What is your most useless piece of brewing equipment?

I know its easy to catch the bug and start buying stuff for every situation in brewing and consuming.

So what is your most useless piece of equipment you have purchased? Whether it was on a whim or you had high expectations or ideas.

Currently it is my 3 gallon corny keg... I brew 5 gallon batches...

 

My 5 gallon glass carboy, and the funnel for it. After my 6.5 gal glass carboy's bottom fell out for no reason (was sitting on the kitchen floor filled with water for over 30 minutes when I heard a load crack and when I went to investigate barely touched the top and had water every where) I'm very skeptical about using the 5 gal for anything; especially since I don't really secondary my beers anymore.

 

I bought 2 of those party pig things. Used them once and found it tedious using the pouches.

 

Me.

 

I bought some extra better bottles a few years ago since AHS was selling them for 15$ a piece. Since i only do 1 beer at a time and maybe have some sort of wine aging in another 2 of them don't see much of any use.

 

See, I'd love a 3 gallon corny keg because I often brew 3 gallons!

One of my worst purchases was a bargain used 5 gallon corny with a "racetrack" lid purchased as a New Year's Day special from a well known online retailer. Lid won't seal worth a damn, and the rubber top disintegrates into a black mess when in contact with liquid. A real great option for packaging my homebrew (NOT).

 

I built a 2' by 2' plywood and 2x4 bottle drying rack that holds about 50 bottles...used it once and bought a bottle tree...I'll never use the wooden rack again.

 

The new o-rings I got for the 5 pin-lock kegs I acquired. Only a waste as my SWMBO promptly gave all 5 kegs away (and a 20# CO2 tank) when we moved and I wasn't around to say no.

 

Beer filter. Bought it on sale from more beer. Have yet to use it.

 

A three piece plastic wine thief.

Not sure what my thinking was there

 

My ThruMomenter. All my tubing is the wrong size to make this work and it will cost more to change it out.

 

I have 2x3 gallon keg and 2x2.5 gallon kegs....... I generally brew 5 gallons. However, sometimes I brew 3 gallon batches and use a 5 gallon corny as a fermenter...... and then rack under pressure to the 3 gallon keg when finished. Also, sometimes I will split a 5 gallon batch into 2 different small kegs if I want to take some smaller ones somewhere, or if I want to put 2 gallons on my beer engine, etc.


*My most worthless would either be my glass carboys that are still sitting around that I know I will never use or my two V-Vessel (now called fast ferment conicals) fermenters that I know I will never use again because they were a giant PITA. I also have 3 tap handles/hardware that I don't use since I switched to all picnic taps...... I should probably have a brewing garage sale now that I think about it.

 

LOL - use mine all the time ! What I don't use is a big funnel that came with my original kit.

 

When my dad gave me his setup (retired from drinking/brewing), he included all the wine-making stuff.

Chemicals/minerals, corks, corker, bottles, etc. etc.

I will never make wine.

 

Auto Siphon

 

I've only used my auto siphon a couple times. Rarely ever secondary in the BB to have need of it. And the Cooper's sanitizer crystal. Smells like bleach when mixed with water & must be rinsed. The 5 Star Super Moss that doesn't work quite as well as half a Whirlfloc tablet still sits in the fermenter stand. And all those jars for washing & saving yeast are collecting dust. I don't brew often enough to use all that yeast. And the Dial thermometer for my kettle that is way to easy to mess up the temp setting was used a couple times.

 

My beer gun bottle filler. It was $80, and I usually just jam a wand or hose up a picnic tap for getting beer out of a keg. It takes about 20 minutes to assemble the beer gun and it's harder to sanitize. Plus, I bottle maybe two beers a year.

 

100% agree with this.

 

My willpower to avoid over consumption on brew day:beer:

 

My bench capper. Since I started kegging a year ago I've filled a total of 11 bottles (and those were just to kick a keg so I could rack something else into it). At such low quantities it doesn't even seem worth getting out the bench capper. It was awesome when I still bottled, though.

