Equipment: Part 2

Hello beer-lovers! Welcome to the second installment of my equipment run-down. Let's get to it!

There are three things in the picture to the right: our 2.5 foot-long plastic spoon, the all important auto-siphon, and the plastic tubing for the siphon.

The spoon is pretty obvious; it's for stirring, whenever there's stirring to be done!

The auto-siphon is an amazing device. The left-hand end of it goes in the beer, the plastic tubing attaches to the other end (the one with the right angle). To start the siphon, instead of sucking on one end, which could introduce beer-ruining bacteria, all you have to do is pull the right hand side and pump it down a couple times. If you are unsure how this would work, google an auto-siphon and I'm sure you can find an example.

                                 Bottling Tip 

A bottling tip is used for– you guessed it – bottling. It has a spring-loaded valve at the end that allows liquid to pass through it only when you are pushing that little black tip down into the bottom of a beer bottle. The bottling tip attaches to the other end of the auto-siphon. It allows you to fill the bottles from the bottom up, without splashing beer, eliminating the possibility of oxidation. This thing, from reading up on beer-making, saves a ton of hassle and time.

Bottle Capper

This cool device is what we use to put caps on our bottles. Inside is a short post with a magnet on it. You place a cap on top of the beer bottle, carefully put this thing on top of the bottle (the magnet helps keep the cap in place), and pull down on both handles simultaneously. The cone around the magnetic post is pushed down and crimps the flanges of a crown-cap blank (also shown) around the rim of the bottle.

Thermometer
We stared off with a normal, weighted glass thermometer and promptly broke it while cleaning up. So we found this nice digital thermometer on Amazon. It was designed for meat but it has a handy alarm on it that allows you to set a desired temperature and it will beep when that temperature is reached. All you have to do is dangle the probe in your wort.

Hydrometer
All I'm going to say about the hydrometer right now is that it's used to measure the density of a liquid compared to distilled water. Hydrometer readings help you determine when your fermentation is complete and aid in approximating alcohol content by volume of your finished beer. There will be an entire post at some point dedicated to how to use one of these. Having studied marine and aquatic biology in college, I have some experience using these in the field of science, as well.

Wort Chiller
This is the most recent gadget added to our set-up. My very-handy father rigged it up based on suggestions in John Palmer's excellent home brewing, How To Brew. This helps cool wort faster, allowing more proteins to coagulate and settle out and shortening the overall brew time. One end screws onto the kitchen sink faucet and the other flows into the drain. You put the wort chiller in the brew pot and turn on the cold water. As cold water flows through the copper tubing (25 feet of it!) it cools the wort and carries away heat. We are thinking of adding another 25 feet of coil to this, increasing its efficiency.








Well, that's all for tonight folks. Cheers and thanks for reading!