Rain barrel recycler

I've been trying to brew as green as I can and I hate how much water I let run down into the drain when using my wort chiller.
Here's what I came up with. I got a rain barrel, drilled a 3/4 inch hole, stuck a 3/4 inch barb in it, and attached a hose bib to the barb.

Now when I run my chiller, I hook up the "in" line to the hose bib and "out" line to a garden hose. Then, I just stick the hose in the barrel.
The water's gravity fed, but you don't need a bunch of water to run a immersion chiller...just enough to get the copper cold. The only thing I haven't figured out is what to do in the summer, but I've got 4 months to think of something.

That is a damn good idea.

I'm just north of you; we get enough rain to fill that barrel overnight.

I catch my chiller waste water in a number of 5 gallon buckets so they are easy to carry to the garden.

use a pond pump and a prechiller in an ice bath for the summer, the output can be ran back into the top of the barrel.

I think a lot of homebrewers waste huge amounts of water and I'm digging this.

BenDover said:

That is a damn good idea.

I'm just north of you; we get enough rain to fill that barrel overnight.

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Thanks dude...you could wait for the rain, but what I did was let the hose fill the barrel the last time I brewed. I filled all 55 gallons with the water it took to cool my wart. That means I'm saving 55 gallons of water each week I brew! :rockin:

I just use a pond pump it was about $30 and a cooler filled with ice water or right now snow cooled water. Cooled my wort down in about 10 min and it was a small 36qt cooler.

I really like this idea. Think you'd need to put a screen over it to keep leaves etc. out that could clog the lines?

drat said:

I really like this idea. Think you'd need to put a screen over it to keep leaves etc. out that could clog the lines?

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There's a lid

I run my output water to the empty washing machine, then do a load of laundry. I like the extra cooling capacity of municipal water, which remains a fairly constant 52F year-round.