 

A half-finished BRUTUS brew stand named Best Intentions.

 

I bought a small thermometer to install in the side of my Igloo mash tun. It's not accurate enough to use for mashing and the probe sticks out too far inside the mash tun, so I keep hitting and bending it when I stir the mash at the start and during batch sparging. I'm real tempted to remove it if I can figure out the best way to patch the hole. Waste of money.

 

Mines a wine thief. I was so crazy impatient when I first started brewing, I couldn't stand not checking the beer constantly. After a couple years of brewing under my belt now and a good pipeline, I usually don't bother looking at it until 3 weeks have passed. By that time, I just go ahead and transfer to a keg and run just enough off during that to take a gravity sample.

I haven't touched the thing in over 2 years.

 

Bottle brush. I usually clean empties before storing, and if it doesn't get clean enough with PBW and hot water, it's not worth it with all the other bottles I have.

 

muslin bags.
I really only use them for oaking beers and I've started to use oak spirals so I don't really need them anymore and I have a bunch.

 

I ran into this exact same scenario with my father in law when I started brewing.

Gave away all the wine making stuff as " I don't drink wine, I won't be making wine"

Now 15 years later I find myself assembling everything to make wine as " I have a new found appreciation of wine, I think I want to try making wine"

 

Wast of money IMHO, I filtered a few brews early on but I find they pour clear from the keg once it has sat long enough to carb. Might get some crud on the first pour but once the dip tube area is clear it's good till the keg kicks.

 

It has got to be my hydrometer. Tell me how drunk I am, how dare you...

 

These 2 are funny, I use my 3 piece thief fairly often and consider my 2 auto siphons among the most useful equipment I own.

My least used are a low $ digital thermometer (though it was a Christmas gift I asked for) it adjusts too slowly! and my 5 gallon Better Bottle. I only did a couple of secondaries though I have used it for smaller batches occasionally.

 

Yeah... it's just not there for me. I'll drink like one glass a year, maybe.

Also, I second the Auto-Siphon as one of the handiest tools I have. 1/2" tube sucks that carboy dry (well, you know... almost dry) in no time.

 

Floating thermometer that came with my brewing kit. Nothing like a 20+ degree temp different between the bottom and top of the wort during cooling...

 

For me I'd have to go with my jet bottle washer, totally useless for me. I think the last time I used it was back in '04.

 

the beer gun...I forgot I even have one. It works but what a pain....
and the bottle brush....rinse immediately and invert on tree. I don't think I have used it in years.

 

Totally forgot I owned one. I'm changing my answer to that.

 

Thanks for reminding me. I also have a wine thief sitting right beside the auto siphon. Niether one has been used in 7 or 8 years. :cross:


edit:
This thread should be a pay-it-forward for people to get rid of stuff they don't use, but others might.

 

Ouch. At least she could have made some money off it. And you're still together?

I don't get all the hate for the beer gun. Granted, mine was a gift and on my own I probably just would have gone Biermuncher's route, but I love it. I did fit it with a corney post adapter so I can just pop on the gas line, I find it quite easy to set up and sanitize. At any rate my vote would have been the 5 gal glass carboy but that went the route of craig's list. Bottle brush I guess for me.

 

Exactly why it's not been used yet. Figured I would use it if I needed a really clear beer, but haven't had any issues with clarity so haven't bothered to even try it.

 

What do you find that is not useful about an auto siphon? I find it an indispensable piece of equipment. What do you use instead?

 

Wow I love my jet bottle washer. I use it to rinse kegs and carboys in my garage sink. Also to clean out growlers and occasional bottles. I then clean my kegs and carboys on a Marks II and then rinse them after cleaning with the jet.

My most useless item is a calcium carbonate I bought when I first started trying to alter water chemistry. Just dont ever need that stuff with my water it turns out.

My most frivolous item is a Portuguese corker which I have used to do cork and cage about once a year.

 

I have spigots on my fermenters & bottling bucket. Only need the auto siphon if I use my BB secondary, which is almost never.