Apartment brewing

[Hermish]

I just moved, and I had to go from a house to an apartment. This means that I had to leave my sweet 3 tier system behind and go back to extract in the kitchen. The question that I have is about cooling the wort after I'm done brewing. I used an ice bath last time I brewed, but it takes forever, and I don't have a ton of ice ever. I have 2 wort chillers so I had a prechiller and then one in the pot when I was at home, but now I don't have a water spigot. The kitchen sink doesn't have any threads, so I was thinking I might be able to use the spigot that goes into the washing machine. I haven't tried it to see if the threads even work, and I would need to find somewhere to drain the water, but I wanted to see if any of you had any good advice for me.
Thanks

 

[homebrewer_99]

I'm an extract brewer also.

I do 1.5 gal boils.

I also place 4 1 gal milk (water) jugs in the freezer for 4-5 hours prior to brewing.

Possible to do in an apartment fridge freezer if you removed the food and the shelves. It's not really a good idea to to remove the food.

For your situation I would probably recommend a wort chiller. It could be hooked up to the washers water supply and an exit hose to the tub or kitchen sink. Anyone local you can borrow from instead of putting out the cash?

 

[jpsloan]

I'm in the same boat, apartment-wise. I do 2.5 gallon boils on the range, and I use an ice bath in the sink. I use two of the small bags of ice from the gas station and get the water up to the wort level. It generally gets the temp down to 80 in twenty minutes.

 

[homebrewer_99]

Isn't there a trick where you add salt to the ice to make it colder?

 

[Beerrific]

They sell things that will go over the water spigot on your bath tub so you can make a shower without having to put pipes in the wall. You might be able to buy one of these the cut the shower head off and hook it up to the chiller.

 

[Raffie]

I'm in a condo and its like the place your in.

I got my wart chiller and a use the shower to cool it.

I remove the shower head and put on a adapter on and screw the wart chiller onto it and run the cold water throught it. works like a charm.

I went to Lowes and got a brass adaprt that goes onto the shower threads and the outside of it has threads for a hose like outisde.

 

[Craig5_12]

Why not just get a length of tubing that fits over the kitchen faucet and size it down/up to fit your wort chiller?

 

[Hermish]

For your situation I would probably recommend a wort chiller. It could be hooked up to the washers water supply and an exit hose to the tub or kitchen sink. Anyone local you can borrow from instead of putting out the cash?

I have 2 wort chillers already. That is why I was hoping to use the washing machine spigot, and was just wondering if anyone had done this before or had any advice for me.

 

[homebrewer_99]

They sell things that will go over the water spigot on your bath tub so you can make a shower without having to put pipes in the wall. You might be able to buy one of these the cut the shower head off and hook it up to the chiller.

...or you can buy a new shower with the kind that is attached to a hose and just screw off the head. There's no need to cut anything.

 

[Hermish]

Why not just get a length of tubing that fits over the kitchen faucet and size it down/up to fit your wort chiller?

That might be a good idea. I'll have to see how big the size change is, and if I could do it easily with minimal leaking.

 

[kvh]

No, it's easier than that even - I'm in an apartment too. Just use an immersion chiller, leave the pot on the stove (with the burner off of course). Next to that, dump a bag of ice into an unneeded fermenter or large bowl, and fill that with cold water. Siphon from that, through your immersion chiller, and drain into another bucket on the floor.

In my experience, a 7lb bag of ice into a half full bucket of cold water gets you down to 80 or 90 degrees. I usually add a little more water to what's left of my ice to bring it down that last little bit. If you use an auto siphon, you can run it solo and not worry about your ice bucket running dry....

Then you can just dump your warm 'chill' water out on the garden and not just down the drain.

 

[SkaBoneBenny]

I'm in an apartment now, and I'm going to be doing my AG on the back porch as we're lucky enough to have a little patio/deck/balcany thing in back. I'm moving into a new place this Septemeber and I've already staked out either the tiny grassy patch in front of the apartment or the scurvy alley next to it. Then i'll just chill the wort with the wort chiller in the sink! You just gotta find a way to make it work.
-Ben

 

[Craig5_12]

Shouldn't be too tough. They have big fat rubber reducers/couplers for bathroom plumbing that would probably work great.
Good Luck!

 

[Yooper]

What about a waterbed fill kit for your sink? I don't think they require threads, IIRC. You could hook a hose up to the waterbed fill kit and then to your sink. Or do it in the tub.

 

[tbulger]

I have used the washer hookup before. It is the same size as a regular hose spigot, works like a charm, just make sure you use the cold water faucet instead of the hot.

 

[The Pol]

Your garden hose adapter WILL fit where your washer is connected! I have done it, and then drained the hot waste water into the washer itself and did a load of laundry! Try it, youll like it!

 

[Desert_Sky]

Isn't there a trick where you add salt to the ice to make it colder?

Just like making homemade ice cream. Add rock salt to the ice and the temp drops quite a bit

 

[Brewing Clamper]

I'm an extract brewer also.

I do 1.5 gal boils.

Don't mean to hijack but, what's hops utilization at that BG!? Or do you do late additions?

 

[Two Dog's Brewing]

I bought an adapter for my kitchen faucet from LHBS. You take off the thing that holds the screen, It is universal it has threads on the inside and out, for different faucets. Some attach inside the faucet and some thread on the outside.

Go to Lowes and get a brasshose fitting to 3/8" nipple. Get some hose clamps. Put about 2" of 3/8"ID tubing and attach it to the 3/8 nipple on the brass hose fitting now screw the adapter fron the LHBS and then put on the brass hose fitting. Now when you move your wort to the sink all you do is slide the tubing 3 or 4" onto the copper imersion cooler. Turn the water on slowly. That way it goes staight to drain and theres no water splashing or anything I go from full 5 gallon boil to 75 degrees in 15 minutes. While Im colling I pull the cooler in and out of the wort to vigorously aireate the work.

TDB

 

[ajf]

The washing machine hookupshould be the same as a garden hose hookup. You should be able to poke the discharge from the chiller into the washing machine drain.

-a.

 

[attitude]

heres what i do, i had a pond pump( bought at home depot). i hooked it up to my wort chiller. then i filled my sink with ice and water . as i pumped water through the wort ,it was recycled through the ice bath and it conserves water. if you need pics let me know.