Best home brew related purchase you have made?

[Pedgey]

As the title suggests what is the best home brew related purchase you have made?

 

[TartanSpecial]

That's a nice open question. For me it has to be the SS Brewing technologies Chronicle 6 US Gal stainless steel conical fermenter I got for Xmas. A bit pricey but its a great bit of kit that is almost like a piece of industrial art sitting in the kitchen....though wife not quite so smitten by it.

 

[ManseMasher]

Now that Tartan, is brew porn!!

 

[TartanSpecial]

yup...I can sit there and look at it for hours ..(well minutes really). I made a mistake... its 7 US Gal, but that's to the brim so max batch size is effectively 6 US / 5 UK Gal.

 

[TartanSpecial]

Pedgey, at the other end of the scale two of my best purchases since returning to homebrew after a long break, were a bottling wand and starsan steriliser. Right...I'll shut up now...

 

[stevej]

Hmmmmm shiny hmmmm beer

 

[Spapro]

+1 for starsan, takes all the hastle out of sterilising stuff. Wouldn't be without it now.

 

[Slid]

2 for Starsan already, so I go for a 15L stock pot at £16 from Wilko. You can do a LOT of stuff with one of these, from pimping a kit to low volume AG and preparing fruit to add to a wine. One day I will have used this pot to its full potential :grin:

 

[reincarnationfish]

I'm super new to this but my favorite thing I've bought is a digital thermometer. But I guess I should put Star San on the shopping list straight away.

Slid... Just out of interest, did you get that stock pot from a store or from the net? I've seen large stock pots on Wilco's website but not found them in store.

 

[calluma11]

Spigot for converting an FV into a bottling bucket, worktop capper and bottle tree! (also, the no rinse. It's not starsan but still no rinse. I only use this for bottles)

 

[stesmi]

My £2 mash tun. Priceless

 

[Slid]

I'm super new to this but my favorite thing I've bought is a digital thermometer. But I guess I should put Star San on the shopping list straight away.

Slid... Just out of interest, did you get that stock pot from a store or from the net? I've seen large stock pots on Wilco's website but not found them in store.

I had to ask the man on the "returns and queries" desk to order it in for me. This was in the Manchester Arndale store, which I would guess is one of their "flagships". This is promoted in the sense that the full catalogue is available to flip through in hard copy form in store.

They also have an on-line ordering service and although I have never used it, I would expect that you can collect from the nearest store. :thumb:

 

[louis macneice]

One of my most surprisingly useful purchases has been an indelible marker pen for writing on crown caps; just a quick initial or two on a cap identifies what's inside and means I can use whatever caps are knocking about.

Cheers - Louis MacNeice

 

[Bounce]

Bottling tree, Star San, Vinator and Bench Capper. Boom! Job Done!

 

[GHW]

Just my first starter set up for getting me into this ludicrously addictive hobby. Other than that, bottling wand. Makes the actual bottling bit of bottling day a joy.

 

[DoctorMick]

Pedgey, at the other end of the scale two of my best purchases since returning to homebrew after a long break, were a bottling wand and starsan steriliser. Right...I'll shut up now...

They're my two top buys too. I'm hoping the grainfather overtakes them tho.

 

[Fil]

the single biggest impact on the beer quality was the addition of a brewfridge..

other star buys are:

Starsan makes sanitation much less hassle

kegs make pouring a grand pint a joy

a 50p turkey baster is a great sample sucker

an arduino for a diy brewery controller/puter has eaten the most midnight oil..

the books yeast, hops, and now malt have been a good read..

oh dear ive thrown a lot of cash at brewtoys ....gulp..

 

[reincarnationfish]

This is slightly off topic, but I've set up a spreadsheet to help control my spending (and when I say control, I mean prevent).

Basically, I log everything I spend on both equipment and ingredients. Then I divide that by the number of bottles drunk. Because I'm a noob still I've only drunk 14 bottles and my average cost per bottle is an eye watering £7.77.

I should reach £2.00 a bottle by bottle 45 though. And £1.50 at bottle 70, in the unlikely event I don't spend any more money in that time.

Then when I get past these milestones, it will calculate the maximum I can spend on new gear without pushing the total price back over that point.

I guess the final step is to estimate when I'll be able to afford that Grainfather without going over £1.50 a bottle. Haven't got round to that yet but it looks like it will be 2019, unless I up my level of alcoholism significantly.

 

[dablyth]

My first ever homebrew kit, I got a full coopers DIY beer with everything in it needed to brew beer for £17.50 plus I got 9 beer and cider syrup tins for £2.50 each , think I paid about £40 for the lot that should have been over £180 I think, 4 weeks ago as the Tesco store we went to was closing down ... My lucky day

 

[Cwrw666]

I've just made the switch from cans to BIAB - so I have to say all the grain and hops I bought. If I'd realised how much fun it was (and way cheaper too) I'd have made the switch a long time ago.
Trouble is now all I want to do is brew beer all the time...:lol: