brewing in the garage

So I finished building my three-tier brew stand tonight and want to try brewing in the garage. Unfortunately, I don't have a water source in the garage. How do you guys typically get your water? Fill up inside and bring it out? Garden hose? What's your secret.

If you use a garden hose, are you worried about bacteria that could be in the hose (although they'd probably boil out) or any kind of toxins from the hose? I've heard that you're not supposed to drink out of a hose for that reason...yadda, yadda, yadda.

Pics of the brew stand to come.

Thanks.

get a water hose from a RV store. its safe to drink from

Or an RV hose from Walmart, Lowes, HD, Menards, etc. For likely less than any RV store will offer them....

Heckels, I see you are in Sioux Falls... Just head over to Walmart or Menards. Menards actually might be the cheapest. They open at 7 am.

I just fill up a bucket from the sink in the kitchen and carry it outside to pour in my HLT. I figure it's about as big of a hassle as storing, coiling, and uncoiling a hose. I use the regular hose for chilling water and cleaning up.

RV Hose from outside tap. I let it run for a bit when I first turn it on to blow out any water that might have been resting in the house pipes.

Outlet end goes to a "Y". One outlet of the "Y" to a portable plastic laundry sink (I use the sink to rinse stuff off throughout the brew day). Other outlet of the "Y" goes to another RV hose that goes to the brewstand.

Buckets.

I used gallon jugs of spring water from Walmart at about 70 cents a jug for my first batch. It turned out great and got great reviews from all who go to test it. I even did the 3 gallon boil and added the cold jugs of water at the end (unboiled).

Now have an amber ale ready to bottle this weekend. Tastes pretty good too.

I do get my house water coming off a well, and don't like the taste. I also have a fermentation fridge.

Good call on the rv hose! I'm going to just use some buckets today (except run hose for wort chiller) and then hit up menards today to see what a hose runs. Thanks

Also, here's the brewstand

bruin_ale said:

I just fill up a bucket from the sink in the kitchen and carry it outside to pour in my HLT. I figure it's about as big of a hassle as storing, coiling, and uncoiling a hose. I use the regular hose for chilling water and cleaning up.

Click to expand...

This is what I do too. The water from the kitchen sink is filtered.

Morning_Dew said:

RV Hose from outside tap. I let it run for a bit when I first turn it on to blow out any water that might have been resting in the house pipes.

Outlet end goes to a "Y". One outlet of the "Y" to a portable plastic laundry sink (I use the sink to rinse stuff off throughout the brew day). Other outlet of the "Y" goes to another RV hose that goes to the brewstand.

Click to expand...

This sounds like a great idea though, having a sink in the brew area is most valuable.

I'm not set up with a stand yet, but whenever I'm not brewing in the kitchen, I simply fill up some PET carboys and use those. I have a couple of 5 gallon as well as one 3 gallon. I also have a bucket I've marked at 4, 5 and 6 quarts (it's a 2 gallon bucket) for either pulling out of the 5 gallon bucket, or adding more water to whatever is heating up. Has worked out pretty well for me so far.

I hope to be able to fabricate a stand once I've moved (this year) to make things easier. Since I use a propane burner right now anyway, it shouldn't be too much to get a stand fabricated. Of course, that all depends on which route I take for the stand (probably going to use metal)...

I'm also searching for the 4 gallon PET water bottles right now. Once I can locate those, I'll get a couple to put brew water into for transport. Should make things a bit easier. I'll probably get a couple extra to use for fermenting 3 gallon batches of mead in too. :rockin:

I plumbed my garage with pex. Utility sink, chiller spigot and hlt fill. I have a "reverse hose bib" on the garage that I use an RV hose to connect to the house. Works great! I even plumbed my hlt to my sink for hot cleaning water. The sink just drains through the wall to the lawn.

I just have a carbon filter and use a garden hose. Hell i still drink out of the garden hose too! maybe after i finish my brew stand i'll up grade to a RV hose...

Nice stand, heckles! Nice to see a fellow SuFu brewer! What part of town you from?

I use the hose. I guess I'm in the minority here. I've never had any issues using hose water. Everything filters out when I boil. I've used pH test strips while mashing to check levels and I've always been fine.

I fill up my 8 gallon HLT in the kitchen with my strike and sparge water and bring it out to the garage, hot water is already at 125-130 deg so it saves me some time (and propane) compared to heating up the 60 deg ground water.

Luckily there is an outside door in the kitchen and the garage is 20' away, worth the extra hassle.

I usually fill a keg or bucket and work from that. It's a pain though. I have been debating bottles water. Just buy enough for your brew day, it won't be over $10, and it's already measured.

petep1980 said:

and it's already measured.

Click to expand...

I don't measure the water going in.. just pour a bunch in and take note of where the sightglass on my HLT is. Then for all my infusions I just subtract based on that.

I also use the RV hose as my dedicated water source, to run it in the garage I have a window near the spigot. Pull it through the window to the kettle and have every thing hooked up with quick connects and shut off valves so I can leave it on during my whole brew day without much if any waste water. Also saves a lot of running back and forth to turn it on or off.

Looking foward to the day I can install a utillity sink in the garage to make every thing a little easier, but untill then this method works pretty good for me

dandw12786 said:

Nice stand, heckles! Nice to see a fellow SuFu brewer! What part of town you from?

Click to expand...

Hey, very nice to see someone from SuFu on he the forums. I'm on the waaay north end of town but it's a very quick hop onto 229 to get to taylor's pantry for my supplies

Yesterday went well, all things considered. I ended up just filling up water inside and bringing it out. I did find out my turkey fryer lacks some balls. My electric stove can heat water faster. I'm going to play with it a little more to see if it's a settings thing.

I also think I'm going to bring the brew pot in to chill next time. My hoses are POS and were leaking all ove the place and the weight of the hose actually pulled my chiller halfway out of the brew kettle. The only fear is spilling 6 gallons of 200 degree water all over on my way up the stairs.

heckels said:

Hey, very nice to see someone from SuFu on he the forums. I'm on the waaay north end of town but it's a very quick hop onto 229 to get to taylor's pantry for my supplies

Yesterday went well, all things considered. I ended up just filling up water inside and bringing it out. I did find out my turkey fryer lacks some balls. My electric stove can heat water faster. I'm going to play with it a little more to see if it's a settings thing.

I also think I'm going to bring the brew pot in to chill next time. My hoses are POS and were leaking all ove the place and the weight of the hose actually pulled my chiller halfway out of the brew kettle. The only fear is spilling 6 gallons of 200 degree water all over on my way up the stairs.

Click to expand...

I feel your pain there, I drag my kettle down to the utility sink in the basement every brew session and it wasn't so bad when I was doing partial boils for extract batches but now that I'm doing full boils for all grain its no fun.

bruin_ale said:

I just fill up a bucket from the sink in the kitchen and carry it outside to pour in my HLT. I figure it's about as big of a hassle as storing, coiling, and uncoiling a hose. I use the regular hose for chilling water and cleaning up.

Click to expand...

Ditto. Fill up 2x5 gallon buckets and I'm set for water needs for the brew day.

I "make" my water in the days before my brewday via my RO system and keep it in 5 gallon polycarbonate drinking water carboys. Even before I had an RO system I used this method with my carbon filter since you should run a very slow flow rate through carbon filters (an hour per 5 gallons). Works great for me!