Whats The Most Useless Bit Of Brewing Equipment You Ever Bought

[Pumpy]

Mine has got to be the PH meter

keeping the sensor wet has proven not too be easy used twice never again 34 bucks down the drain

Comon be honest what is yours

Pumpy

 

[Bobby]

at the moment it would be the copper coil i bought to use as a chiller. I used it once and hated it - NC ever since.

 

[Pumpy]

Yep Bobby Go the 'No chill' my Copper chiller is redundent too

 

[goatherder]

Refractometer for me.

 

[3GumsBrewing]

That little red scoop for puting sugar in bottles, used it once then found out about bulk priming!

 

[SpillsMostOfIt]

Refractometer for me.

Please say it isn't true! I just bought one.

For me it would have to be either of the first two syphons I bought, or:

the third syphon I bought which sagged from using it on hot wort and now aerates as it syphons,
a tube clamp to slow down the flow that didn't need slowing down,
a bag of marbles to use as weights to keep bottles from floating that only needed a brief spray of sanitiser,
three airlocks - I now use cling film, or
extra sediment reducers - duh!

 

[boingk]

I'm thinking of the bottle-capper that came with my original kit setup. Useless as all get out because I only use Coopers 750ml PETs!

Probably the most useful thing I have is my sugar measurer, followed by some 'diet' kitchen scales with increments of 5g up to 500g [$6 from Big W], some dual-beam scales that go in increments of 0.01 of a gram up to 10 grams [great for hops!], and my LED torch which I use to check clarity of brews in the fermenter and let me take proper temp readings in below-par light.

One of the 'grooviest' things I have at the moment is a 5L demijohn - I carbonate it up with 30~35g of dextrose, and bust it out at a party every now and then.

 

[Barry]

Good Day
The sparge arm, best water cooling device ever invented.

 

[Pumpy]

Re Refractometer Please say it isn't true! I just bought one.

Dont worry SMOI I find the refractometer to be excellent to ensuring you reach the correct SG on mash day

 

[goatherder]

Please say it isn't true! I just bought one.

Don't worry - my problems are self inflicted. I couldn't get consistent readings with it so I ditched it from my brewday routine. I've since discovered my results were due to "operator malfunction". I batch sparge so I don't really need one anyway...

 

[tangent]

so far, the pump and domed false bottom.
home made immersion chiller and refractometer were the best purchases.

 

[Brewtus]

A sugar hopper that fits on a 1/2 PET bottle Is meant to measure sugar for priming but jambs half way through a batch and you need to empty it to change dose for small bottle. Don't even know where it is now.

I stick with coopers lollies.

 

[Asher]

CP Bottle filler..... What a messy piece of gear they are....

 

[InCider]

Hydrometer. Bobbing around all useless and risking infection when all I needed was a calendar and the ability to count to 14. Piffle!

InCider.

 

[Ross]

CP Bottle filler..... What a messy piece of gear they are....

Ditto - Did a bulk buy of these things - bloody useless :angry:

cheers Ross

 

[InCider]

I forgot to mention Kit Beer. Although I still do make kits, when I have finished all the swap beers I have a cry... :blink:

 

[TidalPete]

Sucked in again

Those stainless & plastic thermometers that you can get from your LHS. Always in my experience, at least 2 deg c out.
Managed to get this little beauty. ---- Linky

Just saw your post Incider. Crying will not get you into all-grain. Stay home & save the pennies.

:beer:

 

[Screwtop]

Yeah, What Pete Says

Stop spending on shitty american headache beer, get a hold of anything to start AG even two pieces of old railway track to crush grain with, ANYTHING !

 

[InCider]

I'm working on something to keep the heat up - got a big pot to use, need to make a Colostomy (BIAB) Bag and then I'm set... the BBQ doesn't put out enough heat I've worked out...

InCider...

 

[enoch]

Sparge arm gets a vote - worked OK on small batch but completely useless when I scaled up.
Bruheat Boiler come thermostatically controlled mash tun - absolutely %&%^%^ng useless for mashing. Massive waste of money considering how cheaply you can make a bucket of death boiler.