moving water with hoses

BrewSwag 728
Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
scottfro

scottfro

Well-Known Member
Joined
Feb 19, 2006
Messages
258
Reaction score
0
Location
Vancouver, BC
So my brew sessions are carried out in my land lady's garage since I live in a basement suite. However, this garage is 10 steps uphill and 40 ft from my tap water. This leads too wayyyy to much work moving water in buckets out to the garage for mashing/sparging. I want to use a hose to get the water where it needs to be but I thought I had read somewhere that its a bad idea to use any old garden hose to accomplish this. Is there a special food grade hose I can use for this task thats not terribly expensive?
 
Drinking water hoses usually white in color can be purchased at Wal-Mart in the sporting good section also sometimes in the garden section too. The only problem is that they are only 20' long so you'll need a couple.

Lowes and Home Depot also carry them.
 
Alternatively you could use polyethylene line (the milky white stuff). It is used for water lines for refridgerators, ice makers, pop machines etc. It's also quite cheap, and available at about any hardware store. You can use it with hose barbs or compression fittings, I'd suggest compression fittings if you intend to have high pressure in the line. It's usually sold in 1/4", 3/8" and 1/2" (outside diameters). It has a very low coefficient of friction with water running through so flow rates are good.

There is another similar product that is used for air lines in pneumatic automation systems, it is not foodsafe but is not sold at typical hardware stores. It is more clear than milky white.
 
Drinking water hose found in the RV section at Wal-mart will be your cheapest/easiest route. They can also be found at any RV store and most hardware stores.

For storage, drain, coil the hoses in a bundle and screw the two ends together. Closed system that keeps dirt, dust and the creepy crawlies out.
 
tentacles said:
Alternatively you could use polyethylene line (the milky white stuff). It is used for water lines for refridgerators, ice makers, pop machines etc. It's also quite cheap, and available at about any hardware store. You can use it with hose barbs or compression fittings, I'd suggest compression fittings if you intend to have high pressure in the line. It's usually sold in 1/4", 3/8" and 1/2" (outside diameters). It has a very low coefficient of friction with water running through so flow rates are good.

There is another similar product that is used for air lines in pneumatic automation systems, it is not foodsafe but is not sold at typical hardware stores. It is more clear than milky white.
Click to expand...

Be careful with polyethylene. If it gets hot or if the water passing thru it gets hot such as if it were exposed to sunshine on a warm day. It will start to have a strong plasticine odor and will impart that to the water. I used it when I first started to move water from the HLT and MLT.

My first batch was OK my second batch had a slight off taste I traced to the polyethylene hose.
 
Wow, either the site has evolved, or the militant hose drinkers are all passed out.

When I posted a thread suggesting that hoses might be bad for beer, some hose drinkers took it as some kind of personal assault.Lol.

You might search for it, it was pretty funny stuff.

I remember suggesting an extra leaded "Garden hose stout" recipe for one guy.;)
 
abracadabra said:
Be careful with polyethylene. If it gets hot or if the water passing thru it gets hot such as if it were exposed to sunshine on a warm day. It will start to have a strong plasticine odor and will impart that to the water. I used it when I first started to move water from the HLT and MLT.

My first batch was OK my second batch had a slight off taste I traced to the polyethylene hose.
Click to expand...


I've never had a problem with the drinking water grade stuff - are you sure yours wasn't the type used for pneumatic systems? It *does* impart a flavor.
 
tentacles said:
I've never had a problem with the drinking water grade stuff - are you sure yours wasn't the type used for pneumatic systems? It *does* impart a flavor.
Click to expand...


Yes I'm sure. It was marked for water usage. I use TPR now.
 

Similar threads

K
Do I need a utility sink?
Replies
35
Views
3K
OakIslandBrewery
OakIslandBrewery
A
Fermentation Chamber Filling Up With Water
Replies
11
Views
1K
Deadalus
Deadalus
brewskitom
3V eBrewing Plumbing Advice
Replies
2
Views
754
rjbergen
R
Bart Taylor
Top three effort and time improvements to your Biab setup
Replies
31
Views
3K
doug293cz
doug293cz
R
Cooler Mash Tun
Replies
17
Views
1K
Brewer Mike
B
InkBird 300

Latest posts

Back
Top