What unorthodox item have you repurposed for brewing?

[duckredbeard]

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.

 

[TopherM]

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!

 

[Homercidal]

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.

 

[Revvy]

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.

 

[thepartsmancometh]

Nothing out of the ordinary. Least beer related piece of equip is the submersible fountain pump

 

[tom_gamer]

I use a Tamale steamer pot I bought for $20. It's a 8 gallon aluminium pot. I added weldless ball valve.

 

[bob1852]

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.

 

[Revvy]

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.

Dude, it really WORKS!!!! I bought some the other day!:rockin:

 

[DaleP]

We took old and obsolete liquid oxygen containers and transformed them into fermenters and kettles!

 

[duckredbeard]

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?

 

[AnOldUR]

Truth is, I don't think anything I use to make beer was made for that purpose. :cross:

 

[tom_gamer]

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.

 

[iijakii]

Main thing I guess is using panty-hose as dry-hop bags.

 

[gingerdawg]

6" chunks of chainlink fence post as rollers in my homemade grainmill?

 

[tom_gamer]

6" chunks of chainlink fence post as rollers in my homemade grainmill?

That is cool

 

[tre9er]

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.

 

[tre9er]

6" chunks of chainlink fence post as rollers in my homemade grainmill?

Pics or it didn't happen

 

[GotPushrods]

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!

 

[AnOldUR]

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.

 

[TyTanium]

Small (6oz) mason jars for quickly chilling brew-day hydrometer samples.

Drop in ice bath and they're down to temp in no time. Much faster & easier than trying to chill the hydrometer tube.

 

[edmanster]

does stainless steel dish scrubbies as my mash tun filter work, or is that old news now?

 

[barrooze]

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.

 

[Stauffbier]

I took the outer, clear tube of a ballpoint pen and bent it by heating it with a torch to make a diptube for my bottle bucket.

 

[Wynne-R]

French Press for hop extraction.

You know, except for the range, oven, bathtub and dishwasher.

 

[brewnz]

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...

 

[gingerdawg]

Pics or it didn't happen

OK, here

 

[Stauffbier]

OK, here

Nice build! Do you have access to a machine shop? How did you knurl the pipe?

 

[GoodDogShelby]

Main thing I guess is using panty-hose as dry-hop bags.

New & clean or..... never mind.

 

[CastleHollow]

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.

 

[iijakii]

New & clean or..... never mind.

Little leg hair has never hurt a beer