Five Cheap ESSENTIALS For Homebrewers
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- Опубликовано: 12 июн 2024
- This episode is sponsored by Yakima Valley Hops who offer brewers of any scale the highest quality hops from the source. Check out their wide selection and place your order today at yakimavalleyhops.com!
Brewing can get expensive, particularly as one starts upgrading their equipment, but some of the most useful brewing related gear only costs a few bucks. In this video, we go over 5 cheap essentials we believe will help any homebrewer!
FEATURED PRODUCT LINKS
DYMO LabelManager 160 Portable Label Maker: amzn.to/3yV5KFA
Utillo White Acrylic Paint Markers: amzn.to/4eknx95
Jet Bottle & Carboy Washer: amzn.to/3XjqLni
Carbonation Cap - Ball Lock: amzn.to/4aUsd2M
½” Female Quick Disconnect: amzn.to/4c9DCgk
½” Male Garden Hose Quick Disconnect: amzn.to/4chdccj
½” Reinforced Vinyl Tubing (10 ft): amzn.to/3VCfIEE
HoneForest TDS Meter: amzn.to/45tMuen
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CONTACT: martin@brulosophy.com 
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Spray bottle with sanitizer in.
Sanitize anything really quickly with it.
Sanitizing the tap before taking a sample
Sanitizing my kegorator taps after having a few
Topping up my airlock when I had a violent fermentation that sputtered all my sanitizer everywhere.
Love the thing.
But a decent one for spraying chemicals in the garden not a 2 dollar one for spraying water on house plants
Aquarium air pump and a sanitary filter. I use it to dry lines and carboys. Dry lines stay clean and are easier to store.
Sadly, I couldn't find the bottle washer in South Africa... So I did the next best thing... I plumbed in a handheld stainless steel bidet sprayer into my brewery... without a doubt the cheapest part of my home brewery that gets used the most.
I use an aquarium pump w/ connects and a small bucket to circulate line cleaner through my taps. It's such and easy solution.
Quickie Tap, with a 20cm (8") matching tube. Great for taking samples off a pressure fermenter. Much easier to clean than a disconnect, tube and picnic tap.
Quick disconnects on everything! Cam locks or whatever. Put them on everything
A metal ruler with indicators marked at 1 litre intervals,, I can measure water level down from FULL mark in my boiler
For those that bottle their beer, a bottling wand makes the job so much easier!
Also a paint strainer bag for hops.
24" whisk.
Busts up clumps better than any mash paddle.
About five bucks at restaurant supply stores.
Another great video, Martin! I already use 4 of the 5, but lack the markers. Black Sharpie on white electrical tape does well, but I might have to try one of your acrylic markers! Here are my 2 adds: 1) Shipping tags with wire. On one of these you can write & date the contents of a keg, the progress of a fermentation, the dirty/sanitized status of an empty keg, ball valve, oxygenation wand, etc. Keep reusing a tag until it’s full or falls apart, then grab a new one from the stack. Mine are manilla, but I do wish I had plastic tags for better durability in my damp keezer. Add #2) Disposable shower caps. I keep my kegs in the garage (which I sometimes use as a wood shop), and one of these caps over the top of a freshly sanitized keg will keep off the dust. Dust is less of problem now that I have a dedicated brew gear cabinet, but that doesn’t qualify as cheap!
Not gadgets as such but a few little containers are essential for water salts and hop additions.
I use cleaned out 1Lt yogurt tubs to soak/sanitise components in.
@@zt7489 Yep, I definitely don't throw out yoghurt, icecream or butter containers as they are useful for a variety of things.
Thanks for the tips. I installed an outside water faucet on my utility sink so I can leave my bottle washer connected all the time. It is always ready for rinsing bottles, carboys and kegs,
Never thought about the marker pens, those are brilliant! Thanks Martin, keep the videos coming please!
Agreed. That was one of the best recommendations here.
After buying defective ph testing strips, I bought a cheap ph meter on Amazon for $12. I am sure that it isn't wildly accurate, but I can (and have) calibrate it and it is close enough. Just the other day my mash was 5.7 and I was able to easily see that and adjust it down to 5.3 which will likely result in a better beer.
