I wish I had never bought...

[cyclonebeer]

Fess up. Fill in the blank.

I wish I had never bought the 13.5 gal plastic conical. Never use it anymore. It just takes up space.

 

[Cyclman]

A house with only a two car garage, so I have to lug all my equipment from the basement every brew day.

 

[TX_Brewing]

Swmbo?

 

[Murphys_Law]

My 15 gallon bayou kettle. Never use it (replaced with 10 gallon Spike).

 

[kh54s10]

Nothing so far. Everything that I have gets used occasionally. My 5 gallon Better Bottle that I got with my original kit for secondary is my least used item, but I still use it once in a while.

 

[Gish]

My Beer Gun. I keg everything and then I am to lazy to bottle anything!
It dose work very well, but its like the treadmill in the basement its only good if you us it!

 

[phillip_h]

I wish that I had bought a smaller brew kettle. I bought a 15 gallon kettle, intending to move to 10 gallon batch sizes. 3 years later, I have never done a single 10 gallon batch.

 

[JDXX1971]

I wish that I had bought a smaller brew kettle. I bought a 15 gallon kettle, intending to move to 10 gallon batch sizes. 3 years later, I have never done a single 10 gallon batch.

Whoa, I dont know about that. I have a 15 gallon kettle and while I have only made three 6 gal batches in it some of the 5/6 gal recipes I have looked at will nearly fill it.

Oh and I regret nothing, yet.

 

[phillip_h]

Whoa, I dont know about that. I have a 15 gallon kettle and while I have only made three 6 gal batches in it some of the 5/6 gal recipes I have looked at will nearly fill it.

Oh and I regret nothing, yet.

My biggest pre-boil volume has been something like 8 gallons. I use fermcap, so I'm not all that worried about boilovers. The 15 gallon kettle is just so big, and it's a PITA to move around and clean.

 

[JDXX1971]

My biggest pre-boil volume has been something like 8 gallons. I use fermcap, so I'm not all that worried about boilovers. The 15 gallon kettle is just so big, and it's a PITA to move around and clean.

Yeah that sucker is kinda big, I am thinking about a 20 gal too (for those 10 gallon batches I probably wont do either). I like big beers so I knew from the start I would want extra room for them.

 

[FatDragon]

My wine fridge ferm chamber and the bigger fridge I bought to be a ferm chamber+freezer until I learned that it ran on a single compressor so it's either-or...

A cheap chest freezer would give me more fermentation space, wider temperature options for fermentation, lagering, and cold crashing, and more apartment space for less money.

The cheap immersion chiller's up there too; a longer and/or wider-gauge chiller would be far more effective, but I can't bring myself to replace a functional piece of equipment. Ditto on the aquarium pump I bought for ice-water recirculation with the chiller - should've gotten something at least twice the size.

 

[DasBierBaron]

I have a really nice 15 gallon kettle with a triclad bottom. It's beautiful but it's really damn heavy. I think a cheap kettle would have worked just as well, been a lot lighter, and saved me some money.

Stainless dry hoppers. They work great for their intended purpose, but I don't dry hop in the keg anymore. It's a lot easier to just dump the hops in primary.

5.1 cubic feet chest freezer. It seemed like a good idea at the time. Why would I want more than 2 kegs? Should have gone bigger.

 

[JohnSand]

A bunch of tap handles when I only need four. The others are in a drawer.

 

[k1ngl1ves]

Plate chiller.



I use either an IC or a CFC now. Sometimes both when I'm in a hurry.

 

[Braufessor]

Bought a couple "v-vessel" plastic conical type fermenters..... total crap..... and expensive. Super happy with SS Brewbuckets I bought since them.

 

[beernutz]

Counter pressure bottle filler. I bought it over a decade ago and have used it less than five times.

 

[Vandulus]

Bought a couple "v-vessel" plastic conical type fermenters..... total crap..... and expensive. Super happy with SS Brewbuckets I bought since them.

I bought a FastFement thinking that would be a huge improvement over the glass carboy I had been using. Used it for three batches and discovered it leaked like hell even after multiple reapplications of Teflon tape. I also hated the mess it made when I would unscrew the collection bulb to dump or use the bottling system. I sold it off for about 60% of what I paid and bought my first SS Brew Bucket and have never looked back.

 

[fatherdan]

stainless steel dryhoppers for keg, used once....there goes 100$

oxygen contraption 2.0.... used twice.

analog Johnson temp control.....still in box, ended up building 2 of the inkbirds.



all for sale

 

[Alain2]

FastFerment. Big piece of caca. cleaning the whole thing and sealing the treads is a nightmare...

 

[arcorey]

Barb fittings for anything I've owned. Should have gone with cams to start. I've changed connectors way too many times.
pH strips.
My home made immersion chiller.
My ex-wife who kept me from brewing for 20 years and being happy.

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

A brew magic. BIAB holds more interest to me than the three vessel system.

 

[raysmithtx]

glass carboys. switched to Speidels and am much happier and safer.

plate chiller. Too damn hard to clean. Now have a Jaded immersion chiller and it works great.

5 more kegs than I can use. I read you can't have too many kegs. Yes you can.

 

[Braufessor]

I bought a FastFement thinking that would be a huge improvement over the glass carboy I had been using. Used it for three batches and discovered it leaked like hell even after multiple reapplications of Teflon tape. I also hated the mess it made when I would unscrew the collection bulb to dump or use the bottling system. I sold it off for about 60% of what I paid and bought my first SS Brew Bucket and have never looked back.

