Best and/or Worst Brewing Gadgets You've Ever Purchased

[virginiawolf]

I like the bright orange carboy handles Bottle Washer
and the Auto siphon
Ofcourse I like Corny Kegs

I suggest buying some rhizomes and growing your own hops
Check out http://www.freshops.com/

 

[brewingkitty]

autosiphons suck if you use boiling water to sanitize your gear.

 

[LagerLover24]

Best: Ranco two-stage temperature controller, stirplate, and oxygenation system (cheap kind that uses disposable o2 tanks.)

Worst: 20’ immersion chiller (way to small, took 40 minutes to cool 5 gallons), autosiphon ( I’m a spaz, and always have trouble with it,) and five gallon carboys.

 

[virginiawolf]

I was always frustrated trying to clean tubing and siphons
I bought a plastic tote from home depot
I put iodophor in it with water
It gives me plenty of room to throw the siphons and tuping in there
Then I have a 3 step process to get the siphon in the carboy
I blast the main tube with hot water clean it throw it in the carboy
Then I do the same with the stem part put it in
Then I blast the tubing with hot water
attach it and I'm siphoning
When I'm done I quick rinse the siphon
Pitch it back in the tote to soak
Rinse it again Put it all away Done
Anyway It made brewing easier so i figured I'd share
Virginia Wolf

 

[Bombo80]

Best:
Immersion chiller
Auto siphon
floor corker (for wine)
Carboy carrying handles
Oxy clean
Iodophor

Worst:
Vintner filter (probably operator error on my part)
bottle / carboy faucet mount rinser (bought it and have never used it)

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

Phils sparge arm.

Was fun to look at.

 

[brewyourown4life]

this may cause alot of static but the best would have to be the Mr Beer i purchased 4-5 years ago. that small investmeny got me into brewing and before i knew it i'm doing 5 gal extract with grains batches and getting ready to do my first all grain batch

 

[lamarguy]

Best:

Sanke Fermentor Kit, Inline Oxygenator, Refractometer, CO2 Filling Station, 20oz Portable CO2 Kit

Worst:

Tap-A-Draft, 5.2 Stabilizer, Plastic Mash Paddle, Thermo-electric Cooler

 

[jldc]

Best:
Better Bottles
Auto Siphon
25' wort chiller
Chest Freezer for fermentation
Refractometer

Worst:
Digital refractometer

Why all the hating for the auto-siphon? It doesn't like REALLY hot water, other than that it's really nice and easy to use. The 1/2" model with 7/16" tubing is the shnitz.

L
Digi

 

[Yuri_Rage]

I googled this, went to their website, and still don't get it.... how exactly are you using it? watching temp and SPGR or something?

How's this for a three year late reply?

I've been wanting an arduino kit for a while, I gotta ask, what do you monitor with it?

Everything. Temp and volume for all vessels plus steam pressure. It also controls heating element output in both the boil kettle and steam vessel.

 

[gabeweisz]

I love auto siphons, but break them getting the tubing off every couple of years. I stopped using my bottling wand a few years ago because I kept clogging them - I'd take it out of the bottle, and it would keep spraying beer or wine. I now use a straight plastic tube (from a broken auto siphon, as a matter of fact, with a plastic clip.

 

[Beerbeque]

Best- Better Bottles with racking adapters (no siphoning), Kettle screen (no more hop bags), Refractometer (Boil to desired OG), Ranco controller.

 

[BeerPressure]

I broke an autosiphon trying to take the tubing off. But now I just leave it on there and its the best damn tool in my brewery.

 

[mrkeeg]

Auto siphon wins for most hated AND most loved item on this thread!

I've tried two different ones and hated them (didn't seem to work well, stirred up the yeast trying to get them to go, harder to sanitize...)

One of my best purchases has been an infrared temperature sensor gun... does anyone else use these? It gets a LITTLE confused by steam and froth during the mash, but is pretty close. Also let's me check my cooling wort without touching it, and check the temp of any of the fermenters or my fridge instantly.

Worst...hmmm:

-Why the F would they make a mash paddle out of wimpy plastic that gets limp when it's at mash temperatures?
-Cheap electronic thermometer that went fritzey in the middle of a double brew day

 

[motobrewer]

Worst: the Turbotap - incredible, almost embarrassing waste of money.

Best: 15 gallon AG equipment, culminating in my homebuilt 21 gallon conical.

The Arduino microcontroller board is a close second for "best" - allowing me to monitor my brewing via laptop computer.

