What is your favorite piece of equipement that makes brew day easier??

Williams 728
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For brewday = so far, my CFC w/ ice water recirc pump... Gravity drain, one pass to pitching temp... Waiting to get a pump for some recirculating mash w/ my E-HLT that is just waiting for me to drill one whole... Lazy brewer, I am....
 
The March Pump by FAR! Using a 3-tier was a no-go with the height of my garage ceiling, and I just didn't want hot water up that high :O. I also didn't like manually moving hundreds of pounds of hot liquid throughout the brew day. The pump makes things nice and easy, and is definitely worth the substantial cost. I was doubtful, but one look at Caspio's brew day with a pump sold me on the idea.
 
So many...

- Refractometer-- SG readings made simple, fast and easy.
- Kegging setup-- it's like filling just one big bottle.
- Ported Better Bottle with racking adapter-- no more siphoning!
- Freezer with temperature controller-- no more guessing at fermentation temperatures or other imprecise control methods.
- Oxygenation setup-- great O2 levels in minutes with no struggle.
- Erlenmeyer flask and magnetic stirrer-- I've typically avoided starters, but this setup is just brain-dead simple and no-fuss.

-Steve
 
My face nearly exploded when we finally put a simply ball-valve spigot on our cooler MLT instead of having a stupid length of silicon tubing with a clamp on it. When we finally did that, we noticed:
- A rather large increase in efficiency (between 5-10%)
- a nice slow drain that allowed us to vorlauf to crystal clear
- control of the drain speed so we could just kick back and enjoy a beer during a 30-45min lauter

The next life-changing step will likely be kegging.... I hope I hope I hope
 
1. Digital Thermocouple Thermometer
2. Pump
3. Stir Plate
4. Polarware Kettle w/FB
5. CFC
6. Multiple refrigerators and freezers
7. Refractometer
8. Star San
9. ProMash

These are not listed in any particular order and I'd be hard pressed to pick only one as a favorite.
 
My rubbermaid cart that I got for free out of a dumpster.

A little battle scarred but still very serviceable.

2 shelf 45" cart.

It holds my entire extract operation. On the top shelf I have my turkey fryer, lp tank and SS pot (funnel and screen inside) with the SS Spoon through the handels to keep the upside down lid in place. I also have another container that does double duty as my Oxy bath and Ice bath.

The 2nd tier I have broken into 2 rubbermaid containers.

1) holds the bottling side of the operation. Corks, caps, all corkers, and the bottle rinser.

2) holds a smaller container that has all my airlock parts, grommets, siphons, hoses, and C-Brite as well as my recipe book that contains my brewing logs.

I can roll the whole shebang out to my lanai in one fell swoop and be ready to go in less than 5 minutes.
rubbermaid_ts_4520-88GY.jpg
 
I can't list just one...
kegging
refractometer
60 qt brew kettle
and hopefully soon the CFC I just did a dry run on tonight :)
 
+2 on kegging set up and beersmith. I'm glad that I learned how to do those calculations by hand and I never want to do them again. I feel similarly about bottling...
 
The Palm Pre. It's going to make my brew days much less boring. It's got my email, instant messaging, internet radio, calculator and internet right there at my fingertips during those 5 - 15 minute wait times. Pic related.

I could even post on HBT right next to my brew kettle, take pics of the brew day, and upload them in almost real-time to HBT. All with this "phone".

palm-pre-ces-a1.jpg
 
I don't think my IC gets its due because I've almost never brewed without it. The ice bath on my extract kits did suck though.

Mmm, Better Bottles with a spigot. That would be so much easier (I'm sick of my autosiphon and the three-piece-tubing setup proposed here didn't work for me), but I can't really justify buying them when I have two buckets and three glass carboys because that's more than enough for how I brew. That money could go into equipment I don't already have, y'know? So I'll have to wait until I break one and go to the hospital.
 
Brewmasters Warehouse said:
I would say my kegging setup. I really hate bottling.
Click to expand...

+1

My brew partner is coming over to bottle his Apfelwein tonight. Last night I Kegged mine and it took about 1/2 hour which included cleaning and sanitizing the keg. Tonight it will probably take him (wait, I will most likely have to help by feeding bottles to him so "us") 1-2 hours. He will surely spill some on my chair, counter, and kitchen floor in the process.

Wait a sec...

I really like how on my new system I can take wort from boiling in the BK to 70-75 degrees in the fermenter completely sealed off from everything since I now have silicon hoses, a pump, CFC, and inline O2. It's the peace of mind of not having to really worry about sanitation that is most awesome. I do not miss the days of a spicot-less kettle on the stove with IC, then pouring it into an open bucket. To sum it all up, I like many pieces of equipment and now, don't want to single anything out.
 
