Brewing Equipment Part II - A little finesse.

In Part I of the brewing equipment article, you were shown what gear you need as basic kit to make your first hand-made beer.

Of course, as with any hobby, there are improvements you can make to your equipment that make the job easier, nicer and more fun. That's what this article is about.


Having been making beer and cider for a while, I thought I would share the list of extra gear that I have and how it works and why you should consider owning it too.


* Bottle Tree
* Bottle Rinser
* Bottle Brush
* Priming Scoop
* Side cutters
* Scales
* Thermometer
* Test vial / test tube with stand
* A big stainless steel stock pot


* Bottle Tree
This delightful lump of 1970's orange coloured plastic is worth its weight in gold, but certainly doesn't cost that much.

It has 63 positions for bottles. It's perfect for draining newly washed bottles and for draining freshly sanitised bottles prior to priming and bottling.

It's really a huge convenience.


* Bottle Rinser
Basically it's a bowl with a spring loaded squirty thing. You invert the bottle onto the nozzle and push down firmly, delivering a dose of no rinse sanitiser into the bottle and killing all those nasty bugs that would otherwise ruin your beer. It's better to give three squirts.

You remember we mentioned a sanitising agent (no, not the Pink) in the last article? This is one of the places where you use it. 30 ml in the bottom of the bowl, top up to one litre, insert the squirty thing and you're in business.

The only refinement I suggest you consider for this piece of equipment is a big galvanised or stainless steel washer to put on the bottle collar on the nozzle. It prevents the nozzle wearing and also assists accommodating a range of bottle neck sizes.

Usually, you can buy this item and the Bottle Tree as a kit for a lower price than buying them separately. Better yet, the Rinser has a storage place on top of the Tree. Clean, neat and tidy.


* Bottle Brush.
No matter how careful you are, sometime sooner or later there is going to be something stuck inside your bottles and you're going to need a way to clean it out. Enter the bottle brush.

There are nice fancy horsehair ones from brew shops. They're excellent. However in the spirit of being economical, I recommend the long handed ones for about $2 from $2 shops. They'll do just fine.


* Priming Scoop
This odd looking thing is actually a double ended spoon.

The larger end holds enough priming sugar for a 750 ml (tallie) and the smaller end holds enough priming sugar for a 330 ml (stubbie).

We can get into priming sugars in another ingredients oriented article.


* Side Cutters
Pretty normal stuff. Pliers that have an angled cutting blade.

Used to remove the tamper-evident collars from the PET bottle caps at the time of sanitising prior to bottling. After all, if the collar is still there, you can't put a new cap on, can you?


* Scales
Ideally, if you can find a low cost pair that measures up to 5 kg and has one or more decimal places (i.e. 500.2 grammes vs 500 grammes displayed weight) and you're happy with the price, you will be very happy.

However, one with no decimal places will do just fine.

Digital scales are the most preferable as they give you a plain number result rather than having to interpret as you do with the older dial type ones.

One feature that is very necessary as a convenience is Tare. In other words, the scale reads zero when you start. You put an empty container on the platform and it shows 106g, you press a button and it shows zero again. Now you can weigh your ingredients without having to remember that the container's weight. It's also great when you're making multiple additions of ingredients to be used at the same time, such as 10 g of this hop plus 15 g of that hop to be used in the boil.


* Thermometer
Any reasonably well calibrated thermometer will do fine so long as it reads reliably from say 5C to 110C. That's pretty easy these days.

A reasonably priced digital thermometer is the one from Ikea. It comes with a remote probe and functions both as a timer and a thermometer. The best feature on it is that you can set an alarm when the measured substance reaches a certain temperature. Need 70C for steeping grain? Preset 70C on the pot of water on the stove top and walk away until it beeps.

The time is great too, for obvious reasons: Set it for 30 minutes after your boil has started and you have made the first hop addition. Beep! Time for the second hop addition. Perfect if you don't want to spend your brew day staring at a clock and a pot and would prefer to do other things at the same time.

Simple, inexpensive creature comfort that will give you much pleasure for under $20.


* Test vial / tube with stand
When you take samples to read the specific gravity, you need something tall and skinny into which you take the sample so that you don't waste too much of the brew. Big containers equal big waste.

If you buy a good quality glass hydrometer from your brew shop, they almost invariably come in a plastic tube with foam in the ends to protect it. Some brew shops suggest just to use the storage tube for taking the sample. That works, but it's not elegant and the tube doesn't stand up very well on its own.

If you can a large plastic test vial / test tube with a base or stand, then you're at a whole new level of simple luxury. It stands up on its own, can be washed separately and the case for the hydrometer can remain clean and the hydrometer can remain safe.

For only a few bucks, it's worth it.


* A big stainless steel stock pot
Less than $25 at any of the mega-chain-stores like K-Mart and maybe even cheaper at the $2 shop. Ideally, you're looking for something around 18 - 30 litres.

Aluminium is cheaper, but stainless is easier to clean and is a wee bit better for your health.

If you're following the instructions that come with kit beers, then this isn't strictly necessary. However, kit beers are rather plain and as you progress and want to make better beer this will become a necessity.

When you get into steeping specialty grains (Carapils, Cararoma, etc) and progress to all malt brewing using either unhopped cans or unhopped bulk malt pails and creating your own hopping schedules, this stock pot is where all the action is.


So - that brings us to the end of the Basic equipment list and the Additional Equipment list. By now, you will have spent somewhere around $200 - $275 and you will be equipped to brew plenty of good quality beer for many years to come.


Next up - I'll talk you through kit brewing - methods and ingredients - using both the manufacturer's instructions and also improved methods to move you on to the next stage of enhancing their product into something akin to premium beers.


Cheers!!