New Toys

I've had a couple new brewery toys to play with for the last couple months. The first is a grain mill. I was having an issue getting a consistent grain crush from the various places I was shopping at to purchase my ingredients. After doing some research I decided to go with the Barley Crusher. It seemed to provide the most bang for my buck. With the addition of a 5 gallon bucket, the grain mill was ready to go. It offers the ability to crush the grain with a drill, but so far I have just been crushing it by hand. Turning the crank before brew day is a nice workout and gives me something to do while my strike water is heating.

The newest toy is a refractometer. I have only had this for one and a half batches so far and already I love it. Taking pre-fermentation gravity readings is now so fast and easy that I can't help but do them. It also helps me track my progress pre and post boil. I know whether or not I need to add some extract to help meet my target original gravity. I have also been taking readings post fermentation along with my hydrometer in order to test some of the refractometer correction equations that could allow me to take readings post fermentation.

Stay tuned for some big changes coming. I am about to have an onslaught of new toys!