Thanks Martin for all the tips. I am ordering the white paint pens right now, great to mark the in and out better on my kegs.
2 recent additions to my brew set up that I wish I got years ago:
The first is a pill cutter/crusher/storage thingo from the chemist (drug store for you Americans). So useful for cutting campden and whirflocc tablets in half since you only need half a tablet of each for a single batch. Then use the crusher part to crush the tablet before adding to the kettle. Campden tablets in particular are a pain to cut and crush and this thing makes it sooo much easier. Finally you’ve got a handy storage box for the other half so it’s all ready for the next batch. Only cost like Aus$5
The second addition is a cheap dishwasher sign from China that rotates and is supposed to be used to signal when the dishwasher is dirty or clean. Awesome to indicate which kegs are dirty, just clean, or both cleaned and sanitised.
When I clean my kegs, i put a clean trash bag over the top of it to "mark it clean" and to keep the posts and the lid away from dust. I use those trash bags whenever it comes handy for taking out used grains.
The carbonation cap use is genius. I hate sticking my finger in there
the carb cap is also a counter pressure filler, gas up a 2l PET bottle then attach it to your fermenter and you just crack the seal as needed
I just tried this a few days ago using a tee fitting with a spunding valve on the other port. Got very good control on the fill rate! I might have to get some of the Kegland PET bottles for longer term storage.
I’ve made similar cleaning devices as Martin with parts from BrewHardware. My favorite is a Type D Camlock paired with the Free Flowing Ball Lock post. I love Camlock disconnects so much that I switched all my garden hose fittings to them. Expensive, yes but I’ve eliminated much frustration from using garden hose threads.
I use the carbonation cap for adding finings. I fit a little tube to it, just long enough to reach the bottom of a small pet bottle at slightly higher pressure. Connect a short jumper hose and psshhht....done without opening anything.
How do you purge and the bottle before?
@BasementArthurSpooner well the tube goes down to the bottom, under the gelatine/water solution. So I connect it to the gas and unscrew the cap just enough to let the air and some co2 out at the top. Then tighten it up and pressurise to a couple psi higher than the fermenter/keg.
I love your videos! I just replaced my RO Filters. Here in Phoenix, the tap water is like criminally bad. My fancy Apera TDS meter was reading 1.34PPT (Trillion). Thats like pool water. My RO only gets it to around 60 PPM(Million). So the RO really is pulling like 99.9999%. Which is great but I am shocked you can get 100PPM from the tap.
My cheap essentials are a Digital Scale, Oxyclean, electric kettle, digital clock with air temp thermometer and quart size mason jars, all very cheap and essential for sure. Cheers!
Just got in two of those qd-soda bottle fittings from brewhardware and im actually pretty stoked i can use those for cleaning like you showed
I find the keg land dual ball lock caps more useful. I put one on a 1L plastic bottle of chem-san. You attach the CO2 in to the "in" and the beer line to the line you want to clean. Push the poppet on the other end, or use your technique. Then you have a line full of sanitizer. Simply swap the caps on the bottle and now CO2 will bubble through the sanitizer and blast the line clear.
You can also use chalk markers. Not as permanent but that's the point, it writes on just about everything but you can wash it off.
My tapwater was between 200 to 400 something when I used to check it. The Zero Water brand is really good at taking all the dissolves so it’s out. I bought a bathroom sink to outside hose converter for about $5. It’s the only way I can use my immersion chiller in my apartment. 😁🍻
A very solid list Martin. Like you I use my label maker but I like the acrylic pain pen idea and will order one soon. I have a bottle washer but never thought of using to wash bar glasses.
I also have a carbonation cap but I use it connect my blow off tube on my fermenter to a CO2 line turned down low to do closed transfers. Not all of my fermenters have built-in fittings for closed transfers so this lets me carry out oxygen free transfers on those older fermenters. Using it to clean out jumper tubes however was a lightbulb moment for me. That is brilliant and I will definitely be using this technique from now on.
