Brewing Tips and Gadgets thread

General Homebrew Discussion
1

Thought it was a bout time we started one of these again to share some stuff we may have picked up but haven’t thought about sharing.

One of the coolest things I found recently is a hair straightener - it is kind of like the opposite of a curling iron but looks almost identical. Costs about $15. They work great for sealing mylar hop bags. I purge with Co2 first, then use the hair straightener to seal the bag. Works almost instantaneously. It also works when you accidentally break a Wyeast smack pack. Seals it right up!

By purging and sealing I have kept opened hops still usable for over a year in mylar bags!

2

Interesting. I use a food saver vacuum sealer

3

Does the food saver vacuum sealer work on Mylar bags? I wasn’t sure. Anyway, I want to get a food saver mostly for doing sous vide, but dang they are expensive!

4

My food saver has always worked for the older packaging.  I not not in the basement right now, the gold bags reseal fine.

My LHBS has been stocking a new hop supplier’s line that comes in stiffer white bags that my food saver cannot seal.  Based on that, oh so detailed description, will a hair straightener work on these new bags.

I may need to raid my 3 daughter’s rooms.  One of then has to have one.  ;D

Paul

5

I want one too. There are a lot of alternative brands which cost much less and have better reviews on Amazon.

6

I just put the opened Mylar bag of hops into a vac seal bag so I don’t know if it works on Mylar or not. It works great for sous vide. I bought my el cheapo food saver at Costco

7

I use a 1500W heat stick (works w/ standard 15A plug/breaker).

Electricity is far cheaper than propane. For my 3G batches I use propane and heat stick when heating water. Then I switch to heat stick only for boil.

I originally made a 1500 W heat stick years ago using these instructions (http://www.cedarcreeknetworks.com/heatstick.htm). That finally gave up for ghost just recently.

I just bought a new all stainless version here.  BrewHardware.com - High end, practical homebrewing hardware, accessories and ingredients for making beer, wine, mead, and cider.

8

It’s always a good idea to recycle your chilling water from your heat exchanger for clean up. The first several gallons will be hot water too! If you are doing multiple batches in a row your heat-exchanged water is great for doughing in the second batch because it will already be warmer than tap.

9

I’ve never tried. When I open a mylar bag, I just seal the leftover hops in a food saver bag to be sure I get a vacuum seal . I like the hair straightener idea, though.

10

The Mylar bags are much more impervious to o2 than the other options.

11

I do this and the rest gets used for laundry.

12

I use the hot discharge of my IC to hold in the mash tun to rinse equipment during cleanup.

13

I like this and will put into use on next brew day. I have collected a portion of my discharge and used it to rinse my IC, but obviously it could be used for more. I have collected in a party keg bucket but the idea of my cooler mash tun is brilliant

14

Same. I hate pouring out all that water and then pulling more water to clean just a few minutes later. I wash/fill my mash tun and end up filling my HLT and a few other buckets as well. It’s all the water I need to clean and the rest goes to water the trees.

15

Another +1 to using the hot IC discharge water. Perfect use for it.

16

I direct my chiller water into my pool.

17

I’ve used pool water. Works well as long as the chiller and hose are sound.