help finding a workaround!!!!

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the_alaskan

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First off, want to say hi as this is my first post here on the forums.

I am wanting to start brewing my own beer, and in doing research and trying to visualize how the process will actually work in my kitchen, I realized that I have a rather big snag.

NONE of the faucets in the house are threaded, or have any way to connect a hose, thus making chilling my wort near impossible. There is a hose bib outside.... but that would be THE absolute LAST resort. Anyone got any good work around for this? anybody with a similar experience?
 
On most standard faucets you can remove the faucet aerator and buy an adapter that screws into it's place that you can then connect a hose to. That's what I had to do and it works fine.
 
Judging from your location, you could probably get away with a simple ice bath to chill things down, especially for the first few batches while you get a feel for the process itself. My first year or two of brewing, I simply did partial boils and dumped onto a few pounds of ice directly to chill. I'd strongly recommend doing something along those lines yourself for a few batches before you invest in additional equipment.

That's not to say you'll never want to upgrade; just that in the early stages, I think getting comfortable with the brewing process itself is far more important than jumping directly to optimizing your cooling technique :mug:.
 
Buy a cheap aquarium pump and put that in a bucket, run a hose from the pump through an immersion chiller and have the output hose going into your sink.
 
+1. It's like a three dollar part at any Home Depot or equivalent.

that would be the simplest option... if things ever worked that way for me. but all the faucets are the kind where you pull out the head, and it has a "shower" head so you can choose a stream or a shower. I looked at it and there is no way it will work.

I really didn't want to do the ice bath method, but that may be what I have to do:(
 
My first few batches, I would buy a two gallon container of spring water and chill it to 34 deg in the coldest part of my refrigerator. That plus a brief ice bath brought the wort down to 70 in 20 minutes.
 
If you're doing partial boils, ice baths are fine. It's just when you start trying to chill more than 2.5 or 3 gallons that it becomes a total PITA, in terms of how much ice you need, how long it takes, and trying to move a full pot of boiling wort to the sink.

The aquarium pump should work fine. As an *extreme* solution, I've heard of people adding a "T" under the sink to hook up their immersion chillers, but that's obviously a much bigger project that you'd need to do, just starting out. If you're handy with a propane torch, it's an option.
 
the_alaskan said:
that would be the simplest option... if things ever worked that way for me. but all the faucets are the kind where you pull out the head, and it has a "shower" head so you can choose a stream or a shower. I looked at it and there is no way it will work.

I really didn't want to do the ice bath method, but that may be what I have to do:(

I had the same problem as you, and I do full boils. I actually had a sink capable of it in the basement, but it would be too dangerous carrying 5gal of hot wort down the stairs. I needed to use my main kitchen faucet.

So I did a workaround in a fairly literal sense. I installed a tee on the cold water pipe just underneath the sink, and then put a ball valve on it (and a garden hose adapter on the valve).

Not only did this give me a cold water source right beside my stove, but because I installed the tee on the rigid 1/2" section of pipe (before it gets reduced to 3/8ths for the faucet), the flow is WAY faster than it would be with a faucet.

In fact, I'm moving in 2 weeks, and even if I CAN just screw an adapter into the faucet at my new place, I'm still going to tie into the 1/2" pipe, because it's just so amazing. I assume it'd also be great for people who don't want to just leave the adapter in the faucet 24/7, but also don't want to have to switch it every time. But the improvement in flow is reason enough for me... a faucet just doesn't compare.
 
that would be the simplest option... if things ever worked that way for me. but all the faucets are the kind where you pull out the head, and it has a "shower" head so you can choose a stream or a shower. I looked at it and there is no way it will work.

I really didn't want to do the ice bath method, but that may be what I have to do:(

the faucet head should screw off. Its then just a matter of finding an adapter to convert to garden hose.
 
rmullins said:
the faucet head should screw off. Its then just a matter of finding an adapter to convert to garden hose.

My faucets are probably the same as his. There is *nowhere* that they are able to screw off. It's just not an option with certain faucets.
 
I'm using Northern Brewer extract kits with 2.5 gallon boils and it takes only 15-20 minutes in an ice bath in the kitchen sink. Until I am doing 5 gallon boils I will be sticking with the ice bath method. Next I will probably make a homemade IC and use it in the kitchen sink.
 
I had the same problem as you, and I do full boils. I actually had a sink capable of it in the basement, but it would be too dangerous carrying 5gal of hot wort down the stairs. I needed to use my main kitchen faucet.

So I did a workaround in a fairly literal sense. I installed a tee on the cold water pipe just underneath the sink, and then put a ball valve on it (and a garden hose adapter on the valve).

Not only did this give me a cold water source right beside my stove, but because I installed the tee on the rigid 1/2" section of pipe (before it gets reduced to 3/8ths for the faucet), the flow is WAY faster than it would be with a faucet.

In fact, I'm moving in 2 weeks, and even if I CAN just screw an adapter into the faucet at my new place, I'm still going to tie into the 1/2" pipe, because it's just so amazing. I assume it'd also be great for people who don't want to just leave the adapter in the faucet 24/7, but also don't want to have to switch it every time. But the improvement in flow is reason enough for me... a faucet just doesn't compare.

like this idea. However, if you have the flexible piping going to your faucet. just buy a T and screw it on. Would cost about $5 and take less than 10 minutes.
 
i guess this info would have been good at the start of the thread but I omitted it by accident. I plan on doing 2.5 or 3 gallon batches of brew. So would the ice bath be fast enough ( and I'm just worrying about nothing) ?

Edit: this is a little off topic, but i didnt really want to start a new thread for this yet. But are there any real big differences between AG and PM for a 2.5 or 3Gal. brew? what would be some of the pitfalls to watch for?
 
Ice bath will be plenty fast for smaller batches. As I mentioned before, particularly for your first few, it'll move faster than you're really prepared for anyway :).

AG vs. partial/extract: there are differences regardless of the size of the batch. Pitfalls for which side?
 
Sorry I wasn't too clear. I want to do AG but due to some constraints ( such as needing to boil indoors on a electric range) I was wondering if PM would be better? Or would AG be fesable since I want to do a 2.5 gallon final batch? I was curious about the challenges of doing a 2.5 gal batch of AG
 
It should be feasible, but it's impossible to say for sure because all stoves are different.

Try boiling 4 gallons of water on your stove. That'll give you the best idea.
 
I strongly encourage you to do extract for your first few batches. Make sure your cleaning, sanitation, and fermentation are perfect before worrying about mashing grains. Cleaning, sanitation and fermentation are critical for good beer and realy need to be mastered before adding another potental headache.
 
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