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**nut4wine** · 07-29-2011, 04:56 PM

Well, the most conserving would be to only brew when there's a lot of snow on the ground and use that to cool your wort, but that might be limiting.

I use a small fountain pump in a cooler of water and a standard immersion chiller. I'll freeze up some blocks of ice before brewing and then run the chiller output into the ice block until the wort's cool enough to pitch into. I'll move the chiller up and down as well to keep everything moving along. I'll use about 10 gallons of water total to cool the wort this way. On a recent 100 degree day it took 25-30 minutes to cool a5.5-gallon batch this way.

Landshark67 · 08-02-2011, 11:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ajwillys

Just do what you are already doing but don't waste the water. Get yourself a sump pump (if you don't already have one), capture the water into a rain barrel or similar, and reuse it for watering plants, washing the car, etc... You could even re-use it later for chilling wort.

That's precisely what I do and it works great. Especially in the Winter when cleaning out the mash tun and BK can be a pain. Collecting 40+ gallons of warm water makes finishing up the brew day easy.

A few people I know always fill their HLT for the next batch. They treT the water and seal the top to prevent bugs from entering. One less thing to do during your next brew session.

Brew on!

pnj · 08-02-2011, 08:46 PM

40 Gallons!!!???!!

I use less than 20 easily. I think my IC is 50 foot x 1/2inch. I run my water into buckets and use the hot water from the first one to clean my kettle and other items. Then I use the water to water plants around the yard.

One thing I do is, don't turn the hose on full blast. I adjust the water pressure during the whole chilling process so I'm not wasting water. It takes me around 10-12 minutes to cool my wort. (five gallons ish)

dukes7779 · 08-06-2011, 07:55 PM

How often do you brew? How often do you shower? depending on when your house was built/fixtures installed, you use 25-50 (2.5gpm for newer fixtures, 5gpm for older fixtures) for a 10 minute shower.........each day........per person. 40 gallons per batch is not that much considering the average household usage as long as you don't brew daily. so, how often do you brew? if you brew once a week then reduce your daily showers by 2 minutes and 15 seconds each day to make up for that 40 gallons (assuming a 2.5gpm rate).

JohnTheBrewist · 08-07-2011, 04:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by logdrum

OK, I want pics & instructions!

-d

Here ya go!

lamarguy · 08-07-2011, 05:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JohnTheBrewist

Here ya go!

In all seriousness, glycol is good as a second pass chiller but doesn't scale to 10+ gallons without major assistance.

I've been using two plate chillers in series for the past year. The first plate chiller (30 plate) is fed tap water and knocks the temp down to ~86F (ground water is ~80F). The second plate chiller (20 plate) is fed -20F glycol from a 5 gal corny keg via compressed air.

The glycol keg is stored in a chest freezer and a simple valve on the outlet side controls the glycol flow. No pumps to break or freeze and the footprint is MUCH smaller than a dedicated glycol chilling system.

Rivenin · 08-07-2011, 06:32 PM

no chill. only water it requires is cleaning out the vessel :thumbup:

lamarguy · 08-07-2011, 10:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rivenin

no chill.

No, you chill!

Seriously, if you believe you can brew a wide range of beer styles with 'no chill', you're mistaken. But, yes, 'no chill' works for a narrow range of beer styles.

Personally, I'm not patient enough to wait 24hrs for wort to reach room temperature. My yeast are hungry.

**dnslater** · 08-07-2011, 11:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ajwillys

Just do what you are already doing but don't waste the water. Get yourself a sump pump (if you don't already have one), capture the water into a rain barrel or similar, and reuse it for watering plants, washing the car, etc... You could even re-use it later for chilling wort.

You could also use an immersion chiller and keep the runoff in a bucket to water plants with. Or use it to fill your hot bath.

Perfect to sit in with a cold beverage after a brew session.

birvine · 08-08-2011, 01:42 AM

I hooked my outlet hose from the IC to our rainwater barrel (which was very low due to low rainfall this summer) this afternoon. I actually filled the whole thing! Used a lot of it in the garden tonight!

B