What is your most useless piece of brewing equipment?

[EarlTheSqrl]

My beer gun bottle filler. It was $80, and I usually just jam a wand or hose up a picnic tap for getting beer out of a keg. It takes about 20 minutes to assemble the beer gun and it's harder to sanitize. Plus, I bottle maybe two beers a year.

You can't just rig up an aquarium pump and run BLC followed up with Star San to and clamping the trigger open to sanitize it?

 

[Onkel_Udo]

Large funnel with screen...someone gave it to me and I never thought of way I would use it.

 

[MaxStout]

Large funnel with screen...someone gave it to me and I never thought of way I would use it.

I have one of those. The little screen thingy is worthless, it quickly clogs. I yanked out the screen and tossed it. Now I have a funnel that's useful.

 

[Brettomomyces]

This is a hard question...I feel like a lot of things that people have listed here as useless are simply tools in hands of owners who don't need them, which doesn't necessarily make them useless.

I pretty much hate my wing capper though, and only use it for entering comps

 

[OneManBrewery]

Tap A Draft system from MoreBeer, bought it before my kegging system. Now it just collects dust.

 

[SailorTodd]

Reading other people's posts, I feel like a statistical anomaly that I've been brewing for 7 years and still on my 1st hydrometer.

I had my first for five years. Shortly after I made a similar comment I broke it. Bought two more just in case one breaks. I was starting to think "why bother" similarly to some other posters, but had a couple of batches where one or more things was off and the hydrometer helped me figure out how off they were.

I am glad someone asked about the auto siphon. With my basic setup it is indispensable. Boil kettle doesn't have a valve, don't have a pump, and I don't purge my head space before transfer from fermenter to keg.

My most useless piece of brewing equipment is my 5 gallon glass carboy. My wife got it for me as a gift before I ever had a 6.5, not realizing that a 5 gallon batch needs head space (or a blow-off tube I guess), and so a 5 gallon carboy is impractical by itself. I have used it once as a secondary when I needed to free up another fermenter. Otherwise it sits collecting dust.

 

[Mirilis]

Tap A Draft system from MoreBeer, bought it before my kegging system. Now it just collects dust.

You can mail it to me

My worthless equipment piece was iodaphor... Star San is soooo much better

 

[argyle]

Refractometer. Guess when I bought it as a noobie, I was reading one too many of those threads that are all too common. You know the ones where some brewers will often extol the virtues of piece of equipment and let you know that without it, you cannot possibly brew beer that is suitable for human consumption.

Simply put. For me, a refractometer is useless. Don't buy one.

 

[govner1]

Ic

 

[Hello]

Auto Siphon

How so? I ise mine every time to transfer beer.

Useless for me? Long probe dial thermometer.

Ic

I'll take it.

 

[Natdavis777]

I bought an inline water filter that I was going to use to filter beer, then I discovered gelatin. Never have used the filter. I might use it as a Randall one of these days

 

[Onkel_Udo]

Tap A Draft system from MoreBeer, bought it before my kegging system. Now it just collects dust.

I will take that one off your hands...I use my for LeMons races. 3 nights of drinking with a 280 of your best friends means 3-beers on tap is actually kind of hard with cornies but poking holes in an old styro cooler lid...OK, you get the idea.

 

[Weezy]

I have a love/hate relationship with my glass carboys . They're great for secondary fermentation but auto siphons are garbage. Maybe I hate auto siphons, I guess?

 

[OneManBrewery]

You can mail it to me

My worthless equipment piece was iodaphor... Star San is soooo much better

It's not as great as it appears, wasn't too happy with it, plus you have to use special CO2 Cartridges. But if you're still interested, I'll see if I have all the pieces.

 

[singybrue]

Carboy brush. PBW does the job.

 

[Onkel_Udo]

plus you have to use special CO2 Cartridges.

Not really (conversion to paintball canister is easy) but this is not the issue for most. If you back fill from a cornie or naturally carbonate, draining a keg with those special cartridges is about $1.50 per. Works great if you plan to drain 3-6 in a weekend(ish).

 

[Hello]

I have spigots on my fermenters & bottling bucket. Only need the auto siphon if I use my BB secondary, which is almost never.

And that doesn't oxidize the beer when transferring?

 

[fergusmj]

My beer filter setup. I bought it and never have used it. My buddy has used it a few times though, so he likes it.

 

[GHBWNY]

Refractometer. Guess when I bought it as a noobie, I was reading one too many of those threads that are all too common. You know the ones where some brewers will often extol the virtues of piece of equipment and let you know that without it, you cannot possibly brew beer that is suitable for human consumption.

Simply put. For me, a refractometer is useless. Don't buy one.

Same.

 

[vincentAlpha]

I love my autosiphon, now that being said if I had a pump handy it may not see as much use but for now it has a firm place in my brewing cabinet. Most useless at the moment is my bench capper I suppose. Nothing wrong with it but I switched to kegs when I moved cause I had to get rid of 200+ bottles(moved across the country, they weren't making the trip ) so it collects dust more often then not. Though it sees a bit of use since I've yet to build up a good wine bottle collection so I bottle whatever doesn't fit in the wine bottles in whatever beer bottles I get my hands on these days. Thing is I don't do wine that often.

 

[user 163849]

And that doesn't oxidize the beer when transferring?

Not if you transfer like this. The hose is coiled in the bottom of the bottling bucket gently whirlpooling/mixing the priming sugar. I never even remove the fermenter lid before it is empty.

 

[msa8967]

Two things:

My floating thermometer to measure the temp of my mash is useless because it floats upside or face down most of the time.

Plastic lids that fit the large 8 gallon brewing buckets. These never seem very durable.

 

[Hello]

Not if you transfer like this. The hose is coiled in the bottom of the bottling bucket gently whirlpooling/mixing the priming sugar. I never even remove the fermenter lid before it is empty.

Oh man, that's cool.

 

[Hoppity]

Refractomter not valuable? Blasphemy I say! I wouldn't brew without one.

 

[MX1]

Not if you transfer like this. The hose is coiled in the bottom of the bottling bucket gently whirlpooling/mixing the priming sugar. I never even remove the fermenter lid before it is empty.

are there internal racking arms on those?

T

 

[forestGeek]

Hydrometer for sure. Pretty useless for 1 & 2 gallon batches.

 

[andrewmaixner]

Everyone listing their 5G carboy must not make ciders. I find mine to be pretty handy as cider fermentation doesn't make much (none with most yeasts) krausen, costs less than half what good beer does, and everyone non-brewer I share my beer with loves it.

 

[MX1]

Everyone listing their 5G carboy must not make ciders. I find mine to be pretty handy as cider fermentation doesn't make much (none with most yeasts) krausen, costs less than half what good beer does, and everyone non-brewer I share my beer with loves it.

This might be the only reason I wold ever own any sort of carboy, glass or other....

 

[Beerbeque]

My hydrometer is my least used piece of my original equipment. i've used it 5 or 6 times in 200+ batches. I instead use a refractometer for OG but I don't even care about FG.

 

[user 163849]

are there internal racking arms on those?

T

There are down turned elbows. The one in the fermenter is above the trub and was provided by the manufacturer while the one on the bottling bucket clears the bottom by about 1/16" and was supplied by me.