What unorthodox item have you repurposed for brewing?

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duckredbeard

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I've seen posts where people have used things like Futons for brew sculptures, forklift parts for chillers, etc. What item do you use for brewing that started off so far from brewing?

Me? I work in aviation, so I have a few aircraft parts in my brewing system.
 
I cover my brew stand with a grill cover. Does that count?? Oh, and my brew stand itself is a stainless steel commercial refridgerator cart I purchased for $25.00 without the actual refridgerator. The seller couldn't figure out why I was so excited. It was junk to him!

30368d1311439564-brew-bag-stand-07232011199.jpg
 
Few years back I got the inspiration to convert a Turkey Fryer into a Boil Kettle!

I was going to keep it a secret, but I guess I can let everyone in on it now.

Oh really? I'll trade you...Did you know that you can stick a toilet braid into a beverage cooler that you replaced the spigot with a ball valve from hardware store and mash grain with it?;)

Or use a red oxygen bottle from the hardware store or even an aquarium pump and a stone to aerate your wort with?

Or or or, buy a 30 dollar aquarium temp controller off of ebay and use it to control fermentation with? Like use it to run a chest freezer?

duckredbeard, pretty much everything we use that has advanced our hobby is re-purposed from something else....My latest thing is using airtool quick disconnects and hoses for the gas lines on my keezer. I can pull the bottle out, after disconnecting it from my secondary regulator and hook up an adapter I made out of another gas hookup and some other plumbing parts.
 
I use a Tamale steamer pot I bought for $20. It's a 8 gallon aluminium pot. I added weldless ball valve.
 
I once had the idea to convert the old pepsi kegs and use them for storing/serving homebrew. But I didn't think it'd work, so I never pursued it and sold all 1,000 I had for scrap. :D :drunk:
 
it is apparent that you guys missed the word "unorthodox" when you read the original post. I'm talking about the things that we use that are unusual, not the commonplace things like turkey fryers or soda kegs. What item did you discover could be used in your system that hasn't already become the standard piece of hardware?
 
I think the point they were trying to make that these items were at one point unorthodox but now are common. Think about the keggle thing. If tell someone outside the homebrew community that you use a keg to boil something, then they would look at you like you're crazy. If no one would have done it before.me I wouldn't have though of cutting I big hole into a keg.
 
I'm sure there are things that will be posted that live-up to what you were looking for, and I too am hoping to see some strange conversions, though most are probably already in the DIY forum.
 
I found a bunch of HDPE plastic 5-gallon gas cans at a surplus store. (Never used for gas of course). They were 2 bucks each, so I bought 10.

I store grain in them. Air tight, with a handle and easy pouring! :)
 
How about a water bottle as a randall type hop filter?

edit to say:
v1 used a plastic peanut butter jar, then I got fancy. :D
 
Small (6oz) mason jars for quickly chilling brew-day hydrometer samples.
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Drop in ice bath and they're down to temp in no time. Much faster & easier than trying to chill the hydrometer tube.
 
When I used to vorlauf, I think some of the returning wort would disturb the grain bed unless I was very careful when pouring it back into the mash. I remedied this by slicing notches into a Maxwell House coffee lid. Now I just float this lid on the mash and pour the returning vorlauf fluid onto it. :ban:

image-4170771195.jpg
 
French Press for hop extraction.

You know, except for the range, oven, bathtub and dishwasher.
 
2x Kettle elements from a standard water jug for the HLT, Pipe sock for a hop bag/sock, Decorative glass pebbles to weigh down said hop socks in the FV and probably others that I can't think of right now...:D
 
I hang on to a bunch of crap, just because I figure one day I'll be able to repurpose it for something brewing related: my wife's old makeup mirror (no replacement bulbs), a circular saw with a bent guide & housing, large HDPE protein containers (although I've converted a handful of those to 2 gal fermenters.) My workshop looks more like a consumer graveyard waiting to be zombified.
 
Nice build! Do you have access to a machine shop? How did you knurl the pipe?

I have a ghetto wood lathe converted with a tool holder. The knurls leave a little to be desired, and are a little fine. The larger diameter of the rollers helps the feed, but it takes quite a bit of power. I use a 1/2" drill.
 
When I used to vorlauf, I think some of the returning wort would disturb the grain bed unless I was very careful when pouring it back into the mash. I remedied this by slicing notches into a Maxwell House coffee lid. Now I just float this lid on the mash and pour the returning vorlauf fluid onto it. :ban:

I use aluminum pie tins
 
Bed frames as my brew stand.. but thats just angle iron.

nothing too interesting though!

maybe left over water jug for extra wort i had?
 
Hand held flour mixer or maybe it's just a mixer...you know, the thing you your Mom used to mix brownies and you licked the 2 metal stirrers clean...

I suspend one over the hot wort in the kettle with just one of the stirrers spinning at low speed to create a whirpool around the immersion chiller. It worked unbelievably well, saved me at least $200.00 (kettle valve + march pump) and gets my 5.5 gallon batches chilled super quick.

I've been meaning to post a picture of it, but it's so trashy I dare not.... yet.
 
I suspend one over the hot wort in the kettle with just one of the stirrers spinning at low speed to create a whirpool around the immersion chiller. It worked unbelievably well

What do you mean by "worked"? Do you not use it anymore? I think this sounds fantastic, and will definitely be trying this on my next brew!!! Thanks! :ban:

BTW, I think we'd all like to see a picture...
 
Now we are seeing some inspirational ingenuity. The mixer has got me thinking of a similar setup for a mash mixer. Wonder if it has enough torque.
 
Well, this isn't going to win the award for Most Unusual Awesomest Re-Purposing Ever, but I keep a selection of used plastic yogurt container lids around for measuring out hops and other additions before the boil.

And I don't have a pic, but I devised a system that automatically takes a gravity reading in the fermenter when one of my three cats steps onto the litter box. Okay, not really, but I was just feeling kind of inadequate about this lackluster post of mine. :hs:

HopAdditions_JanetsBrownAlw.jpg
 
When I used to vorlauf, I think some of the returning wort would disturb the grain bed unless I was very careful when pouring it back into the mash. I remedied this by slicing notches into a Maxwell House coffee lid. Now I just float this lid on the mash and pour the returning vorlauf fluid onto it. :ban:

I think I am going to try this out as well as wrap my ss hosebraid with volie cloth to cut down on the number of small grain pieces that make it through the filter.
 
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