Running Water and Sanitizer

[jwynia]

So as my system has been getting more and more dialed in, I want to build a permanent, wooden brew stand under the outside eave of my garage. There's plenty here for inspiration on that front, but I'm having difficulty finding examples of something I want to include in my stand: running filtered water and sanitizer.

I want both right on the stand. The water is relatively straightforward (though I still have to work out all of the fittings, etc. and whether to use pex or copper), by running RV garden hose to the stand, where a carbon filter (or eventually a RO, etc.) feeds plumbing to a spigot above my BIAB kettle/tun as well as to one in a laundry-style sink.

Once I started thinking about that, I realized I really want sanitizer with equal ease. Obviously, there's not a convenient spigot on the side of my house with StarSan or iodine. But, my thought is a reservoir under the stand, like a blue rain barrel, hooked to an appropriate submersible pump could provide the equivalent pressure. Having a sink that drains sanitizer back into the reservoir would make it easy to quickly re-sanitize things right before use, etc.

Getting clever, I could, I suppose, do a 2-sided sink and plumb filtered water to the "cold" side of the faucet and sanitizer to the "hot" and hook the sink drains each to an appropriate spot and then just move the faucet back and forth as I switch between the 2.

That still leaves emptying the sanitizer reservoir when it's no longer good (how long that is is a debate I know has gone on here more than once). Is there a way to neutralize it and then water my trees, etc with it? Or, should I plan on hooking up a hose to my sanitizer line and running it to the nearest appropriate drain in the house?

Looking for anyone who has done this or similar or just has the kind of experience who could steer this to a better design before I start buying gear and building stuff.

 

[RocketBrewer]

Just a thought on placement... If you have eave vents to your attic, you may put a ton of moisture in your attic. Steam rises much like smoke and will likely head into your attic even if the vent isn't right above it. Might need some kind of deflector to force the steam out past the eave. Good luck with the build!

 

[jwynia]

To clarify. Behind my garage is a 4 foot deep area of concrete. Half of that is sheltered by the eave. My plan is to have the stand on locking wheels so it can be pulled out from the garage to actually brew, but pushed back to take advantage of the shelter to keep it or the tarp cover from being abused by the elements too aggressively.

The garage itself isn't finished in any way, with an open "attic" and roof vents. I will watch for moisture getting into the garage though and possibly install solar fans in the roof vents to keep the air moving if it becomes a problem.

 

[PlexVector]

This came to mind while reading your post. If you can get the dose correct this would inject the sanitizer concentrate directly into the water stream, so you don't have to premix. How ever it doesn't solve the problem you proposed.

http://www.cmcpwe.com/accessorycheminjectors.html

Careful recycling used sanitizer. You will need to also have a pH meter to verify it's viability.

 

[jwynia]

I'm not as dedicated to StarSan as a sanitizer as many are. I've used iodine more, actually.

If that will be easier to keep a stable amount in a tank longer, or some other sanitizer might, I'm open to it. The goal here, obviously is to be able to keep re-using *good* sanitizer and safely dispose of it when it's no longer effective.

If I recall correctly, vitamin C can be used to neutralize iodine, which would make dumping some into a tank of iodine an easy way to make it safe to pump out and water the trees.

 

[jwynia]

Also, this system would allow for easily hooking up a chiller to the stand for its water supply.