I do not have a TDS monitor and I'm not sure I will get one. I use my well water for brewing and have it tested by Ward Labs occasionally. That report already tells me where my water issues are and I compensate with water salts. As you said, the TDS monitor will not give me specifics.
My variation of the bit of hose that you use is longer to reach farther out of the sink and has quick disconnects on both ends so I can put one end on my utility sink faucet and the other end to a garden hose spray nozzle. The kind with multiple spray patterns. The jet setting is great to blast off anything in the bottom of kegs. The wide spray pattern works well to make sure large items like buckets and bucket fermenters are rinsed well.
On rubber handled corny kegs I add a small SS screw to mark the "out" post. When you're out of beer, you're screwed.
?
My brew bag. 3 bucks.😅
I use carbonation caps for so many things.
Rope ratchet, wheelbarrow. Ratchet my Anvil grain tube high enough to get a bag around it and then put it in the wheelbarrow. If you coat the wheelbarrow with flex seal or something, you can use it as a big sink.
I wonder if you could use that carb cap to push gelatin/finings or other finishing liquids into a keg without opening it...
Yes you can! I do it whenever i want to push it into the keg without incorporating O2.
-Prepare your finning (or whatever you want to add) into a pet
-Purge by adding CO2 and losening the cap a couple of times
-Fill CO2 in the PET up to 3 bars to make sure it will push it into the keg.
-Purge a liquid-liquid "jumper" hose (with CO2 or beer)
-Connect the keg side 1st and later the bottle (you can use the bottle upside down or upright with a deeptube, making sure to tilt the bottle so that the deeptube get the most of the liquid)
-disconnect and enjoy
Sample video: ruclips.net/video/52KPouMecFI/видео.htmlsi=XQk4TNdpbFseGoij&t=94
Martin, we are British, but you didn’t read the hat instructions 😂. Front and back are different😜
1. Spray bottle w/ sanitizer
2. Silicone tubing
3. Carbonator
4. Pet bottle
5. Beer tap/line cleaning brush
Your pressure depends on your mains water pressure. Here I get 1.2bar.
a spritzer with 70% isopropyl is always available.
I've had more luck with the plastic carb caps than stainless ones as it goes. The plastic are no cheaper which is a shame. Maybe they will get cheaper with time.
Metal ones requires an oring. Plastic ones (kegland's at leas) have the plastic lip you ofte see in soda bottle caps
@@MatyBsAs Yeah, I've had no issues with the plastic lip. But lots of issues with the O-rings.
Also the strength of the spring in the metal ones is sometimes not strong enough to open the other connector, or so strong that it doesn't open against the opposing spring force.
like # 159 Cheap essentials for a lot of expensive gear. Lets talk bottling
I really hope this comes across as constructive criticism as a long time fan of both the podcast and show. I’ve been watching since the start of this channel and recently have seen a massive decline.
Marker for labeling your kegs IN & OUT? Try green (gas) and blue (beer) silicone o-rings on the posts. Way cheaper and no marker mess when cleaning/Star San spraying your kegs. Fine, I’ll let that one slide.
Terrible example at how effective quick disconnects are. Great tools, but you’ve presented them as a “hose” that you can buy. Do a video on QDs in general. This information was not helpful to anyone.
The TDS Meter was really the most egregious. Any good brewer will tell you not to skimp on cheap meters. And what really gets me is you check your drinking water, check your tap water, but don’t check your RO water on camera - which the whole time you’re trying to show is right for brewing.
Cmon guys, these videos started strong but have become flustered and annoying to watch. Spend more time in pre and on the edit, please. For all of us.
I genuinely think this is a trerrible list and completely out of touch with the systems and equipment the vast majority are brewing and fermenting with, especially regarding connections. the bottle washer is not needed by anyone. Anyone using bottles will soak and sanatize. anyone kegging will clean and sanatize, the bottle jets are redundant and have been for 15+ years.
The quick disconnects are a total game changer for me. I was able to hook up QD’s to my stainless immersion chiller and it became so much less of a hot mess. Same for my brewing pump. Makes life simple. I’ve got a bottle jet but never use it. TDS meter is senseless. We all know the vast majority of tap water is terrible for brewing because it tastes bad.