What's your best DIY brew gadget?

I love me some homebrew gadgets! The best gadgets are the do-it-yourself kind. I've built a bunch, some are small and simple others are kinda large and complex. My favorite is a heatstick I mounted on an elbow. I used to use it to do full boils on my stove now I use it to heat strike/sparge/clean-up water. It really speeds up my brew days!



Whatt's your favorite DIY gadget?

 

that is a hard question.. I really like the heat stick I made, also the stir plate has come in real handy. My ugly corona mill makes for a good crush, and my brew cart, in progress, is going to make a quicker brew day...

 

Man, nothin' that hasn't been shown before. I guess it would be my stir plate...only because when I tackled it, I knew nothing about circuits/electronics.
-Jefe-

 

These are my DIY threads here. The first one is the most popular, but the paper shredder grain mill was the one I'm most proud of (don't know why, but it worked surprisingly well).

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/simplest-keggle-cutting-jig-143048/
http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/double-barrel-bottling-now-twice-fast-257264/
http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/pressure-gauge-mounted-bottle-cap-268151/
http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f170/240vac-toolbox-control-panel-pics-184296/
http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/inline-thermometer-build-3-4-simple-simple-163779/
http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/paper-shredder-mill-203515/
http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/2-1-2-gallon-montana-jar-fermenter-200328/
http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/autosiphon-holder-solution-revisited-163373/
http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f128/i-just-bought-microscope-270225/
http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/chiller-heater-johnson-controller-w-pic-159995/

 

i tried making one of those using water weld and the crap was so darn hard to work with/ when i was screwing the nut down over the element, it twisted the element all around, thus ripping the ground from the ground nut. now im afraid to even try it without a good ground... how did you do your set up?

 

did ever you record efficiency with it?

 

Without a doubt it has to be my fermentation chamber.
http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/fermentation-chamber-292242/

 

Sadly, no. But if my mill ever craps, I'll definitely test it out.

 

Now that is a temp controller set up I have not seen, yet.

Nice metal work!

 

(THANK YOU)

Here is the thread that I used.
http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/diy-temp-controller-build-133364/

 

My keggle for sure. Has helped me improve my wort collection volumes, makes it easier to hit my preboil gravities and my post boil gravities. Nice to be able to do 10 gallon batches now too (although have only done 1 so far).

Keggle Project

 

I guess mine would be this thing... it's a dip tube replacement that floats in your beer, pulling liquid from the top instead of the bottom.

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/floating-dip-tube-275638/

 

Heatstick & Cheap grain mill (corona style) are both my favorites. The heatstick allows me to do full boils on my gas stove when its cold outside. The cheap grain mill allows me to buy grain in bulk. The only other one I have done is convert a Coleman Extreme to a mash tun, pretty standard.

 

Corona mill, heatsticks and BIAB grain bags...I'm also fond of stainless braid ghetto mash tuns.

 

Without a Doubt it has to be my 2 carboy Ferm Chamber!!! Undoubtedly a necessity in south florida!! I'm going to give the credit on the small handful of medals I got this past year to that thing, for sure.

But I have made most of my stuff DIY, and after that it is hard to choose: stirplate, chiller, mashtun, carboy haulers, kegerator!!! and the list goes on..... I guess it would be kegerator next

 

I'd say mine would be the side-by-side fridge turned fermentation chamber, controlled by the ebay temp controller. Also, the heat sticks. Built two so I can do 5 gallon batches in the basement, with plans to build a 3rd so I can do 10 gallon batches-currently have to drag the propane stand out to the garage otherwise.

 

My Arduino-based temperature controller for two of my keezers. Like most prototypes, it's been in service much longer than I anticipated.

 

We built this to stir our mash while heating. Also makes mash-in a breeze!

 

Mine would be my flash boiler. Man it saves so much time on brew days heating 30+ gallons of sparge water.

 

Mine would be, in order of favorite/most used to least:

1. DIY Bar with built in kegerator out of dorm fridge, with extension cold box that fits up to 6 kegs (see my signature for build thread)
2. eHLT, 10G Rubbermaid MLT with stainless braid, and keggle BK
3. eBay temperature controller
3.5. Fermentation chamber in corner of garage with window AC unit, ceramic heater, and said ebay temp controller
4. Beer/Wine Cellar (listed low because it is a work in progress)
5. DIY stir plate (listed low because it only works once out of every 4 times I try it)

 

I pieced it together from several write ups. Its been a while so I can't remember where exactly. I used JB Weld for epoxy and runny food grade caulk for sealant. The caulk was the key. The package said it could be used to make gaskets. I spread it on liberally before and after tightening the sumberged threads.

 

Really? You mounted a pressure gauge to a bottle cap? That's awesome :rockin: You sir have totally out geeked me.

 

subscribed... Very awesome thread! Gives me a lot of ideas!
-Redbeard5289

 

Not gonna lie, I definitely used your keggle cutting jig idea a year ago. Worked well, thanks for that.

