steamer as my kettle, got it for $35 from the local grocery store, no enamel to worry about chipping. It's worked great for 10+ batches so far. It even comes with its own false bottom.
 
This isn't my trick but I saw it on one of the other posts somewhere on this forum...to help oxygenate the wort before pitching the yeast, put the wort into the bottling bucket, open the spigot and let the wort drain down into your fermenter.
 
This isn't my trick but I saw it on one of the other posts somewhere on this forum...to help oxygenate the wort before pitching the yeast, put the wort into the bottling bucket, open the spigot and let the wort drain down into your fermenter.

I tried that once, and since I do a 3 gal boil and top up with water after, I take my hydrometer reading from the fermenter. With this method, there was so much foam in the fermenter (meaning plenty of oxygenation), it was almost impossible to get a SG. As in it was about 10 points off the prediction for the extract kit I was making. FG ended up perfect and the beer tasted fine, so I'm sure the foam affected my hydrometer.
 
I was just thinking about making one of these threads...

For those of you not lucky enough to have a keg/tap setup for bottling (yet), connect your bottling wand to your bottling bucket spout with minimal (1") hose. Set that on the counter and move your bottles up to the wand, instead of your wand down into the bottle on the floor. It's right in front of your face and easier to control. (I learned that on HBT.)

Cut the little ring off of your bottle brush and put it in the chuck of your cordless drill (unless you clean bottles with bleach). It'll zap anything in the bottles about 20x faster than by hand.
 
I tried that once, and since I do a 3 gal boil and top up with water after, I take my hydrometer reading from the fermenter. With this method, there was so much foam in the fermenter (meaning plenty of oxygenation), it was almost impossible to get a SG. As in it was about 10 points off the prediction for the extract kit I was making. FG ended up perfect and the beer tasted fine, so I'm sure the foam affected my hydrometer.

There was a ton of good feedback wherever I saw that post which I was why I figured I'd share it here. I haven't actually tried it myself but I've been meaning to. I can see how all the foam would mess with the hydrometer which could definitely get annoying but at least your beer turned out fine :mug:
 
After converting a keg to a keggle, I use the stainless dip tube for measurements. Similar to the wooden rod mentioned on page one, the stainless tube is easy to sanitize.
 
I have done the bottling bucket to fermenter thing as well. I just shut off the flow from the bottling bucket spigot for a second, take some wort for my OG in a separate container and then open it back up for the rest to go into the fermenter.
 
One kind of weird thing I do is use my MLT to sanitize my pump and my chiller. After I start boiling, I immediately dump my spent grains and rinse out the MLT. I then fill it with a gallon or two of sanitizer and hook it up to my pump, then I recirculate Star San through it and the wort chiller, back into the MLT. People always think that I'm sanitizing my MLT for some dumb reason, but it's the one piece of other equipment I have that I can connect directly to the pump to be able to circulate through the chiller, and the MLT is a good size for tossing in all the other peripherals I need to sanitize. I just get everything circulating and let it go during the boil, then everything is all set to go when the boil is over - plus, the MLT is already clean and set to put away.
 
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