Also a close runner up - the steam system.

everytime i hear arduino, I think of this:

http://xkcd.com/730/

note far left, about mid-graphic

 

[passedpawn]

One of my best purchases has been an infrared temperature sensor gun... does anyone else use these?

have one and use it almost every day

 

[fartingdog]

Wow- this thread came back from the dead! Fun read tho, so I'll add my 2 pennies:

Best:
March pump (absolutely a game changer for me)
Autosiphon
Derrin's Sankey keg doohickey

not many 'worst', but the most expensive, least used item I have is the Blichman Beer Gun - Having 10 feet of hose flopping all over the place when in use, and then hang-drying in the kitchen for a week after use is a PITA- and thus I have only used it twice in 3 years.

 

[NorthRiverS]

The best "gadget" I have is a brew bucket and priming bucket with drain spigots on each. This makes siphoning unnecessary. I know the auto-siphon makes it easy to siphon, but gravity transfers make me smile.

NRS

 

[Cowbizzoy]

Worst: floating thermometer that shattered.

 

[Tall_Yotie]

best- wort chiller. Saves time, and that I like.

worst- floating thermometer. I can't read it if it is in the pot, have to pull it out by the hot glass bulb, and is generally useless compared to a standard thermometer.

 

[SIXFOOTER]

Hmm, best..
Vinator for sanitising bottles and bottling wand, good tools
Don't know that I have a worst, least used maybe is the blow off cap I got for my big carboy

 

[muse435]

Best - Brewers Best kit, got me into brewing

Worst - three piece air-lock, the old fashion is simpler and just woks great.

 

[smh]

Seems like a stupid thing to be excited about, but I bought a stainless steel canning funnel from Lee Valley Tools: (http://www.leevalley.com/us/gifts/page.aspx?p=46945&cat=4,104,53214&ap=2)

This thing is wicked. The removable base (small nozzle) is perfect for filling bottles. If you make things like ginger beer with lots of sediment, it's easy to sandwich some cheese cloth in the threads of the small nozzle to make a great filter. It's slow but saves some hassle.

S

 

[Cookiedds]

Best:
~Giant Stainless Steel Whisk from Rebel Brewer, nothing mixes a mash better or easier and doesn't require power tools and such.
~Autosiphon, works perfect every time as long as you've fitted it with the correct size tubing (otherwise you will get air bubbles coming through).
~Barley Crusher.
~10 gallon Rubbermaid converted mash tun with false bottom.
~Yeast stir plate, yeast bank, flasks.
~7 tap keezer with perlick creamer faucets.

Worst:
~Bottles and everything that goes with them

 

[CDbrews]

This is old stuff but Ill play...
Worst: aqarium pump oxygen thing.... Took it outta the box and put it right back in.. shaking a carboy is so much easier


Best: Lots of things but I think kegerator takes it

 

[bctdi]

Best: by far was my Ranco 2 stage temp controller / chest freezer setup.....makes brewing great beer easy! 2nd best : kegging system (bottling sucks!)



Worst: cheap dial thermometer....I was screwing up beers with this thing and didn`t even know what happened until later ( the crazy thing was that it was accurate at freezing and at boiling, but off by 10-15 degrees between 130 and 170)

 

[BrewThruYou]

Best:
MLT Conversion (Home Depot rubbermaid)

Worst:
5gal glass carboy...i don't secondary, so it's been used once to make apfelwein and then it just sits.
Plastic Emily Capper. Snapped one of the plastic guides on one side...probably will break the other side before long.

TBD:
Stir plate (Just shipped)
Barley Crusher (Just shipped)
Vinator (Will buy soon)
Bench capper (Will buy soon)

 

[Jknapp]

I've found this thing to be close to useless.

Is that true?? I was thinking of getting one for dispensing.. Does it not work for that?

Best:
Thermapen
Electrifying my kettle
Tankless Water Heater
Autosiphon clip (austin homebrew)
Digital Scale

Worst:
All those flip-top bottles i bought from the guy on craigslist & had to clean. Need to order my keg setup.

 

[arondee]

Best:
Kegmeister full size kegerator with full 20# CO2 tank and 2 guage regulator off Craigslist for $25
Keggle: $60 from a friend
3 Ranco temperature controllers pre-wired off Craigslist again for $30 each
Holiday Chest Freezer: $30 off Craigslist
What can I say? I'm super cheap. The craigslist app for Android has saved me buckets of money because I'm the first to know when something I'm interested in gets posted.

Worst:
My digital thermometer sucks. It takes too long to reach the correct temperature I can't hold my hand in the keggle for too long because it's too hot. Can anyone recommend a cheap thermometer that's really long?

This scale from amazon. It's way too small to measure hops on.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000O37TDO/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

 

[motobrewer]

Is that true?? I was thinking of getting one for dispensing.. Does it not work for that?

Best:
Thermapen
Electrifying my kettle
Tankless Water Heater
Autosiphon clip (austin homebrew)
Digital Scale

Worst:
All those flip-top bottles i bought from the guy on craigslist & had to clean. Need to order my keg setup.

works fine for me, for remote dispensing. goes thru those little cartridges like no tomorrow tho.