 

Great. BTW, wife and I went to Epcot this weekend and the Oh Canada surround movie that they show mentions Moose Jaw (there might have been some video of it too, but I wouldn't know if that's what they were showing).

 

Some great ideas in this thread!

For me, the most challenging was definitely our Water-Cooled Fermentation Chamber. A LOT of work went into that thing.

But the most useful? Gotta be the DIY Tap Line Cleaner which was an idea from one of the guys on here.

-TK

 

The only DIY device I made without stealing anyone else's idea was what I call my 'doohickey.' It allows me to easily connect my garden hose to any of my QD hoses for cleaning purposes.

Take a 1/2" male NPT to 3/4" female garden hose brass fitting from HD or Lowes. You might have to settle for a 1/2" female NPT to 3/4" female garden hose fitting. If you do, then all you have to do is get a 1/2" NPT close nipple to turn the female 1/2" fitting into a male one.

Install a male QD camlock to the 1/2" male NPT side.
Install a QD garden hose fitting on the garden hose side (if you use the QD garden hose things).

Bam. Now you can plug that doohickey onto the end of your garden hose and then connect that to any of your brew hoses that has female QD camlock fittings.

Use it to flush out your brew hoses, valves, pumps, chillers, manifolds, dip tubes, etc.

 

I took a liquid line post assembly out of an old, beat up Cornie and welded on a bracket & short piece of SS tubing and attached a short length of hose to a garden hose fitting. It's mounted on the wall at the slop sink and I can easily snap on a serving line to flush it out quickly. By using a liquid line connector with a flare fitting, I can easily attach other lines and flush them out quickly as well.

 

Aside from my Corona Mill tinkering, I am getting pretty darn good at stitching up BIAB Bags at reasonable "hobby NOT business" pricing...I must be getting old though, my patience wears thin on people that ask ten silly questions prior to purchase...that's retail I guess...maybe I should restructure pricing with free bags, and silly questions $3 each

 

I made a DIY beer line pump cleaner. It allows you to clean your kegerator tap lines quickly and efficiently. There's the thread:

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/diy-beer-line-cleaner-226497/

 

Definitely at the top of my list is the BIAB eKeggle and Ammo Can PID control box. That gets used every brew day.

I also just finished a 3 tap insulated keezer collar that gets used starting a few weeks after each brew day.

I'm finishing up a 90 degree heat stick that's going to let me heat water when I do want to sparge, or to boost my kitchen stove on the rare occasions I brew a small batch in the kitchen.

Next on the to-do list is a fermentation chamber that will circulate chilled glycol from the keezer. Oh, and I need to rebuild the cigar box (Kuba Kuba) stir plate that stopped working.

 

Enjoyed building a kegerator into my wetbar (tonight I upgraded to Perlick faucets because my cheapies kept sticking)

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/far...onal-wet-bar-1-wk-after-closing-house-259059/

I also made a pre-chiller with an extra wort chiller and a cooler... just fill it with ice water and run a hose through this and then over to the chiller that goes in the kettle at the end of a boil. Works like a champ. Hmm.. guess I never got around to taking a picture of it.

 

One of my favorites is a solar water heater... My brew room is in what was once the milking parlor of a small barn. From the water hydrant I ran a 100 ft of 1/2 inch tubing, coiling it on the south side of the roof, then terminating it with a faucet above the brew sculpture. On sunny days I start with water in the 100 to 105 range, which saves a lot of time and propane.

 

You could also try painting the tubing black and put it in a case with glass facing south and some reflective surface in the background. Where I'm staying now we have a tank like this and it provides several hot showers even when it's chilly.

 

Thats a pretty cool one! I am assuming copper?

 

Found this thread... time for a bump. I'm sure there are lots of DIY projects out there that should get added to this thing.

 

Mine is currently my fermentation chamber.
http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f258/my-fermentation-chamber-build-473619/

And the stc-1000 controlling it, now upgraded with stc-1000+

 

Probably my brew stand
View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1417168481.058252.jpg

But my newest project was my sparge arm build.
View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1417168649.455154.jpg
View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1417168680.045902.jpg


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For me it has been:

1. Cigar box stir plate...works wonderfully well, looks sexy in my kitchen, and people look at me as if I was way smarter than I am
2.Hose / Copper CFC - Significantly shortens by brew day
3. Recirc system with topsflo pump - further reduces the brew day and works great with the CFC.
4. Heatstick - I can now do full boils in my electric stove.
5. Brew Lab - save some yeast and save some $!

 

My custom fermentation chamber. I'm very short on space since I just convinced the wife I would sell one of my boats to make room for a ping pong table in the garage. I desperately needed a chamber but had no more floor space. Built this on the work bench so it can be taken down with lite effort when not in use. View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1417568577.270302.jpg View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1417568604.701008.jpg View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1417568630.594089.jpg View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1417568646.317545.jpg View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1417568710.101802.jpg

Later got the Johnson A419 and plugged the heating pad into it. It's December in Michigan right now and I have two carboys sharing one heating pad and it is still off most times I check it.