Garage and outdoor brewers....

A shout out to my fellow garage brewers.I use a garden hose for all my water needs.How about you?
I usually remember to let it run for a moment first.Our beer still tastes great.
Cheers

I use filtered tap water from the kitchen. I usually fill an old bottling bucket to the 8 gallon mark the night before and then take it with me to brew in the morning.

I have been using it right from the garden hose all summer without any problems. I do let it run a bit though.
Tomorow I'll be brewing in the garage (do it outside when it's not so damn cold) and I'll have hot and cold running water now. So I have gone to a drinking safe hose and a filter. Tomorrow will be the first brew with it.

I usually use refillable 5 gallon jugs of store-bought RO water. Sometimes I'll use a small amount of tap water through a food grade hose.

I can taste hose if I drink directly from it so I don't use it. I need just over three five gallon pails for a batch so I haul them from the outdoor tap.

I do five gallon batches outside and my "brew pit" is about 15 feet from the water spout, so I've not seen much need to add a garden hose to the mix. Water goes from the spout right into the kettle and the kettle goes on the burner. I don't filter it yet.

I'm an outdoor, not a garage brewer and I also have no hose. But if I did I would use an RV water hose. Only $20CDN at Home Depot and perfect for potable water.

I use an RV hose outside with an inline RV water filter for my brews.

EdWort said:

I use an RV hose outside with an inline RV water filter for my brews.

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Now that's a good idea. There can be quite a bit of rust and metallic debris in my tap water (35 year old galvanized pipes) so I have to filter. At the moment I just fill gallon jugs from a single stage charcoal filter mounted under my kitchen sink, but now that I'm brewing outside the RV filter sounds a lot more convenient.

Do they use regular garden hose fittings?

I plan on picking up a food grade hose next time I am out. It cant hurt.

My boil water will come from the tap. Whatever household source is convenient. Topping off is only done w/ bottled water.

AG's 100% House water
Extract & PM's - 60% house 40% bottled

extracts are 100% distilled
ag use artesian spring from the park down the rd

I carry the water for my brew from the kitchen tap, but now you guys have gotten me interested in trying a hose. But my spigot is about 100 ft from my garage, so I probably won't do that till the temp gets back above freezing next spring. Woudn't want the water in the hose to freeze mid-brew:cross:

I used to use a garden hose and carbon filter, but switched to an RV hose this summer. I think my brews improved. I don' know if it was the hose or I've just gotten better, but they do taste better. I picked up a short RV hose for like $15 or less at Wallyworld.

i did my first two all grains using outside tap water and blamed that on both of them turning out ****. turns out they were **** because i squeezed my grain getting loads of juicy tannins in my brew. lesson learned although now i still prefer to use tap water from the kitchen and my brews have been awesome and tannin free. we have really good water here.

I'm close enough to the deep sink that I just use my old kettle. It has accurate gallon marks, which makes it most useful.

I have a 6 stage RO/DI filter for my reef aquarium. I put a T and a valve off of the 3rd stage so that I have a .5 micron sediment filter followed by a .5 micron carbon block followed by a .1 micron carbon block. This is the water I use for my brew.

-J

just bought my 25ft rv hose from walleyworld $10

I use water from my under sink filter in the house for all the brew water. I just use the hose for my chiller and clean up.

BlindLemonLars said:

Now that's a good idea. There can be quite a bit of rust and metallic debris in my tap water (35 year old galvanized pipes) so I have to filter. At the moment I just fill gallon jugs from a single stage charcoal filter mounted under my kitchen sink, but now that I'm brewing outside the RV filter sounds a lot more convenient.

Do they use regular garden hose fittings?

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Inline "RV" water filters(<$35) are available with 3/4"GH fittings, coupled with a drinking water hose(usually white with a blue or gold stripe) would make the perfect setup to bring fresh water to the garage or outdoor brew spot...
Some filters will eliminate most of the minerals and a lot of the calcium ions from the water, so you may want to add some food grade gypsum to increase hardness.
I use a simple wholehouse prefilter since I've replaced my old galvanized lines with cpvc.
I also benefit from the ability to use hot water into the brewpot without any worries (do a search on "cooking with hot tap water") since I've replaced my outdated 40g water heater with a tankless model
(BTW, I actually use 2 tankless water heaters and can control water temp to within a couple degrees up to about 200`f@)
Couple that with hot and cold water(on a mixing valve) within 20ft of my garage, a 50' drinking water hose works very nicely!

Well I used my 50' of RV hose hooked to a inline RV filter then hooked to the copper pipes on my brew tower. Man was that GREAT... All I had to do was flip a lever and watch the water fill the HTL. No more lader climbing and all that crap. The water went in at 115* and I was able to do it standing on the ground. I also hit 89.9% effi. :rockin:

5isnotenough said:

Inline "RV" water filters(<$35) are available with 3/4"GH fittings, coupled with a drinking water hose(usually white with a blue or gold stripe) would make the perfect setup to bring fresh water to the garage or outdoor brew spot...

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Thanks for the info, now that I'm brewing outside this sounds like a great setup for me. Sure beats my current MO, which is to (slowly!!) fill individual gallon jugs from my kitchen sink filter tap. Both the RV filter and hose are going onto my short list.

I don't live in a jungle by any means, but I know that leaving any moisture in a lawn/garden hose in summer will cause stuff to grow, attract bugs and such, and running water over this won't do much to rid the water of the icky stuff. Sure boiling will kill the stuff, but the 'stuff' is still in your water...

At the very least, you should use a dedicated hose that isn't left laying on the grass.

The RV hose thing is the safest solution. Let hang to dry to keep growth to a minimum, and then store in a clean place.

My outdoor tap is softened water which has been said to be bad for brewing. In addition I mash inside then boil outside.
So what I do is prepare my 50/50 RO and softener bypass water with a campden tablet to remove chlorine the night before. Then I heat my mash water on the stove and mash-in in the kitchen. Once I do my first draining, I carry the brew kettle outside to boil.
If I get more serious about brewing (spend more money on it) I will route unsoftened water to the outside tap and use an RV hose and filter like Edwort. That obviously is going to take a considerable investment.
Craig

I moved to the country last year - and our ground water has high Nitrates. We have about a 3 gallon RO system hooked up, but I have to constantly fill gallon jugs for enough water - which is also time consuming - you never get 3 gallons out of it at a time! I purchased 4 - 2.5 gallon jugs of water for my two AG brews this weekend though.

Around here I can buy a 5 gallon glass jug full of purified water for around $9. It's the best of all worlds. Everytime I brew, I get a new carboy and 5 gallons of purified water. No hoses, no filters, no BS.

Garden hose, I have drank from it for years so I don't see any reason not to brew with the water from it.

I have filtered & softened well water. It is very hard. I use it unsoftened for IPA's but that is all. I use RO bottled for everything else.

Fingers said:

I can taste hose if I drink directly from it

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Oh man, am i the only one that laughed at this?