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HDIr0n · 08-12-2012, 05:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by neosapien

buy a pond pump and recirculate ice water through your chiller. no wasted water and you get to chill faster.

That is one of the best things I did to improve my chilling along with recirculating & whirlpooing.

-G

bob3000 · 08-12-2012, 06:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ThePonchoKid

I guess I had to qualify that I rent, and have no use for the water.

I can tell by some of the responses that water conservation is far too close to sounding like environmentalism. Political discourse in the states doesn't sound like too much fun, nor is it really productive with your political/media environment trivializing everything and rendering every argument relative, redundant, or outright idiotic. What else is new right?

Perhaps it'll be more of a concern when your aquifers are all contaminated and you have to scrounge for money or resources to obtain clean water. These things always come to mind after the fact though. Good luck indeed.

i think the point people are making is not that water waste isn't a problem but that when you put 100l in the context of an average persons daily usage it actually isn't as bad as you think.
And If you are really cut up about it, miss a few showers and you should square it up.

bob3000 · 08-12-2012, 06:58 AM

Apparently it takes 300l to make one pint of commercial beer

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sustainable-business/brewing-companies-water-usage-footprint

Stankonia · 08-12-2012, 08:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bottlebomber

How cool do those ice water recirculating setups really get the wort? How much ice do you need?

That's the problem with ice-water recirculating idea that gets thrown around a lot. The water coming out of the IC is pretty damn hot, so your ice-water bath isn't going to stay ice cold for long if you're recirculating right off the bat.

I recirculated ice-water with my IC when I lived in FL..but I didn't actually start using my ice-water supply, and completely having a closed-off recirculating system until about 15 minutes of chilling time with just tap water and collecting my steaming hot runoff in my HLT.

Collecting the run-off water was a perfect opportunity to throw in some oxyclean and thus having my cleaning water nice and hot and the oxyclean completely dissovled. I use 15.5g keggles, and ended up using just a little over 15gals for chilling before I switch to a close re=circulation.

onthekeg · 08-12-2012, 08:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bob3000

Apparently it takes 300l to make one pint of commercial beer

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sustainable-business/brewing-companies-water-usage-footprint

I am not sure where they are coming up with that number, then later in the article SAB has a ratio of 4:1 which is well documented. I think this website likes to scare people with their subtitles and/or pictures to appease their target market.

**MalFet** · 08-12-2012, 11:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bottlebomber

How cool do those ice water recirculating setups really get the wort? How much ice do you need?

I'm not sure, to be honest. I've gotten my wort down to 50°F without much trouble, but I've never had reason to go below that. I buy a 5lb bag because that's what's available, and it always has been plenty to supplement my water (which is at least 75°F this time of year)

This is on a 50' chiller with a recirculation arm. I capture the first 10 gallons for cleaning, then I fill the sink with 3 gallons of water and the bag of ice. I use a cheapo pond pump that I had laying around to push water after that. Takes about 15min to get from boiling to pitching temps.

**bottlebomber** · 08-12-2012, 03:32 PM

Cool, it sounds like you guys are using the same technique. I'll have to try that, and maybe I can learn to love my IC again.

***Yooper*** · 08-12-2012, 03:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bottlebomber

Cool, it sounds like you guys are using the same technique. I'll have to try that, and maybe I can learn to love my IC again.

As was mentioned, the key is to not use the boiling water that initially comes out of the chiller. I fill my HLT with some the hot water, to use for cleaning the brewkettle when it's empty. Within a few minutes, the water coming out of the chiller is cooler (you can at least touch it without burning yourself, even though it's still pretty warm) and that is the time to add the ice.

I tried using NO chilling water, and just using my HEX in my HERMS to chill a 5 gallon batch with ice. But it took 42 pounds of ice doing it that way- and so I never did that again. Combining the two- chilling to sub-130 with the chiller, and then using some ice and recirculating- would be a fairly efficient and cost effective way to do chilling.

**bottlebomber** · 08-12-2012, 03:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Yooper

As was mentioned, the key is to not use the boiling water that initially comes out of the chiller. I fill my HLT with some the hot water, to use for cleaning the brewkettle when it's empty. Within a few minutes, the water coming out of the chiller is cooler (you can at least touch it without burning yourself, even though it's still pretty warm) and that is the time to add the ice.

I tried using NO chilling water, and just using my HEX in my HERMS to chill a 5 gallon batch with ice. But it took 42 pounds of ice doing it that way- and so I never did that again. Combining the two- chilling to sub-130 with the chiller, and then using some ice and recirculating- would be a fairly efficient and cost effective way to do chilling.

Sounds good. Really, it's those last 30 or 40 degrees that are using at least half of the water.

BBBF · 08-12-2012, 04:48 PM

Am I the only one that uses the hot water coming out of the chiller to start cleaning up and do a few extra dishes? That way the water is not going to waste and I am even recycling the heat.