What are your top 3 equipment recommendations?

We were discussing equipment at a recent brew club meeting and I thought I would continue it on the HBT Forum. Of all your brewing, fermenting and dispensing equipment, what are your 3 favorite pieces (most useful or changed the way you brew)?
My three are:
1) A giant Mash Whisk I got from Rebel Brewer for about $12. It quickly breaks up any lumps or clumps in the mash tun and stirs way better than any spoon or paddle could hope to.....love it.
2) Stir plate for culturing yeast starters from slants, works awesome and got me started yeast banking with our club.
3) 5 gallon nylon mesh paint strainers ($5 at HD, ACE, etc.) that I line a bottling bucket with and run my wort through from my brew kettle valve. Works great to clean up the wort before going into the carboy to ferment. I wash, sanitize and re-use them.

1) Autosiphon - I siphoned about two batches without one. They were hell.
2) Vinator - Bottle sanitizing is super easy once you get one of those.
3) Homebrew - Drinking homebrew while making homebrew is the only way to fly.

1) Keg/CO2
2) Propane burner
3) Counter flow chiller

1. PET (or glass) carboys for both primary and secondary fermenting.
2. Blow-off tube assembly for when the yeast goes ape-nuts due to using a starter (getting into the habit of using starters for anything over 1.060).
3. 70 quart Coleman cooler for use as a mash tun...

I'm about to start my first AG brew (this coming weekend) so I'll be doing the mash/sparge in the cooler (using the BIAB method since it makes it so you don't need to filter the wort).

I'm gathering up what I'll need to make my own stir plate, and expect to have that completed soon.

While not mine, there was a recent (earlier this year) article in BYO where they talked to commercial brewers who used extract to make their beers. The article briefly discussed the myth that All-Grain results in better beer than extract. However, the brewers brought up a good point. Usually, when someone makes the leap from extract brewing to all-grain, that leap comes with better methods/equipment that improve the brew. Their point was that the equipment/method changes are the bigger cause of the quality improvement and not the use of grains over extract. I believe the three major equipment/method changes were:

1. Larger brew pot (i.e., full boil vs. partial boil)
2. Wort Chiller
3. Fermentation temperature (use of a fermentation chamber is not necessarily part of the jump to all-grain, but was mentioned in the article)

Just wanted to throw that out there for all the non-BYO subscribers.

1. Ferm temp control
2. auto sipphon
3. keg system

1. Yeast Health - flask, stir plate, dme
2. Temperature control - fridge, brew belt, 2 stage controller
3. Ability to do full boil - big enough kettle, big enough heat source

If you can do 1 and 2, then you can make some tasty beer. I have given extract kits to people and they cant believe it isnt good all grain brewing. It makes that much difference.

1) Fermentation chamber
2) Big, quality spray bottle full of star san
3) High accuracy thermometer (especially for all grain)

1. Water bath fermentation temperature control (Keg bucket, 100w fish tank heater, small fish tank pump for circulation, R19 household insulation wrap, Ranco controller.)

2. This thermometer:
B Long reach with NIST Certificate -58° to +302° F ±0.4° F 8" SR44 coin cell
3569K58 $46.19
http://www.mcmaster.com/#nsf-certified-thermometers/=acer50

3. Hydrometer

Keg setup
CFC
dedicated cart

Likely to soon be changed to
Keg setup
pump
electricity

Top 3 recommendations for a relative newbie:
1) Star San (or other high quality sanitizer w/ proper usage instructions)
2) Wort Chiller
3) Starters for yeast health

Top 3 things I have that I would never want to give up:
1) Tiered system (makes for a much safer brew day)
2) XXL Mash Ton (26 gal capacity = increased efficiency, no handcuffs for HG brew)
3) Keg carbonation (we still bottle but no more PITA sugar additions w/ variable results)

1. Fermentation Temperature Control
2. Fermentation Temperature Control
3. Fermentation Temperature Control

1.) 1/2" SS racking cane. 3 broken plastic canes and a broken auto siphon drove me to this purchase, and I love it.
2.) LOVE 2 stage controller for my fermentation chamber. Having a cooler and heater attached to it gives me great control.
3.) single tier brew stand with march 809 and RIMS.

Cookiedds said:

3) 5 gallon nylon mesh paint strainers ($5 at HD, ACE, etc.) that I line a bottling bucket with and run my wort through from my brew kettle valve. Works great to clean up the wort before going into the carboy to ferment. I wash, sanitize and re-use them.

Click to expand...

Is there any special technique or method you use to wash the paint strainer bags? What kind of cleaning agent do you use? Are these hand washed or do you put them into a washing machine?

1. Steam system for mash temp control.
2. cfc
3. Wallpaper tray to sanitize hoses & long tubing.

1. Autosiphon
2. Propane Burner (full boils)
3. StarSan

Tomorrow will be one year to the day of my first batch. Even though I'm still brewing with extract, these three things have made the process a little easier and I'm convinced that better beer has also resulted.

1. Therminator (Amazing peice of equipment! Boiling to pitching temps instantly (takes only as long as it takes to pump from the kettle to the fermenter!)
2. Barley Crusher - I really enjoy being able to grind my own grain to my own specs
3. Kegerator for fermenting at any temp needed. I've got my first lager (a bock) fermenting right now.

msa8967 said:

Is there any special technique or method you use to wash the paint strainer bags? What kind of cleaning agent do you use? Are these hand washed or do you put them into a washing machine?

Click to expand...

I just use regular PBW or Oxiclean, they clean up easily. Then I soak it in a bucket of Starsan for a few minutes while sanitizing other equipment and tubing, shake it out, hang to dry, done.

Cookiedds said:

I just use regular PBW or Oxiclean, they clean up easily. Then I soak it in a bucket of Starsan for a few minutes while sanitizing other equipment and tubing, shake it out, hang to dry, done.

Click to expand...

Thanks for letting me know. I was wondering if there would be a simple way to remove much of the hop debry from the bag. Going to have to give this a try.

1. Fermentation temperature control
2. Chiller, most likely IC if you are new to brewing
3. Patience, priceless really, and not really equipment but makes brewing all that much more enjoyable once you get it.

Keg Setup
Auto-siphon
Keggles

I would advise anyone just starting out to get the biggest pot they can... Even if they're just brewing with extracts, I would advise getting at least a 20qt, if not 28qt (or larger) pot... I just picked up a 32 quart stock pot (aluminum, will oven condition it within the next few days, before using it)...

A good thermometer you can just leave in the pot while cooking is also very helpful. I picked up one that's for candy/oil not too long ago. Long probe, and it clips to the side of the pot. Plus, it has a digital display, so you don't need to look into the pot to see what the temp is. Since it's made to withstand boiling oil (and candy making) temperatures, I don't see any issues using it. Other than it won't stay on until it hits over ~90F... Being able to cover the pot almost completely is also very helpful. For one thing, you can regulate your heat loss from out the top of the pot. It's also good to have some instant read thermometers to use. That way you can get accurate temperature readings for different things, such as your hydrometer sample, mash tun, etc.

1. Fermentation temperature control
2. A notebook - Tracking your ingredients, process, and any problems you encounter is just as essential to becoming a better brewer as all the equipment in the world. You can make great beer doing partial boil kits with no wort chiller if your process and fermentation temperature is solid.
3. A bucket and spray bottle for Star-San, the greatest sanitizer there is.