Brewing Green

[bashe]

I recycle my kegs, when one goes empty I clean and refill it.

 

[telemarc]

I've noticed that a lot of people on this forum use their dishwashers to sanitize bottles. Not very green, IMO. Starsan in a spray bottle is cheaper than electricity!

 

[cyberbackpacker]

I will be building a solar powered brew shed/garage in the spring... all energy consumed in said building will be totally off-grid. The panels will pay for themselves in 2 years at the estimated rate of use (brewing, garage door, lights, power tools, etc.)

Plus other things mentioned above...

 

[SenorWanderer]

I will be building a solar powered brew shed/garage in the spring... all energy consumed in said building will be totally off-grid. The panels will pay for themselves in 2 years at the estimated rate of use (brewing, garage door, lights, power tools, etc.)

Plus other things mentioned above...

how far along in the planning are you? are you using a battery system? will you have an all electric brewery? please post the details if you've got 'em. i hope you'll start a build thread when you start the project.

 

[eriktlupus]

Not getting into a global warming debate.

With my new indoor brewing system I plan to use the chiller runoff to do a load of laundry. I compost the spent grains and hops. Growing my own hops (No transportation costs and uses of energy to get them to me) I also keg so less washing water wasted. Plus no more extra gas spent carrying home beer in my car.

i like the laundry idea now that it's winter. usually i send my chiller water into my rain barrels and then recycle that through the chiller next time.

 

[Gregredic]

you're ignorance and zealotry as a global warming denier is disgusting. keep it to yourself. this thread is about how to conserve while brewing. no one gives a $hit about the politics of you and your mouth-breather friends. this isn't the forum for it.

You should definitely PM me...and we will debate it.

 

[Yuri_Rage]

Keep it civil, or it gets closed.

 

[Revvy]

I thought this was supposed to be about practical tips...If people want to debate this, then split it off from the original discussion and take it over to the debate side of this place...Where some of us have it blocked, so we don't have to participate in the debate or not...

Whether or not you believe in any of this stuff, you have to admit that we end up WASTING a lot of water and other stuff in our hobby (and if you pay for your own water for instance, that can end up adding up to some $$ I think Grinder even mentioned on another thread how expensive his treated water was...I for one, though no environmentalist, would like to get more PRACTICAL TIPS on this subject....

Do you think the people who want to participate on topic, could be allowed allowed to do so, and those who want to troll or debate...go over to the debate section? Tthat's why we have one.

 

[cyberbackpacker]

how far along in the planning are you? are you using a battery system? will you have an all electric brewery? please post the details if you've got 'em. i hope you'll start a build thread when you start the project.

I moved to PA from SoCal in June (and lived in Boulder right near Galinos before that move) and have been researching solar for a while for general home use.

Basically the brew system is still in research, but will be all electric. I am gathering kegs, researching controllers, heating elements, etc.

As long as the economy doesn't drop any further, this should be started in late April. Our house does not have a garage, so we are building one, and I got the thumbs up to add a brew room.

So we are taking our solar panel desires and applying it to the garage electric needs.

 

[Gregredic]

Has anyone built a passive solar panel system to preheat water? They are fairly inexpensive to make, and you can find plans online for making them.

 

[vav]

I now do my boil over a pile of burning tires. That way I can get rid of the tires and brew at the same time.

Seriously though, whenever I drink my homebrew, I make sure to pee in this big bucket, then I filter that and use it as my brew liquor for my next batch.

No really, I go and club baby seals, then use their blubber layer for insulating my MLT. It works great.

Dear Sirs or Madams,

I am intrigued by your ideas and would like to sub-scribe to your news-letter.

Thank you,

vav

 

[High_Noonan]

Has anyone built a passive solar panel system to preheat water? They are fairly inexpensive to make, and you can find plans online for making them.

Sorry to reply to a wicked old thread, but this is the route I am heading in. I have a detached garage with a single wicked sketchy electrical run from the breaker box in the basement (was installed by previous owner). I seriously do not want to run much more power over it than I already do, so eventually I would like to make the garage self-sufficient as far as power is concerned.

But, right now I am researching solar water heaters used with rain barrels. I think I am starting to grasp the basics of it, but there is a long stretch from a half-assed ghetto install to a professional turn-key solution. I'd like to find that middle way and build something decent that is not going to piss off SWMBO, the neighbors or draw the attention of the local zoning board!

As far as my current hot water needs in the garage, I think 10gal should be plenty. I have cold water running to the utility sink via an RV hose. Gotta tell you, I have entirely fallen in love with having a sink in the garage! It was this current set up that got me thinking that adding solar heated hot water would be like heaven.


Oh, back on topic, right now my "green" tips are StarSan in a corny and don't brew for over a year between batches! I'm itching to get brewing again...making the switch to AG in the garage. So many little odds and ends you wind up needing. Sheesh!
I'd love to hear some more new ideas for saving/reusing water. Hey, Texas? What have you guys come up with?

 

[Shift]

Have a look at this("Nästa sida" for next page) for some inspiration, a whole lot of cans gives some rather hot air. Something similar could be built for water, then you can even drain it by gravity, altough sanitation might be an issue.