The Brew Day Box

If you stick with homebrewing for more than a few batches, you'll accumulate a lot of stuff. Kettles and immersion chillers are easy enough to keep track of, but damned if the little things don't get lost at the worst times.

Over time I started keeping the small bits and bobs in cardboard boxes but never really made an effort to organize them. Then I saw a post on Homebrew Finds about putting together a brew day box. He has a well thought-out box and is great if you're starting from scratch. Mine came together organically: Most of what's in it I already had, and the contents change as I reevaluate them. The brew day box inspired me to put together a kegging box to keep keg-related tools and parts in one place, but that's another blog post. :)

My Brew Day Box

Tah-dah!

!?!?!?

Glad you asked!

The box as packed

Brew box contents

I started watching Alton Brown's Good Eats many years ago, and that got me into cooking. Along the way I acquired a lot of kitchen gadgets. Since brewing is really just a kind of cooking, many of these doodads found a new home in my brew box. 

The Box
The box is an ordinary Sterilite storage box, roughly 12" x 15" x 6" - bigger than a shoebox but very managable and actually has more room than what I need. I picked this one up for cheap at Target. I also use a small plastic tray (lower left) to keep the smaller items together.

Digital thermometer with probe

Polder digital thermometer with probe

This Polder thermometer was an early Alton Brown-inspired purchase. After 12-ish years, it's still working great. The first cable got kinked and it was sending wacky temp readings, but the replacement was inexpensive. For all the things it can do, the alert function is probably the most useful thing about it. I can set the upper alarm to just below my typical boilover temperature (234℉) so I don't have to watch it like a hawk when bringing it back up to a boil. Likewise, the lower alarm lets me know when my immersion chiller has the wort cool enough to pitch.

This particular model has been discontinued, but the Polder 362-90 has the same functions. It runs for a long time on one AA battery, but the display will fade as the battery weakens. When this thing dies, I'll spring for one with a wireless transmitter so I can monitor the boil from the comfort of my sofa.

Water measurement tools and a 250 ml glass beaker

pH meter (left)
and TDS meter

I have a digital pH meter and a total dissolved solids (TDS) meter, mainly to check my tap water and see how effective my carbon filter is. The tap-water results were in line with my city's water report, so they're accurate enough for my purposes.

I test using a 250ml glass beaker, but the beaker is also handy for other things, like dissolving clumps of PBW before washing up.

Speaking of which, I also keep a small container of Easy Clean in the box to sanitize the fermenter. The container fits neatly in the beaker. Once it's used up, I'll switch over to PBW.

Large (2") binder clip

I clamp this to the edge of my brew kettle to help keep the temperature probe away from the side. It also makes a handy tie-off for hop and grain bags.

Digital gram scale

Digital gram scale

This AWS digital scale is one of the few things I bought specifically for brewing. It's small, inexpensive (under $10) and easy to use. It measures in ounces or grams and is precise to 0.01oz (or 0.1g) which is probably overkill for most hop bills.

Max capacity is 1kg (2.2lb) and the platform is ~ 3" x 3" so this would be impractical for weighing large quantities of grain. I have a larger kitchen scale for measuring grain but it lives outside the box.

Glass dishes

Glass dishes for weighing out
hop additions

I got these online years ago after watching Alton Brown explain why mise en place (basically pre-measuring ingredients) is great for cooking. These were Eastern European military surplus and they were maybe 25¢ apiece. They are roughly 2" in diameter and hold maybe 2 fl oz of liquid or 1oz of pellet hops. I use these with the scale above to measure out hop additions. I started with 5 in the box, but I found my additions are generally spread out enough that I really only need 3. 

4-in-1 measuring spoon

I got this as a freebie. There are probably measuring spoons that work better for small amounts, but this works just fine for brewing, IMHO.

Pocket knife

I bought several of these cheap from an outdoor equipment site, expecting to lose one or two. It's a solid knife and I have yet to lose it. 

Long multipurpose butane lighter

I had the Bic multipurpose lighter around for candles and the gas grill, but it's excellent for lighting my propane burner. 

Boil additives

I keep miscellaneous additives in here too. If it goes in before the yeast, it goes in the brew box. These include:

• Whirlfloc: increases flocculation
• Campden tablets: removes choramine from tap water
• Burton salts: to adjust the water to match the Burton-on-Trent water profile
• Yeast nutrient (aka diammonium phosphate): gives the yeast a little help in high-gravity worts
• Light DME: just in case my starting gravity isn't high enough

Triple-scale hygrometer, two-piece testing cylinder and plastic turkey baster

Turkey baster

The hygrometer and cylinder are pretty obvious, but a turkey baster? Early on, I found it was the best way to get wort out of the brew bucket and into the cylinder. This Chefmate baster is inexpensive and easy to sanitize, but it doesn't take too kindly to hot wort. I pulled a sample directly from the kettle once and heard a loud crack. Despite the obvious thermal failure, the baster works just fine. There are stainless-steel versions out there as well for a few bucks more.

Writing implements

From top: fine-point Sharpie, grease pencil, ballpoint pen

You never know when you'll need to write something down. I keep a ballpoint pen, a white grease pencil (for glass and plastic) and a small fine-point Sharpie.

Rags

Let he who has not made a mess cast the first towel. The White Labs rag is actually one of those multipurpose scarf/hat/balaclava thingies I got at HomebrewCon. Red rally towel courtesy of the Washington Nationals.

All that fits

This isn't everything I use on brew day, but it's what lives in the box. Some items (22" whisk, 1gal Rubbermaid pitcher) won't fit. Some items that would fit (spray bottle of Star-San, Thermapen instant-read thermometer) get used all the time outside of brew day so there's no point keeping them there. Maybe I should just buy some specifically for the box. ;) Which leads me to ...

Things I want to add

There are a few more things I want to add to my box. A small pair of scissors would be handy. A refractometer would be awesome, since it feels like a waste to pull off 4-6oz or wort just to take a gravity reading. Another instant-read thermometer would also be great. 

What's in your box? Is there something I should add? Let me know in the comments!