I brewed a batch on Friday and decided to measure the amount of water it took to chill a 10 gallon batch with my homemade counter flow chiller with 25ft of coiled tubing. It ended up at about 60 gallons of water!
I hate to be wasteful so during the summer I normally water my garden with the chiller but here in Oregon it rains for about 8 months of the year so my plants definitely have no need for extra water now. Therefore I am trying to brainstorm other ways to recycle the water. I've seen lots of 55 gallon food grade barrels on Craigslist for relatively cheap. I could definitely reuse some of the water for cleaning and sanitizing but I don't think I would use a full 55 gallon barrel between batches just for cleaning. Is there any reason I couldn't use this water for brewing too? I would imagine if people ferment in plastic buckets then there shouldn't be an issue with weird flavors from water that has been stored in a food grade barrel for a month or so. Am I correct or is there something I'm not taking into account?
I hate to be wasteful so during the summer I normally water my garden with the chiller but here in Oregon it rains for about 8 months of the year so my plants definitely have no need for extra water now. Therefore I am trying to brainstorm other ways to recycle the water. I've seen lots of 55 gallon food grade barrels on Craigslist for relatively cheap. I could definitely reuse some of the water for cleaning and sanitizing but I don't think I would use a full 55 gallon barrel between batches just for cleaning. Is there any reason I couldn't use this water for brewing too? I would imagine if people ferment in plastic buckets then there shouldn't be an issue with weird flavors from water that has been stored in a food grade barrel for a month or so. Am I correct or is there something I'm not taking into account?