Cool Tricks you have learned over the years.

[rocketman768]

use speant grain for bread or cookies. Use bunk messed up beers for chili and marinating meat or braising.....Starsan in a garden sprayer to reach down inside the carboy to save sanitizer....

I've always wanted to make cookies out of the spent grain. But, I am afraid of one thing: what happens to the hulls of the spent grain? Wouldn't they make anything made with the grain taste weird since hulls aren't exactly pleasant to eat?

 

[BrewinJack]

If you have a carboy that just wont let the gunk go... brew up some nasty hooch and the CO2 bubbling will scrub it clean and the acohol will sanitize any bactieria left... after that dump out the hooch (DONT DRINK IT, DUH) and then sanitize like normal and brew it up... worked well enough on my 3 gal carboy

 

[jrhammonds]

1. Use a perforated pizza pan atop your mash tun when you add your "sprinkling" sparge water.
2. Take the math out of brew day concerning mash water volume, strike temps, and sparge water volume with this handy dandy online calculator: Mash and Sparge Water Calculator ::: Brew365 - Homebrewing Recipes and Articles
3. Use the cardboard box that your carboy came in when you bought it to keep your beer out of sunlight while it's fermenting. Simply open the flaps and put it over the carboy upside down. This method is better than blankets as blankets trap in the heat during fermentation.
4. Get outside as quickly as you can with one of these: http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/hh46/warassari/Quart-Outdoor-Turkey-Fryer-Kit.jpg
For $39 you'll have a cleaner stove and happier spouse. Trust me.

 

[conpewter]

If you want to ferment in a cornie, just take the liquid disconnect and dip tube out, use a piece of 3/8" silicone tubing to stretch over the threaded connection and then attach your airlock, use the foam control drops to keep it from blowing off.

 

[Hegh]

Figured this out this morning:

If you don't have a wine thief, but you want to take a gravity sample of a 5g batch in a 6g carboy, sanitize your bottling wand and stick a piece of tubing to the end. Dip the wand into the carboy and suck on the other end of the tube to fill it up.

Doesn't matter that the tubing isn't sanitized or touching your mouth, since the stuff you pull out isn't going back into the carboy. Plus, if you're careful not to let the bottling wand touch anything unsanitary as you empty the liquid into your hydro tube, you can go back for more samples (I needed three, since I didn't know how much would be necessary).

 

[fratermus]

what happens to the hulls of the spent grain? Wouldn't they make anything made with the grain taste weird since hulls aren't exactly pleasant to eat?

All that's left, effectively, is the hulls. They are neutral in flavor and not harsh in any way.

I make dog cookies (outside snacking only, very crumbly!) and add about 1/2c of spent grains to my bread machine when it makes the "add adjunct ingredients" beep sound. Luverly bread, excellent texture.

 

[fratermus]

1. Use a perforated pizza pan atop your mash tun when you add your "sprinkling" sparge water.

Hmmm. I wonder if this would work during the boil for people who have problems getting/keeping temps up. The perforated pan would let steam (and hopefully DMS) out easily but would keep outside air currents from displacing the hot layer of air over the wort.

Any thoughts? Anyone tried it? My turker frier cranks the heat but stovetop folks might benefit.

 

[944play]

Cool tricks I have learned:
Lager fermentation temperature control without a fridge
Keg as a bottling bucket
How to chill to lager pitching temp in the land of 75F tap water

 

[jrhammonds]

Hmmm. I wonder if this would work during the boil for people who have problems getting/keeping temps up. The perforated pan would let steam (and hopefully DMS) out easily but would keep outside air currents from displacing the hot layer of air over the wort.

Any thoughts? Anyone tried it? My turker frier cranks the heat but stovetop folks might benefit.

I think this would be a great idea for stove top brewers! I, too, have made the turkey fryer switch. My only concern is that enough DMS would evaporate if much of the steam is being trapped. Perhaps, one could cover half of the pot?

 

[BeerCanuck]

I save all hot water generated from my immersion chiller in brew buckets.
Previously I just ran the output from the chiller into the garden area which I thought was kind of wasteful. Reusing the hot water to clean brew gear / fermenters / cornies / dishes / floor / watering garden makes me feel frugal

Reusing the fermenter and yeast cake by racking the previous fermented batch on brewday saves alot of time. Its also motivates me to take hydrometer readings / taste samples.

Cheers
BeerCanuck

 

[Glubki]

Mine aren't that brilliant...

If you brew in an apartment a $2 plastic plastic drop cloth goes a long ways in preventing any damage or spills on hardwood floors.

If you set your 6.5 gallon carboy on top of a smaller empty pail it is 10 times easier to shake and aerate the wort.

