If you are looking to really crush your brewing process and make the best quality beer you can every single time, then there are a few essential tools we think every homebrewer needs.

These tools will help make your brewing day flow a little better and could even help you make better beer.

The tool I wanted to discuss is a hydrometer. This is useful as it will help you calculate the ABV of your brew and will also let you know when your beer is done fermenting. You will take an OG and an FG reading of your beer. The formula to get ABV is FG-OG*131.25.

The second part of the hydrometer is that when your FG is the same reading 2 days in a row, then your beer is done fermenting. So it’s a great way to make sure your beer is done and bottle it as quickly as you can.

The second tool that is important is a brewing thermometer. We sell some on the website that you can stick to your fermenter and they will tell you exactly what the temperature is of your brew. This is key to help prevent off-flavors and to make sure your beer is in the proper zone.

The third tool that is very useful is a bottling want. Filling bottles can be a pain sometimes. So adding a bottling wand to your brewing tools is a great item to help speed up the bottling day. I also find using the wand to be useful in making sure that each bottle is filled up evenly.

Related to bottling, I do think that everyone should use carbonation drops. They make bottling even more simple. You just drop in the right amount of drops for your bottle size and fill it on up.

Another tool that I like to use personally is a funnel. Our Mr. Beer fermenters have an opening in the top and I don’t have that steady of hands so I have been known to spill wort all over the place. So using a funnel helps me make sure that it all goes into the fermenter.

If you are going to use a funnel make sure you sanitize it beforehand.

The last tool or item I will mention is an Oxygen brewery wash. This is not a sanitizer but is used after you brew. This is great to help make sure your brewing equipment and bottles stay clean and are good to keep using well into the future.

A few other items I think that is always good to have on hand are some extract packets of yeast and some No-Rinse cleaners. You never know what can happen during a brew day so having a few extra of these on hand is always good as a just in case measure.

Cheers, 

Robert