What piece of equipment has become invaluable that you wouldn’t expect?

[HarryFlatters]

Echoing others, my auto siphon and my bottling wand are great, wouldn't be without them.

 

[BrewCurious]

Headtorch. Rechargable. Running camping first call,
but also used when bottling/syphoning. so much easier than balancing a torch . seems to follow your eyes

 

[foxy]

My kettle filter.

 

[gar]

I put some casters on a tall wooden stool. FV on top, fill with wort then wheel it into the pantry. 2 or 3 weeks later, wheel it to the kitchen table and bottle.

 

[obscure]

Some one else has already mentioned this but a decent torch great for checking inside,bottles,and mini kegs.

Also the tap on my new stainless steel fermentor, makes transferring to kegs easy but more importantly is easily removable and can go through the dishwasher to clean (and then be sanitised before brewing).

Finally not really equipment per say but no rinse sanitiser.

 

[LeeH]

Blichmann carbonation system. FV to fully carbed in 15 mins.

 

[Loonytoone]

Mobile brewing trolley

 

[Loonytoone]

Made from old left over kitchen cabinets and four castors.

 

[user 18729]

Blichmann carbonation system. FV to fully carbed in 15 mins.

Now that’s a very sexual piece of equipment

 

[Keruso]

A cheap 30cm hop spider to put the siphon in when transfering from FV to bottling bucket. It stops all the hop matter and yeast from transferring.

 

[Drunkula]

This stainless frying pan lid is the perfect size for a fermenter and is now the heater for my mash and boil using the induction hob.

I'm guessing that's allowed.

 

[HarryFlatters]

Made from old left over kitchen cabinets and four castors.

That's brilliant.

 

[Brew_DD2]

This stainless frying pan lid is the perfect size for a fermenter and is now the heater for my mash and boil using the induction hob.View attachment 22894
I'm guessing that's allowed.

Tell me more.

 

[Drunkula]

Tell me more.

You put it in a fermenter, you put it on an induction hob - boom, instant HLT / Boiler whatever.

On a 3k hob I get 2.9k of coupling with the flat bottomed fermenter, about 2.65k with one that has a slightly raised bottom.

Now for the crybabies : Can it burn the plastic? Nope, not unless it boiled dry. Is it easy to clean, yep. Is the fermenter foodsafe? Yes, it's polypropylene, the same as people put kettle elements in.

 

[Brew_DD2]

You put it in a fermenter, you put it on an induction hob - boom, instant HLT / Boiler whatever.

On a 3k hob I get 2.9k of coupling with the flat bottomed fermenter, about 2.65k with one that has a slightly raised bottom.

Now for the crybabies : Can it burn the plastic? Nope, not unless it boiled dry. Is it easy to clean, yep. Is the fermenter foodsafe? Yes, it's polypropylene, the same as people put kettle elements in.

That is awesome. Definite food for thought for my next kettle. Any chance of wort scorching?

 

[Drunkula]

Any chance of wort scorching?

Zero sign of it so far. I'm getting a very slight mineral build up that I just rub off with a scrubby pad. And I've been heating the mash, too, where the sugar density would be of course much higher. I think the surface area of the lid is far, far more than a low density heating element.

Before using that lid I was using a stainless dish from the pound shop, a real super flimsy one and I had to weigh it down a bit because it would move about. I wondered if I could improve the coupling using two lids together but the coupling went down, not up. And I used a steamer - the kind that stack and are part of a saucepan set- that worked really well, too, but of course you've basically got a saucepan in there at that point and I didn't want the handles to rub the sides of the fermenter, that's why I settled on that lid. It's absolutely pefect.

Basically you can turn any fermenter into a big old boil kettle for a quid and you don't have to go cutting no holes for elements and eletromecuting yourself AND I can completely cover the fermenter in insulation with bungee cords and it won't catch fire... like maybe it did when I used to do my 'bain marie' thing on the gas cooker.

 

[Mavroz]

I would miss my range cooker now, especially the ring for the wok burner.... Invaluable for the boil!
Never thought I would say I would ever miss the cooker.

 

[Clint]

Agree...range cooker. Also dish washer....great on bottling day...sit bottling bucket over it,open door and crack on...no need to worry about any drips.

 

[Brewnaldo]

Agree...range cooker. Also dish washer....great on bottling day...sit bottling bucket over it,open door and crack on...no need to worry about any drips.

Genius!

 

[user 18729]

Zero sign of it so far. I'm getting a very slight mineral build up that I just rub off with a scrubby pad. And I've been heating the mash, too, where the sugar density would be of course much higher. I think the surface area of the lid is far, far more than a low density heating element.

Before using that lid I was using a stainless dish from the pound shop, a real super flimsy one and I had to weigh it down a bit because it would move about. I wondered if I could improve the coupling using two lids together but the coupling went down, not up. And I used a steamer - the kind that stack and are part of a saucepan set- that worked really well, too, but of course you've basically got a saucepan in there at that point and I didn't want the handles to rub the sides of the fermenter, that's why I settled on that lid. It's absolutely pefect.

Basically you can turn any fermenter into a big old boil kettle for a quid and you don't have to go cutting no holes for elements and eletromecuting yourself AND I can completely cover the fermenter in insulation with bungee cords and it won't catch fire... like maybe it did when I used to do my 'bain marie' thing on the gas cooker.

Give this man a beer. What a cracking idea!