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

[JohnnyO]

Being a noob who will be venturing into his first AG and outdoor brewday in about 11 days, I'll have to say that the biggest help has been my barstool. Perfect height to monitor and stir my wort. Until I started using this, I would stand throughout brewday and destroy my ankles.

Yay barstool. Oh, and my full pint glass too.

 

[Sigafoos]

ProMash does this automatically too. Maybe most brewing applications do too, you can enter your OG and FG in either SG or Brix, it compensates for alcohol.

That's the reason my script is so fugly looking: I was going to make a suite of calculators but realized there are a bunch of sites that already do it. Of course, BeerAlchemy (my Mac program) doesn't quite match up with my calculations, so I just say 'a few points here or there doesn't really matter.' I guess if you demand precision, chill to exactly 60* and take a hydro reading

Oh, and my answer would also be my refractometer: no chilling needed, no need to compensate for temperature, no need for a big sample, etc.

 

[homebrewer_99]

My brain...

 

[Natron008]

lots of plastic tubing

 

[mattmcl]

A torch lighter and welding gloves. Before the torch lighter, I lost all the hair on one arm lighting the upside-down missile that poses as my propane burner. And oven mitts just don't cut it. I can pick up anything used in the brewing process and know it won't burn through welding gloves.

 

[wildwest450]

BeerSmith.

 

[dontman]

I would say my kegging setup. I really hate bottling.

I would agree here, except that I don't hate bottling. I just really love having beer on tap in the house.

Plus it is not really a single piece of equipment but if it weren't for AG brewing I really think I would have lost interest in this hobby by now. There are just so many fine craft beers available these days as opposed to when I started brewing back in the late '80's.

 

[KayaBrew]

Wort chiller. Hands down.

 

[DrinksWellWithOthers]

March pump.. no more lifting for my bad back. The plate chiller is nice too, only takes 10-15 min to bring 6 gallons of boiling wort to low 60s and I whirlpool at the same time. But because of those two I had to get a 3 dollar hop sock so my hops don't clog them. It's worked out pretty well so far. Eventually I'll get around to making a filter for the dip tube on my kettle.

 

[redawg77]

the 'next thing I am going to buy' is probably the most significant addition for me. Right now, that next thing is AG equipment

But seriously, homebrewing has to be the ultimate hobby. There is always a way to improve your process through acquisition of new toys. That said, I am a relative noob, but it seems even the guys on here w/ 10+ years of homebrewing under their belts are constantly upgrading their setup as well.

I would say up to this point, the most significant thing I have done to improve my brewday is to add a simple immersion chiller. It is amazing to witness the piping hot H2O come out the terminal end of that thing, when it goes in at 70 degrees or so. I would have said kegging, but that doesn't necessarily affect the brewday. I don't mind bottling every now and then, but cleaning, sanitizing, filling and capping ~50 bottles isn't my idea of a good time.

 

[Duckfoot]

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....

 

[TwoHeadsBrewing]

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.

 

[SavageSteve]

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

 

[Reno_eNVy]

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

 

[SavageSteve]

Almost forgot... StarSan!

Yeah, it's not equipment, but boy has that saved me a ton of time and worry.

-Steve

 

[Catt22]

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.

 

[WorryWort]

My bottle opener.

 

[DrMaddVibe]

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.

 

[PseudoChef]

Spigots on my kettles. Refractometer is a close second.

 

[stevea1210]

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

 

[arturo7]

+1 on BeerSmith

 

[hbomb]

+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...

 

[amercuric]

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".

 

[Sigafoos]

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.

 

[TommyBoy]

I would say my kegging setup. I really hate bottling.

+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.

 

[BrewBeemer]

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?

 

[david_42]

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.

 

[jpc]

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.

 

[elkdog]

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.

 

[carnevoodoo]

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.