Shelf spare brewing equipment

[porcupine73]

Shelf spares are commonly used in industry for equipment and replacement parts deemed critical enough to operation that an extra is kept at the plant 'on the shelf' as a shelf spare.

What kinds of brewing equipment/supplies if any do you keep as shelf spares?

 

[lumpher]

grain

 

[porcupine73]

Haha yes, consumables absolutely! I like to keep plenty of sugars on hand. My first shelf spare is going to be temperature controllers and heating elements. I tend to use seedling heat mats as heating elements for various brewing purposes, but they do burn out over time I have found, so having at least one spare is important. Temperature controllers I want to have at least one shelf spare. A big concern for me would be a power outage of >24 hrs where I can't get home in that amount of time, such as a bad winter storm. Standby generator with auto transfer switch would be great but those are $$$. Long term goal is to have some of the amazon 'wireless home' tools so I can get alerted on my phone to temperatures etc that are out of range.

 

[evandena]

Whenever I buy parts I usually order one or two extra. For example, quick disconnects, stainless nipples and couplers, cam locks, ball valves, etc.
I always have extra kegging supplies on hand too.
Plus, with the ridiculous prices that used/new gear fetches in the classified section, I can always sell my extra gear for little or no loss.

 

[wSelwyn]

Bottling wands, dry yeast packets (2 sachets), bulk Light DME (for bottling, starters, and adjusting OG when necessary), thermometers, vinyl tubing (bought in bulk, 50'), air locks, hand capper, copper tubing (10'), and some misc. fittings. These are more of an "oh crap, I don't want to run to the store" or "the store is closed". So far, it's been handy.

 

[wilserbrewer]

Thermometer, always have at least one spare. Can't brew AG without one, and it is always nice to have a second opinion if there are any doubts on temperature. Just about any other piece of equipment would not cancel a brew session, but no thermometer, NO brewing.

 

[TyTanium]

I have none. I'm a rebel like that (i.e., cheap).

This is a good idea.

 

[cricky101]

• Keg O-rings and a few universal poppets.
• When I used to bottle all of my batches I always had an extra bottling wand on hand. That breaking, with a bottling bucket full of precious beer, would be a pain.
• A pack or two of US-05 yeast in the refrigerator.
• Not always on the shelf, but I usually make sure to buy more Oxyclean when I get down to half a pail or so. It lasts quite a while so I haven't come close to running out yet.

 

[gingerdawg]

Propane!

 

[Ryush806]

Propane!

Definitely. On my last brew day I started to run out in the last 20 minutes of my boil. I had to jump in my truck and race to by another tank. Got back just as the flame kicked out on my burner!

 

[zman]

I have extra tap faucets, kegs(and Keg parts), tubing, regulators, CO2 distributors,Grain, Hops,Starsan, PBW, DME, Yeast, CO2 tanks, disconnects, Propane Tank. I have a 4 tap jockey box that I can borrow from in a pinch if need be.