Thoughts on hotter hose water?

Trying to think of way to cut down on batch times, along with cutting down on propane use. One idea was to tap into the hot water heater or to use a tankless/point of use heater. Any thoughts on that? Any other ideas or processes that anyone has used?

 

I'm rocking a Nortiz tankless water heater. I pull my 180 H2O right out of the unit for mash & sparge. Works great. I can brew an AG batch in around 3.5 hours, thanks to hot water on demand.

Its a really great thing, but the investment in a tankless is a bit of a bite.

I think some use their tank hot water heater for brewing, but most don't think its a good idea because of the mineral/sediment that sits in hot water tanks - this can adversely affect your brew.

 

I hear the tankless is the way to go. I looked into it and was about to pull the trigger for the house only to find out that they don't work well here in Bend. They just can't heat the water enough. My tap water is just too cold.

 

How about a basic electric HLT on a simple plug in timer. Fill the day before and it will be ready when you are.

 

I'm assuming that would be the same for here in Colorado

 

How much would something like that cost to put together? I have a 15gal keg i could use for this, but then the issue could come up "what if i need more water in that instant?".

 

thats what i'm starting to find out about the tankless, is the cost involved with them. not as cheap as the $200 we were initially thinking.

for the home tank hot water heater, regarding the sediment and minerals. i have a filtration setup that i use to filter my tap water for brewing. if i installed that inline with the tank water, would it work for filtering that stuff out? since its a home type setup, i would assume it would hold up to the temps?

 

FWIW I wouldn't pull it from the bottom faucet of the water heater but you could split it off of the top where it flows in to the house. You'd need a valve to control the flow though. Just my $0.02.

 

I like that idea. Only problem is that we are renting this house, so i doubt they want me cutting up their water lines

 

Do it right and they will never know.

 

Hmm.. not sure which way to go at this point. I think it will either be tapping the current water heater and running a hose up from the basement on brew days, or building a giant HLT that will be ready for morning brew days. I really do need to upgrade my current 6gal HLT to something more towards the 15gal range anyways.. tough cal at this point lol

 

Have you got a utility sink in that basement? If so the faucett may have threads on it so you can screw a hose on to that. I know mine does but no way is SWMBO going to allow me to run a hose across the house on a brew day.

 

Look at the Noritz units. They can do it. I did a test with mine. My ground water at 47 degrees - had 180 degree flowing out of my unit at a flow rate of 2.4 gal per minute. That's 133 degrees in temp rise instantly. If the water was colder, it would do it, but the gpm would probably go down a little.

But even at 2.4 gpm, I can fill my MT in 5 or less minutes.

I think it largely depends on which unit you select. There are many that can't handle it, but there definately are those that can.

 

FWIW, I use hot water right out of the tab, no filter, to fill my HLT for Strike. I used to filter the hot water out of the tab, but the hot water is a bitch on water filters. They only last like one batch and then the flow gets so slow i have to through them out.

Then use filtered cold water to refill the HLT for my sparge water. I have enough time to heat the sparge water while mashing.

That way at least half or more of my water is filtered. Fortunately, our tap water in my neighborhood isn't too bad. Even out of the hot water tap it's not bad. I've let it cool and then tasted it and it's fine.

 

I'm wanting to keep my water the same since i've had good results with it so far, so i would ideally like to continue to filter it. Although when I move from Parker to Aurora hopefully that wont change it much if at all.

For now i think we just decided to pick up another burner and utilize one of my other keggles. We will probably re-visit the idea once we move up to something bigger (1bbl +)

 

I'm in Centennial on ECCV water. Overall it's been pretty good, but it does change through out the year depending on what aquifer they are pulling/blending from.

I'd call the water district and have them test your water at the tap and have them give you the results. They're normally pretty good about doing that for you.

 

Thanks

 

Get a small pot about 20 Qts. Install a 1500W water element to increase boil speed. Place pot on stove to get your hot water ready. You can setup a 1/2" or 3/8" valve on the pot. I also use a 2qt electric kettle, it boils water in 6-7 minutes.

Deltac

 

1500 w element 10 bucks
wire and plug 10-15 bucks
appliance timer 10-15 bucks
misc epoxy / jb weld to pot element 10 bucks

say 40 bucks plus minus, another 10 bucks for a gfi outlet if you don't have one already