Top brewing tips

[anti-fsck]

OK, so I'm a little bit bored tonight.
What are people's top tips that make home brewing that much easier? The number one has to be bulk priming. However, I'd rank putting a clear bit of PVC pipe between a 1cm section of filling tube and the remaining filling tube a close second. This gives the filling pipe flexibility, and lets you see what the brew looks like going into the bottle (important when you're down as far as the yeast cake).
Meh, back to folding the washing ...

[kitkat]

I'll play devil's advocate on bulk priming, I don't do it because I can't be arsed sterlising and washing (afterwards) another container. Timewise it's probably faster to line up the bottle and to put the dextrose in that to wash a container, sterilise it, then wash it again afterwards
I don't make stouts so I have no need to underprime, which would be a plus for bulk priming.

[Evo]

I guess here would be the perfect place to put kegging as the thing that makes homebrewing easier. But I'm assuming people know that.

My tip, as lame as it may sound, is organisation and experience. Just having everything I need clean and on hand when I'm mixing one up. This comes with experience. I know this because when I do a partial mash if which I'm not the most experienced, I make a huge mess and am totally unorganised (although I'm getting better).

[Dogger Dan]

I have a bunch of stuff I really like. In no real order

1. my vinometer, uses surface tension to calculate alcohol concentration.

2. my test tube for my hydrometer. Now that is real living.

3. my self priming syphon. what was I doing before?

4. my bottle filler, a simple bit of plastic tubing with a little check valve at the bottom that makes filling bottles a dream. Doesn't get much use now as I have switched to the kegs but truely a wonderfull invention.

Regarding the bulk prime, I can have a fermentor sanitized in about three minutes. Measuring 15 mls of dex and trying to pour it down the neck of a bottle takes me way longer. Maybe I should close an eye when I do it, then I would see only on bottle.

Dogger

[r.magnay]

I have never bulk primed though I have considered it from time to time, but I am a bit suspicious that many may be priming bottles without the right equipment, I have a gadget that srews onto a standard PET bottle,you fill the bottle withe priming sugar, then it has a rotary type measure and a spout, you simply set the required quantity and rotate the handle back and forth for one measure. I am sure most brewers have something similar, but sometimes reading between the lines it sounds as if people are still using spoon type measures.

[Guest]

1. Cleaning bottles in bulk simply by soaking 24 hrs in a "pink stain remover" solution (same as used in pubs for cleaning glasses), shaking, rinsing. Wait until I have about 30 bottles, do it in my fermenter, bottles upright, do about 10 at a time (also very good at soaking off labels).
2. sanitising with an "ejaculator", rinsing with cooled boiled water using same device.
3. keep sanitised PET bottle near jug/kettle, save pre-boiled (but now cool) water each morning for used in brewing (boiling drives off chlorine, kills many bugs, dont have to boil much to brew, dont have problem of cooling lots of hot water).
4. same bottle filler as I suspect Dogger describes.
5. sanitised ice cream containers of pre-boiled water in freezer, use to quickly cool wort (saves time, wort chiller etc)

All I can think of off the top of my head.

I no longer bother to bulk prime. Use funnel and spoon. Can put suger in bottles quicker than sanitising another container, siphoning onto priming solution, etc.

peterd

[Tony]

OK, so I'm a little bit bored tonight.
However, I'd rank putting a clear bit of PVC pipe between a 1cm section of filling tube and the remaining filling tube a close second. This gives the filling pipe flexibility, and lets you see what the brew looks like going into the bottle (important when you're down as far as the yeast cake).

Bottled my latest using this setup. Great on speed and didn't have to clean the floor afterwards. However, not so great on the amount of froth generated when filling the bottle, especially the first few. After I tapped out the standing bubbles in the length of tube it was better, but am concerned about oxidation. Any ideas?

Thanks,

Tony

[JAZZA]

one thing I do when cleaning my kegs is turn them up side down in a bucket of sterilizer just to clean any sticky crap which may have leaked on to the top.




CHEERS,

JAZZA