Useful piece of equipment

I share Chad's penchant for fetishizing obscure beer brewing, and other, tools. But recently I have discovered what is perhaps the most useful tool in my homebrewing endeavors -- a plastic, gallon jug with its head cut off.

I'm in the process of brewing 4 kegs worth of beer for an upcoming party, and have been forced for the first time into the world of brewing simultaneous batches, and having to keep track of multiple beers at various stages at once. That has demanded lots of juggling of containers. Transfering one beer from primary, into secondary, rinsing out the old primary fermentor, and dumping a new batch of beer in.

Through it all, the gallon jug has been a great help. Measuring out water to mix cleaning or sanitizing solution, temporary storing Iodophor which I needed to reuse after transfering a keg or bucket full of beer. And since I brew in my basement with laundry sinks, the gallon jug can get uder the faucet where a carboy or fermentation bucket can't. When a recent batch of hefeweizen was bubbling blew the airlock off a carboy, the gallon jug was there for me to dump a blowoff tube into. I've even used it to cultivate yeast starters.

While it may not have lasers, it's still a hell of a good thing to have around.