Tag: Gear Review

The stickered tool box you see above is never far from my…

A lot of people hate bottling, I don’t hate it, but it’s not something I enjoy. The actual bottling expierence itself isn’t too bad, and it’s not much more time consuming than kegging. There are extra steps, and you have yeast sentiment at the bottom of your bottle conditioned beer. You also have the additional time from grain to glass. The part I hate the most time is getting bottles clean and ready for bottling. I don’t buy them new, I give away a most of the beer I do bottle, so I have to wash, relabel and reuse commercial beer bottles. I try to do this when I’m drinking, but I still need to take some additional time to scrub before they are ready. It takes a lot of time for me, and I’ve said before time is not something I have a lot of.

I’ve been a big fan of the brewing network since I started brewing, and I’ve been listening to the shows religiously for the past three years. When I heard they’d be making a dvd to share the best way to brew a pale ale I had to have it. I consider pale ale a challenging beer to brew well. It’s a beer of balance, walking the line of hoppy and clean, while avoiding being thin. I’ve said this before, it’s a large percentage of what I drink, and equally large portion of what I brew. The idea of getting tips on how to brew the beer straight from Matt Brynildson was impossible to pass up. So I signed up for the preorder, and paid my $17.99.

I’m reviewing ‘the Original Carboy Cleaner’ and ‘the Original Keg Cleaner’ as I own both. They have made cleaning up after my brew days easier. Please note no one has paid me to say this or given me the product for review*. I did not however purchase them, as I received them from a family member as a gift.
The product is as easy to use as indicated in the tacky video on their website.

I’ll be up front when I receive a product for review, this…

I’m wary of thinking more expensive gear, will make better beer. Yes, it can make things easier, but does it really make better beer?
With that said, I’ve made some small investments in my equipment with the intention of improving the quality of my beer, and making cleanup easier.
I’ve been very fortunate, I’ve had to purchase very little of my own brewing equipment. I had keen eye on free cycle and snagged a nearly complete home brewing setup. A 5g pot, 2 carboys, fermentor, funnels, capper, blow off valves, wort chiller, etc. So far my primary investments have been ingredients, books, and a turkey burner.