Homebrew MUST Haves

[Jordan Logo]

We all know the essentials... kettle, spoon, grains, hops, etc. but what homebrew items do you consider essential/helpful to your everyday brew life?

For me it has to be a quality propane burner. Mine heats up my wort to a boil in about 10-15mins which makes my brew day that much shorter... not that I want it to be over ):

What about you? What are your brew essentials?

 

[fourfarthing]

kitchen scale that measures in grams.

 

[day_trippr]

Temperature controlled fermentation...

 

[MaxStout]

A good digital thermometer. For hitting mash temps those shiatty $10 dial thermometers from the LHBS won't cut it.

 

[OnePlate]

Small plastic cups for holding hops, brewing salts, tasting/gravity samples and whatever other kettle additions. I like the Chinet 9oz cut crystal cups.

For non-brew days, for pulling samples to taste and check gravity with my refractometer, I've found a 10ml serological pipette and pipette pump to be invaluable. Long as hell, simple to sanitize, only needs to go a little bit into the beer and the pump sucks out a couple quick pulls. In and out of the carboy in seconds.

 

[seatazzz]

Ferment fridge, hands down. Back in the day when I used a swamp cooler, I had a 50/50 chance that any particular brew would turn out well; now that I have reliable means to keep the fermentation temperature where it needs to be, almost all of my beers for the last year have been good, and some have been stellar. And to be able to brew lagers....oh heaven. Close second is the sight glass I finally got for my keggle; now instead of using the timer for my hop additions, I just keep an eye on the volume and add them according to that.

 

[Blazinlow86]

Fermentation temps control most definitely. Cheers

 

[Lefou]

A good digital thermometer. For hitting mash temps those shiatty $10 dial thermometers from the LHBS won't cut it.

A couple triple scale hydrometers, one analog and one digital thermometer, and a digital scale. Debating on a refractometer.
The one single thing I can't do without is an accurate thermometer on my mash kettle. The rest of the stuff tends to get hidden because it has applications for people who tend to "borrow".

 

[Pkrd]

Patience

 

[grampamark]

Homebrew. Charlie P. said "it takes homebrew to make homebrew", so, keeping the pipeline full is a must-have.

 

[Soulshine2]

hard to pinpoint one or few items that I have to have for brew day or the flipside the one or two things I couldnt brew without...when in reality..I need ALL of it.

 

[cloudybrewer]

Close second is the sight glass I finally got for my keggle; now instead of using the timer for my hop additions, I just keep an eye on the volume and add them according to that.

Forgive the hijack and my ignorance, but can you explain how that works? Are you using boil off rate to calculate time?

 

[OG-wan Kenobi]

Wort chiller 100%
Hydrometer kit is also very nice to have

 

[ramjam]

good wort chiller, pump, and auto siphon

 

[IslandLizard]

A few sacks of base malt, a variety of crystal/specialty malts, flaked goods and bulk hops (in freezer) on hand. Plus a good assortment of yeast strains in the fridge.

I can brew anytime I want.

 

[kevin58]

My list keeps growing. The first must have of mine was a grain mill. My beer improved by leaps and bounds.
Next was a Denny Conn design Coleman 100qt mash cooler. Now I can do big beers!
Now that I was making big gravity beers, a stir plate for making starters was a must.
Recipe design software. I discovered ProMash (still supported at the time) and now designing my own recipes was a breeze.
Pumps!. No more moving hot liquid by hand.
Kegging! No more taking over the kitchen to package my beer.
Temperature control and yeast health. Again, my beer improved by leaps and bounds.
Electric brewing. Another leaps and bounds improvement.
Then there are the accumulated items that are easy to over look... a good hydrometer, keeping a brew journal, cleaning tools, a trusted local homebrew supply store, a club or brewing friends to bounce ideas off of and learn from. But the biggest must have is that spark of desire to make beer. The thing that drew so many people to Charlie Papazian's kitchen for his casual learning sessions back in 1978... the thing that still drives us all today.

 

[HiImBrian]

Lots of great things already said, so I'll add Brewing Software.

I've used Beersmith for a few years and I love the ability to save past recipes as well as the brew day timers etc.
I'd also second:
- Good thermometer
- Temp controlled fermentation
- Pumps
- Site glasses
- Refractometer

 

[kh54s10]

Fermentation temperature control is my #1

There are tons of other items that you have to have.
And many more that make things easier. Those will vary from person to person.

To me thermometer, scale, hydrometer and some others fall into the category of essentials. You should have them regardless....

 

[seatazzz]

Forgive the hijack and my ignorance, but can you explain how that works? Are you using boil off rate to calculate time?

Yep. When I got it installed I loaded it with 7 gallons of water, got it to a boil, and timed it. Came up with an average of 40 minutes/gallon at a hard boil. Did one brew with it so far, and came out almost dead on 5.5 gallons in the fermenter as I intended.

 

[kh54s10]

Yep. When I got it installed I loaded it with 7 gallons of water, got it to a boil, and timed it. Came up with an average of 40 minutes/gallon at a hard boil. Did one brew with it so far, and came out almost dead on 5.5 gallons in the fermenter as I intended.

It would seem to me that if your boil off rate was right for the timing, it would be easier to use a timer for the addition of hops than to guess at the timing based on the level of the wort in a sight glass. Beersmith has a timer that beeps when it is time to add something. No hovering over a sight glass looking to guess if it is at the right level for an addition. But, as always - it is whatever works...

 

[CascadesBrewer]

One small thing that helped me was 1) over a few brew sessions I made a list of all the things that I needed to get from the kitchen (I brew on my back patio) 2) I purchased those items to keep in a bin with my brew supplies. This was mostly cheap stuff like scissors, spoons, timer, measuring cups, etc. Now, the only thing that I share between brewing and my kitchen are my digital scale (purchased for brewing but use it for espresso) and a few small glass measuring cups (I should probably pick some up for brewing...only needed them since I started taking pH readings).

Also, advice that I have for any new brewer...for any item you use post-boil, only use an item that is dedicated to your brewing. Make those items stainless or glass where possible. Never let something like an old plastic spoon or a baster used for a Turkey touch your wort/beer.

 

[betarhoalphadelta]

I've found that grain and hops are pretty much must haves... I mean maybe not hops, if you're into gruit... But I like the hops.

Yeast helps, too.

Oh, and water. Gotta have water. Can't really brew beer without it.

 

[balrog]

A long-suffering and understanding significant other

 

[beernutz]

Starsan

 

[Blazinlow86]

Starsan

And here comes Jonny....... Lol

 

[CascadesBrewer]

I've found that grain and hops are pretty much must haves... I mean maybe not hops, if you're into gruit... But I like the hops.

I have mostly just been open fermenting tap water these days. My NEIPA loving buddies say my beers are not hoppy enough and lack mouthfeel, but what do they know?

 

[Pkrd]

Thirsty friends.

 

[OnePlate]

A long-suffering and understanding significant other

Or a significant other that gets excited by what you're currently brewing for her.

 

[OnePlate]

Oh, thought of another MUST have - flexibility with your brewing schedule! Be willing to let your mash go long or put off starting your boil if you have small kids who refuse to take their naps on time.

 

[Spikybits]

A helping hand. Sometimes I feel like mutating a 3rd arm would be a godsend.