Yep - pretty much describes my experience with the V-Vessel fermenters which were essentially the same thing. I gave mine away for free with a warning.

 

[schatzke]

Rotating sparge arm. My 1st 2 AG batches I fly sparged then tried batch sparging...and haven't felt the need to waste time fly sparging since.

 

[LarMoeCur]

Wow, I'm the exact opposite of most of you.

I bought 20 gallon kettles to do 10 gallon batches. Now, I wish I had bought 30 gallon kettles to do 20 gallon batches.

I've been kegging everything for years. I really miss the grab and go convenience of bottles. I hate taking growlers to events. I'd rather just grab a some bottles out of the fridge and go.

If anyone want's to part with their beer gun let me know.

 

[Homercidal]

Used inline filtration system. That thing leaked air when I tried it and got plugged up pretty easy. I tossed it.

I've since learned ways to improve clarity without a filter.

 

[Weezy]

Tons of little things! Thankfully nothing more than $30. Recently bought a 20 quart triclad bottom assuming it would be induction ready... It wasn't. But I was able to take it back thankfully (glad I didn't just drill a whole for a valve before I tried it!!!)

 

[augiedoggy]

A house with only a two car garage, so I have to lug all my equipment from the basement every brew day.

Sounds like the perfect reason To go with an electric brewery in the basement to me... I brew in a spare bedroom.. no basement and garage is full of other toys/tools.

For me I'd have to say the "V Vessel" fast fermenter I bought... Used it once and it just sucks compared to my stainless conicals. The yeast sticks to the sidewalls, it's a pain to clean and there's no easy way to make a temp control system for it.

 

[trav77]

Plate chiller for sure. Just went back to immersion shortly after and now CFC.

Also maybe my BG14 burner. When I rebuilt my stands a while back I just put BG12's on them because they were cheaper (esp. w shipping). They seem to do just as well.

My beer gun would have made the list last year but I added some threaded ball lock connections and a tee with a valve and flare fitting coming off my CO2. Now it's a lot easier to toss the beer gun on and fill a growler. Still, if buying again I'd just look at other simpler DIY options to fill from the tap.

 

[Special Hops]

CFC - I was gravity draining through it and it's too slow. Plus there is no way to tell if it is really cleaned and sanitized on the inside. Went back to a larger immersion chiller and it works faster.

 

[pricelessbrewing]

Vinyl tubing.
Autosiphons (I think I'm on #4 now) Sure wish that pro brewer siphon would launch....
Wrong sized barbs, fittings, etc.
Low cost low quality heat sticks from amazon. They both melted after 2-5 uses.

 

[hinkensj]

Most everything I buy initially. I try to cut costs by buying a less expensive version only to replace it with what I should have bought the first time!

 

[LarMoeCur]

Most everything I buy initially. I try to cut costs by buying a less expensive version only to replace it with what I should have bought the first time!

The old buy once cry once! I hate wasting money on crap that doesn't work!

 

[corkybstewart]

A filtration system
A yeast culturing setup(free actually, but it's a waste of space)
So many glass carboys

 

[jmark]

A SS Brewtech conical... far easier to overbuild starters (and get low trub and no dry hob detritus) than harvest yeast and the PRV on this brand is truly awful if you want to do pressurized transfers - blows far too easily. So the two advantages I initially saw completely negated. Sold it recently and replaced it with SSB brewbuckets... two batches in and so far love these things... racking clean beer using gravity doesn't take much longer than the problematic transfers I had from the conical. They also take up much less space and now instead of a big old standup freezer, I have a work table with a couple of fermenter fridges below it giving me so much more room in my brewery.

 

[brewstergalVT]

Bottle tree. Even long ago when I bottled everything I barely used it. Luckily found someone who loves the thing!

Grain that comes in a paper sack, Briess specifically. I bought a sack of Briess and though I closed it the grain got soggy. Never had this problem with other grain that comes in plastic sacks. Never again. Doing plenty of experiments: toasting grain, smoking grain but that's getting old. I'm too cheap to throw it into the compost.

 

[Kharnynb]

I haven't had enough money since i started brewing(blame buying a "new" old house and car) to have bought anything i didn't "need".

I regret buying a house with 1980's electrical system added to a 1950's electrical system.....

 

[alexnova]

Party Pig. I should've just jumped from 1L bottles straight to kegs.

 

[augiedoggy]

Yep - pretty much describes my experience with the V-Vessel fermenters which were essentially the same thing. I gave mine away for free with a warning.

same here with the v vessel... used it once. for someone who doesnt know what they are missing I guess its nice compared to a bucket.

 

[augiedoggy]

Wow, I'm the exact opposite of most of you.

I bought 20 gallon kettles to do 10 gallon batches. Now, I wish I had bought 30 gallon kettles to do 20 gallon batches.

I've been kegging everything for years. I really miss the grab and go convenience of bottles. I hate taking growlers to events. I'd rather just grab a some bottles out of the fridge and go.

If anyone want's to part with their beer gun let me know.

The beer guns are only $40 now you know... same exact one blichmann sells.
I rarely use mine but I dont regret the purchase. keep saying im going to bottle six packs as Christmas gifts but it never seems to happen. which leads me to the purchase of blank white cardboard six pack carriers and 5 wooden crates of flip top bottles I thought were a great deal on craigslist but just seem to take up space in the brewery.