Share your brewing hacks

[FedoraDave]

I think we need a thread like this (maybe even a sticky) so we can consolidate some of the life hacks we've come up with to overcome the little challenges we face when brewing. We can't always afford or want or justify the cost of certain bits of equipment. We're doing this in our backyards, our kitchens, our basements. So we need to be inventive and do some creative problem-solving from time to time. And homebrewers are nothing if not inventive.

My latest brew hack is one I thought of a couple of weeks ago, and was able to use for today's brew day. First some background:

I mostly do AG recipes, but I have designed a few extract recipes, for when I want a shorter brew day. I could convert them to AG, but they're good recipes as they stand, and again, sometimes I want to brew without spending four or five hours or more. These recipes usually call for steeping grains; just a pound or so for a 2.5g batch. And I always had difficulty and frustration filling the muslin grain sack. I tried taking the largest drinking cup in the house, putting the sack in, and putting a rubber band around it to keep the sack from being pulled into the cup, but while it worked okay, the cup wasn't big enough. I needed a larger vessel, but what to use?

Then my eyes fell on the can we keep in the kitchen for returnable bottles. There are 2-liter bottles in there! And the seltzer bottles are clean (no residual syrup) and dry! And if I cut the top off, I'll have a fairly deep vessel that just might be the thing! So that's what I did. And I put tape around the rim where I'd cut so there wouldn't be any snaggly edges to catch the muslin.

Tried it this morning when prepping for my batch of 100 Years War IPA. I couldn't use a rubber band to hold the sack in place because the bottle is too flexible, but three strategically-placed clothespins did the trick. Half a pound of Carapils and half a pound of flaked rye fit perfectly, with room to spare, no spilled grains, and a solution to a problem that plagued me every time it cropped up, no matter how infrequently. I am pleased no little and more than somewhat, and I feel like quite the Clever Boots!

So share your brewing hacks. Not only do they make good stories, they let everyone know you're not just a pretty face, and maybe they'll even make someone else's brewing experience more streamlined.

[RickBeer]

Paint strainer bag. Fits perfectly in a 5 gallon pot, with elastic holding it on the edges. Dump in the grains, no muslin sack necessary. Lift sack, put on strainer, let sit to drain. Remove. Washes right up. And I never claim that I had clever boots, whatever those are.

[John Sand]

I wouldn't call it a "hack", maybe a tip.
I keg in the kitchen, spills constitute grounds for divorce. First, I pick up the small rugs near the sink and lay down an old towel. Then I get out a big pot, into which I place the empty keg. Then I siphon the beer with two levels of protection. If the keg overflows, the pot catches it. Any other drips from the siphon hose fall on the towel. When I'm done I rinse the pot and sealed keg, and toss the towel in the laundry.
I still generally do it when Jane is not home though.

[RickBeer]

Coward...

I lay down towels. I put newspaper on the counter tops, makes cleanup a breeze. 36 years and counting.

[FedoraDave]

I mash and boil in my kitchen. When I first switched to 5g AG batches, I would collect all the runnings and then dead-lift the pot onto the stove. It was probably 60 pounds or so, and I had to lift it just high enough to be a struggle. Then I realized I could collect the first runnings into the main brew pot, put that on the stove, then collect the sparges in a smaller pot and transfer it.

Now my biggest challenge is carrying the pot of just-boiled wort down the basement stairs to chill it. If I could install a dumbwaiter in the floor of my kitchen, I would.

[Dawg LB Steve]

When I did bottle, I set the bottling bucket on the counter, opened the dishwasher door and bottled. All leaks contained in the dishwasher.

[RandyG]

I have a plastic bin lid that I sit my LBK or Lil Demon on when I'm brewing. I always have some spillage of a tiny bit of wort when I pour it into the fermenter(Old Guy/Shakey hands). I put the bin lid on top of a barstool with the LBK on it and if there is spillage it stays on the lid.Easy to clean off also. I use the same lid to act as a drippage catcher when I bottle. Cheers

[John Sand]

Dave, I've been thinking of ways to move wort. Hoses, tall stands, etc. I've come to the conclusion that smaller vessels are simplest. With a ten gallon mash tun and a fifteen gallon pot, I can make bigger batches than I want to dead lift. My solution is also to dispense the wort into smaller pots to move it around.

[brewnewb]

In my old house, I recycled most of my water from my immersion chiller into my laundry tub and used it to clean my brew pot and brewing utensils.

I'm still trying to figure out this new house ......