If your fermenter is filled with foam simply use a spray bottle and spray fresh sanitizer against the foam - it will knock it down and make draining easier.

If you have to use an ice bath a good alternative is to use the sparging method and use a small outlet hose to allow the bath to drain if the water/ice gets warm. Than refill the tub with cold water and ice. This reduces cooling time quite a bit.

 

[mosquitocontrol]

If your brewing inside in the kitchen, use rubber backed mats to cover the floor. No spillage can go through the rubber. They are non-slip. And soft on your toes. When your done just throw them in the washer. No more getting yelled at for sticky floors when you are done. Or pulling out the dreaded mop.

 

[Bills Brew]

To sanitize racking canes and tubing, I've been using a wall paper trough. They are long enough to hold the canes and don't require more than a quart, or two of sanitizer.

 

[Yuri_Rage]

Get a FoodSaver. Vacuum seal everything (except your pets).

 

[Jaybird]

I think I might have had one too many to get this one Jaybird. Shed some light?

I just take my IC and pick up on it (pulling it about 3/4 of the way out of the wort) then push it back down in the boil kettle several times. It will push a lot of O2 down into the wort. I will start doing this @ about 80* or so. You'll see it doesn’t take much to get your wort saturated.

 

[BierMuncher]

I just take my IC and pick up on it (pulling it about 3/4 of the way out of the wort) then push it back down in the boil kettle several times. It will push a lot of O2 down into the wort. I will start doing this @ about 80* or so. You'll see it doesn’t take much to get your wort saturated.

That's how I aerate all my batches. An IC is just like a giant whisk.

 

[Saccharomyces]

A spray bottle full of Starsan is extremely handy to keep around. I have two now, one for the fermentation room and one in the brew room.

You can't have too many 5 gallon orange "Homer" buckets on hand.

Steeping grains in a 155*F warm oven makes simple and cheap yeast starters.

It's REALLY HARD to ruin beer. RDWHAHB!

 

[Hegh]

A spray bottle full of Starsan is extremely handy to keep around. I have two now, one for the fermentation room and one in the brew room.

You can't have too many 5 gallon orange "Homer" buckets on hand.

Steeping grains in a 155*F warm oven makes simple and cheap yeast starters.

It's REALLY HARD to ruin beer. RDWHAHB!

"Homer" buckets? I have no idea what you mean by that... pic/link?

 

[Jaybird]

That's how I aerate all my batches. An IC is just like a giant whisk.


View attachment 9410

yep thats it!

I think you need a 4" grinder and about 5 min to help you with that BK

 

[jbonebrewer]

So the bottling over the dishwasher trick is really amazing! Used it while bottling our last batch and it worked like a charm! And no clean up! Kudos to the incredibly intelligent individual who discovered this seemingly obvious trick! Thanks for the tip!

 

[bob1852]

"Homer" buckets? I have no idea what you mean by that... pic/link?

Home Depot orange buckets

 

[Hegh]

Home Depot orange buckets

Heh, I think my mind got stuck on Homer Simpson, instead of jumping to Home Depot...

 

[Jolly McStanson]

When using oxyclean to remove the gunk at the top of a carboy, rather than filling it all the way up, just add the oxyclean, fill it only 1/3 full with water, then put a bucket on top (preferably the 5 gal. type) and flip the whole thing over and let it do it's thing.

That's a great idea. I'M doing that right now. It going to speed my carboy cleaning up like crazy.

 

[MNBugeater]

Sorry if a repeat, didnt read all 6 pages.

Using a plastic "T" and two "L" shaped tubing connectors make a two pronged bottling attachment to your bottling bucket. My original design was a "Y" adapter but the bottling wands stuck out toward 4 and 8 on a clock, so the angle was no good.

The "T" and "L" adapters let two bottling wands point straight down and I can fill two bottles at once.
[Note: You need some small pieces of tubing to connect everything.]

 

[darkestdays]

Home Depot orange buckets

Yep, those things are pretty handy!

 

[jjp36]

I just learned this one this past weekend:

When vorlaufing, put the lid from the top of a tupperware container on top of the grain bed in the mash tun and then pour the recirculated wort directly on top of that. The lid will float, and you can pour the wort in a lot faster and still not disturb the grain bed.

 

[Brewme]

Much like the box on top of the carboy trick, I cut a hole in a trash bag for the airlock and cover my carboy from light. Easy and cheap!

 

[IowaHarry]

Using the dish washer/oven door bottling trick I use a large pot to hold the bottles. It holds ten bottles plus any overflow. It is tight enough so bottles don't try to fall over while filling. Transport filled bottles to counter for capping. You can return overflow to the bottling bucket.