Newb immesion chiller question

What do you do with the water after it passes through the chiller? Let it run out on the ground/down the drain? Trying to figure out a use for it other than going to waste.

Some people just do exactly that for the entire chill. if you keep the hose going at something less than full bore and it will waste a little less water and still be effective.

I went from doing that alone to only running the garden hose down to around 100 degrees, then switching to a pond pump in a cooler of ice water. It cools faster and lower, and may waste a little less water, although with immersion chiller it's sort of a fact of life...

I normally brew outside and am fortunate enough to have a swimming pool that is usually in need of a little water. Otherwise, I would recapture it to water plants outside around the house.

Maybe collect it and water some plants?

I usually save the warm wart in a tub and use it to start my clean up.

I usually run it into the ceder shrubs. When we were in drought a couple years ago and they were super anal with fines for water use, I used a bilge pump in a giant bucket full of ice water and recirculated the water through the chiller. (PITA and slower.)

50 Gallon drum would make a great collection vessal if you have to worry about what to do with the water.

I've heard of people draining it into the washing machine too

Mine drains down the driveway into the bushes and trees. No waste!

Mine drains into either my lawn or bushes to water them. Also, once my wort gets below 140 or so I start to turn down the flow. If the water coming out of your chiller is colder than your wort, you can slow the flow down and save a bit of water.

I would guess that I use about 20 gallons of water to chill (less in the winter, more in the summer). It goes down the drain and into the cesspool, eventually back into the aquifer, back to the water company, and back to my tap. I sorta feel bad about using so much water...

KepowOb said:

If the water coming out of your chiller is colder than your wort, you can slow the flow down and save a bit of water.

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I'm pretty sure this isn't possible... The water coming out of the chiller can't be hotter than your wort, since it's being heated by the wort. Maybe if the water coming out is significantly colder?

shtoive87 said:

I'm pretty sure this isn't possible... The water coming out of the chiller can't be hotter than your wort, since it's being heated by the wort. Maybe if the water coming out is significantly colder?

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It is very possible for the water through the chiller to be colder than the wort after running through a while. I have 25' of copper that I put in a ice bath that cools the water from the hose before it goes to the actual wort chiller. Once the wort gets below ~140 the water coming out is pretty cold.

When I used an immersion chiller, I did it in a deep sink, filled the sink with frozen water bottles (that I rotated periodically for new ones) or snow, and let the water output from the chiller fill the sink several times around the pot to help cool it quicker...

gdbrewer said:

It is very possible for the water through the chiller to be colder than the wort after running through a while. I have 25' of copper that I put in a ice bath that cools the water from the hose before it goes to the actual wort chiller. Once the wort gets below ~140 the water coming out is pretty cold.

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Oops, totally misread that. I could have sworn it said when the water coming out of the chiller is HOTTER than your wort...

shtoive87 said:

Oops, totally misread that. I could have sworn it said when the water coming out of the chiller is HOTTER than your wort...

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I had a feeling that's what happened! I misread shtuff all the time!! Just my nature.