Thread: Preferred Equipment

I'm curious what some of HB brothers like using for experiments... Bottle tops? Membranes? Beekers? Hand pumps? Oils? Solvents? Etc. what are your fav brands? Steps taken to assure sterilization?
I hope I'm not over stepping any boundaries here... I have some solid HB experience but dumped all my gear when my son was born. Looking to get back at it. Thx for your input

I'd like to bump this, be interested to hear more from our brewers. Looking to take the plunge as well.

I've been growing interest in a hand pump and the millipore stericups for filtering vs going the syringe filters. For glassware you want heat resistant glassware obviously. MCT, from feedback I've read, is the preferred for a very thin and healthy oil.

Solvents I think are pretty consistent, ba/bb, avoid extra things like guiacol unless it's truly necessary.

Feel free to correct or advise, I haven't done it yet myself but am definitely researching my options.

Preferred equipment.
Two tits
a gap
and a nice ass. Lol

jk. Props to home Brewers. I don't have patience for that but to those of you that do. Awesome.

Make sure your using glass not pyrex or plastics, even avoid plastics to store things. Plastic is not inert whereas glass is. Use any gauze when applying heat, not necessary but takes no effort and ensures a better process. Make sure your stirrer is inert too, magnetic ones are okay but a waste. A glass rod will do but ensure it doesn't have sharp corners and you don't drag it around the beaker, use a stirring rod or don't connect it with the bottom/sides of the beaker. If your doing it in your kitchen under a range hood be careful because it seems like a good idea to put this on but a lot of the time there is a lot of little bits of dust and crap in a range hood so ensure nothing is dropping out of it. Solvents and different oils are all different, require different heat and different stirring times but more or less all end up the same as long as they are high quality, that is the key. There was a brewer that had amazing success with peanut oil however the obvious allergic reactions are the danger here. Don't go trying anything stupid and trying to create 400mg/ml blends and shit, the honest truth is that the raws our UGL's receive just is not good enough (and I'm happy to blast that at any sponsor), its no where near what the legit companies are receiving and there are tricks we can take to actually pull this stuff off but there isn't any real gain, keep it simple. Putting oil that is too hot in to a filter will cause the filter to rip or not work properly, each manufacturer states their temperature ranges. Don't pour it from a huge height on to the filter, once again its thin paper and oil dropping from a height creates localized pressure and can cause tears. Stay away for 0.45 pore filters and stick with 0.22pore filters, this should be obvious. Millipore Stericups are fairly easy to use and a decent make and good for us because they come gamma irradiated from the factory with a certificate of proof, you can find the filters breaking if you misuse it though. The lower catching flask is prone to cracking and although Millipore states they can take quiet a bit of negative pressure experience deems that a lie, 15"hG is nice and consistent which I think is about 7-8psi. You can replace the lower flasks with much tougher plastic ones or even glass containers that hold more, they just screw in and hold up to 1L but more than that shouldn't go through the same filter. The problem with doing this is you increase the risk of contamination... but the tradeoff is you can increase pressure and make things happen faster. Also these screw in bottoms don't come pre-sterilised so you need to run them through an autoclave to be considered somewhat sterile, if an autoclave is out of your reach then I believe there are plenty of guides on how to turn an american pressure cooker in to a makeshift autoclave.

Think that answers most of your questions... if not hit back in here and I'll try to remember to check it

I like my peristaltic pump, so easy and painless.

Originally Posted by hoodlum

Make sure your using glass not pyrex or plastics, even avoid plastics to store things. Plastic is not inert whereas glass is. Use any gauze when applying heat, not necessary but takes no effort and ensures a better process. Make sure your stirrer is inert too, magnetic ones are okay but a waste. A glass rod will do but ensure it doesn't have sharp corners and you don't drag it around the beaker, use a stirring rod or don't connect it with the bottom/sides of the beaker. If your doing it in your kitchen under a range hood be careful because it seems like a good idea to put this on but a lot of the time there is a lot of little bits of dust and crap in a range hood so ensure nothing is dropping out of it. Solvents and different oils are all different, require different heat and different stirring times but more or less all end up the same as long as they are high quality, that is the key. There was a brewer that had amazing success with peanut oil however the obvious allergic reactions are the danger here. Don't go trying anything stupid and trying to create 400mg/ml blends and shit, the honest truth is that the raws our UGL's receive just is not good enough (and I'm happy to blast that at any sponsor), its no where near what the legit companies are receiving and there are tricks we can take to actually pull this stuff off but there isn't any real gain, keep it simple. Putting oil that is too hot in to a filter will cause the filter to rip or not work properly, each manufacturer states their temperature ranges. Don't pour it from a huge height on to the filter, once again its thin paper and oil dropping from a height creates localized pressure and can cause tears. Stay away for 0.45 pore filters and stick with 0.22pore filters, this should be obvious. Millipore Stericups are fairly easy to use and a decent make and good for us because they come gamma irradiated from the factory with a certificate of proof, you can find the filters breaking if you misuse it though. The lower catching flask is prone to cracking and although Millipore states they can take quiet a bit of negative pressure experience deems that a lie, 15"hG is nice and consistent which I think is about 7-8psi. You can replace the lower flasks with much tougher plastic ones or even glass containers that hold more, they just screw in and hold up to 1L but more than that shouldn't go through the same filter. The problem with doing this is you increase the risk of contamination... but the tradeoff is you can increase pressure and make things happen faster. Also these screw in bottoms don't come pre-sterilised so you need to run them through an autoclave to be considered somewhat sterile, if an autoclave is out of your reach then I believe there are plenty of guides on how to turn an american pressure cooker in to a makeshift autoclave.

Think that answers most of your questions... if not hit back in here and I'll try to remember to check it

Very nice! Thanks!

bottle top filter vacuum pump......syringe filters never worked well for me