While brewing 4 years ago with the wife and kids on their annual family cabin
weekend I had a brewing weekend all alone, well almost.
We have a swing open redwood neighbor fence and my new young
neighbor age 32 smelled my brewing and came over from her daily swim
but this time without her two piece suit of what little it was of a suit.
She pranced around for the complete brewing session and she is a 10++
on the scale, such a tease. I offered her a couple homebrews we had fun but
it was all straight as I have a great wife and family no hanky panky. Left brain fighting right brain on this one. The menory of this will never make any brewing day any better. Ooops wrong forum this isn't Penthouse?
 
The coiled hose connected to the deep sink. I have a dial-a-spray connected. It makes cleanup about 4x as fast. It can even blast grain and hops out of mesh bags.

It's long enough I can use it to hose down Bertha (my smoker), if she gets too hot.
 
My #1 is SWMBO. Seriously...

She takes hydrometer readings, calibrates for temperature, and calculates efficiency. She also helps pour in the grain at dough-in, and holds my hose when I siphon.
 
My propane burner- I can boil 7 gallons in half the time it took to boil 3 on the stove.

BeerSmith- brewing software takes a lot of unpleasant surprises out of play, and helps you calculate how to recover from dumb mistakes.
 
I'd say a pump. I appreciate it a lot now that I use it.

I was going to go with the B3 stand I have, but I still have pilot light issues, so the pump is my favorite part for now.
 
It's gotta be my temperature alert thermometer/timer...it lets me know when to stop drinking beer and get back to making beer. But seriously, star san would have to be my top pick, no rinsing really cuts back on time...and I am crazy for the foam. Oh wait, I should through in my HWMBO, he helps me to stay on track and anwers all of my questions without taking over...although he does have his ways of distracting me from my mission :D.
 
Other than my kegging setup (I HATE bottling) I would have to say a few beers really helps the brewing process!!!!
 
My HERMS rig. Perfect temperature control of my mash. Mashing out without infusions. The clarity of the wort after an hour of recirculating. It was totally worth the effort to put it together. That it converts to an ice water recirculation system with a pump for whirlpooling and added chilling through the heat exchanger makes it that much more useful.
 
I'd have to say the refractometer. Makes things so much easier to check the gravity on the fly without waining for several ounces or wort to cool.
 
I would have to say my HLT - when I started doing all grain I transferred all the sparge water with a pan :cross:
 
Fermcap has been the best addition to my brewery in a long time. I haven't had a hint of a boilover or blowoff (except for the RIS) since I started using it.

Second on the list is my Thermapen. It doubles use as my brewing thermometer and cooking thermometer. It keeps my mind at ease knowing my thermometer is accurate.
 
After reading all of these posts, I have to say... it is IMPOSSIBLE to pick one, or a few.

I recant what I posted earlier... everything in my garage is the most important tool.
 
I would have to add my immersion wort chiller to the list.. Before I got it, I used to have to fill a 50 gallon plastic drum with like 40 gallons of water and about 6 bags of ice and dunk my boil pot for like 45 minutes.. Now it's like ten minutes..... Huge time saver
 
Gotta be my brewtree. It's cut at least an hour and a half, if not two hours, off of my brew day.


Back to the OP- I know I'll pi$$ off all of the autosiphon owners, but I just don't get it. I have never, ever, had any trouble starting a siphon and can't fathom why someone would need to spend ten bucks on a machine that does it for them. I know it's only ten bucks, but seriously- do you really need it?
 
Paint strainer bags: I use a 5gal one to mash in, and some 1gal ones for hop bags in the boil.

You can go from extract to all grain with a $20 igloo cooler and a $2 paint strainer bag. No recirculation or vourlaufing or grain beds or stuck sparges or anything. 80+% efficiency every time.
 
Back to the OP- I know I'll pi$$ off all of the autosiphon owners, but I just don't get it. I have never, ever, had any trouble starting a siphon and can't fathom why someone would need to spend ten bucks on a machine that does it for them. I know it's only ten bucks, but seriously- do you really need it?
Click to expand...

Thats what I said too Bernie. I also didnt have much trouble starting a siphon (usually), but it was the plain fact that I didnt have to mess it with at all, ever again.. The siphon starter worked without any kind of hassle, no matter how brief.. Plus I find it very handy in my sanitizing bukcet as I can hook up my lines to the siphon starter in the bucket and pump santitizer into all the lines.. No more using a turkey baster to pump sanitizer into the lines.. It was very easily worth the $1o for me.. But as they say, different strokes for different folks.. Do I really need it? No.. .. But sometimes it's about convenience over need...
 
amercuric said:
The Palm Pre. It's going to make my brew days much less boring. It's got my email, instant messaging, internet radio, calculator and internet right there at my fingertips during those 5 - 15 minute wait times. Pic related.

I could even post on HBT right next to my brew kettle, take pics of the brew day, and upload them in almost real-time to HBT. All with this "phone".

palm-pre-ces-a1.jpg
Click to expand...



+1 except Iphone.
 

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