Your best "secret" techniques?

[alemonkey]

My secret technique:





























Don't pee in your wort.

 

[ScubaSteve]

Hell, they can just take a screw driver and undo the beer line and their off to the races. Not rocket science. I guess I would rather them take some beer and think they are being sly then have them try to be real sly and screw up my draft lines!

I guess the best/cheapest method is having an inline ball valve, and then putting a padlock on the sides of the kegerator that secures the lid. Probably cheaper than paying $30/ tap for one of those taplocks.

 

[BrewHerc]

For cheap burners, small brew kettles(like turkey fry pots), water coolers, etc... check with your local pawn shop. They are always negotiable with their price.

BrewHerc

 

[FxdGrMind]

just got my I.C. and then went to Lowe's and got a 6' hose attachment for a hose reel. Just the right length to get up to the deck and plug into the I.C.

I use a 1 1/2 gal plastic Juice pitcher for my no rinse sanitizer. Holds my racking cain and hose vertical with the ends underwater so that once I load it with sanitizer and pinch the tube it holds the fluid. So when I rack to Primary... I lift the cane to the kettle and then remove the tube releasing the pinch to start the flow until I see wort, repinch and then fill primary.
I find cleaning everything as I go with sanitizer from a beer bucket (old one with scratches) with sanitizer makes final clean up easier as everything isn't caked on.

All in all my first brew was 4.5 hrs from start to finnished clean up. Today was over an hour faster as I was doing a Heff and no grain to steep. But I think I can get it down to 4 hrs easy.

Cheers and happy brewing

 

[beerocd]

Most brewstores that deal with kegging sell a special padlock that goes on the tap - they're not cheap ($25.00 or more).

Maybe a lock on the refrigerator and an in-line ball valve between the keg and the tap??? Just a thought....


Hopsnort

How about quick disconnects on the line? Or you can keep the keg sitting on a postal scale and monitor the weight of it. You'd know when they took some, but it won't stop em. Or if you go with the cobra tap setup - you just take that connection with you when you're done drinking. :cross:

-OCD

 

[Dougan]

I used to get bottles by buying strange beers that weren't twist-off and hassling my friends, but now what I've been doing is going to bars and asking for them. I know a lot of places don't use returnable bottles, but our local brewery does and every bar has a couple cases lying around. If you go in when the bar owner/manager's around, they don't really have a reason to care if you take them as long as you pay them the bottle deposit. Not rocket science, but my "secret" is definitely to go to A) The same bar every time and B) The most attended bar. The reason for part A is because the first time, it seems like every bar has a really, really old and moldy case of beer waiting for you (which is still usable, but still sucks). Once you get that moldy guy out of the way, it's smooth sailing. The reason for B is that you can get more in one run. I pay the $1.20/24case deposit and get the bottles. I get a ton at a time... I just got six cases. If you end up having a surplus of bottles that way, you can just return them to the brewery for the same price!

 

[mattmcl]

I've got a tip to expand on the Craig's List post a few pages back. It's a great place to pick up all sorts of equipment.

So go to the Craig's List for your area and enter the search terms you want. When the results show up, bookmark that page. When you go back to it, it will always show most recent results and you don't have to comb through everything. For example:

classifieds - craigslist

This will always show me all the posts including beer and bottle in the listing in the Boulder area.

 

[KayaBrew]

I use a paint-stirring attachment for my cordless drill to aerate the wort. It's also real handy for stirring in DME without all the clumps.

 

[jds]

Racking cane fits perfectly in the mouth of a picnic tap.

This little secret can be used in a lot of ways, from the Biermincher Bottle Filler to using sections of racking cane as jumpers between picnic taps (which works GREAT for sanitizing tap lines while sanitizing kegs), to using a picnic tap, racking cane, and carboy cap to fill kegs from a carboy without having to start a siphon.