Conserving Water & Overall Less Wasteful

[Slim M]

Couple years ago, I started back brewing after some time off and one of my goals was to waste less water on brew day. I started capturing the hot water off my immersion chiller for cleaning later and I also recirculate the chiller water with a pump in an ice bath. So I’ve improved but I need to start cutting back on water use on the cleaning & Kegging side also.

I would like to use smaller batches of cleaner, sanitizer, & minimize rinsing. I currently rinse out kegs the day before with an hose and soak overnight with oxi or alkaline brew wash followed by another rinse and then filled with BTF solution no rinse. I use star san for everything but keg sanitizing, I guess because it seems to work well with tap water vs my Star San gets cloudy so I buy a couple gallons of distilled water for it.

Cleaner, rinse water, and sanitizer all get circulated through the out side post of keg as well as the gas side post. How are you guys being more efficient with water on the cleaning & sanitizing process?

 

[Whisky River]

If you have the stomach for it, you could try what’s being discussed here….
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/question-regarding-kegging.736540/#post-10465749

Basically don’t clean your kegs between batches.

Or you could pump a few ounces of Starsan into your sealed co2 filled keg after it kicks to break up the sediment and do a sort of sanitizing rinse, and then purge it out with co2 and then fill it again.

You could also try cleaning your kegs without so much cleaner, just using a little hot water and giving them a quick scrub and rinse with a quart or two of hot water. Unless you ferment in your kegs (which is a whole different story) they should be pretty clean after they are empty and should probably just need a light cleaning. I’m told a toilet brush (preferably new) makes a good scrubber that’s ridged enough to break up any crud without scratching the keg.

Edit: you could also build a keg washer that recirculates the cleaner and rinse water. It might not save you much water doing one keg but if you did a few at a time it might help.

I would personally focus more on sanitizing, and you can save and reuse your Starsan if you make it with distilled or RO water. It should last for several months at least. I keep a cheap set of ph test strips around to check the potency just for peace of mind if it’s been sitting for a really long time but it’s almost always still strong enough to do the job.

 

[tracer bullet]

After I've cleaned a keg, I throw the parts inside it (gaskets, poppets, etc.) and loosely sit the lid on it. Then cover it with a shopping bag put on upside down. When I go to use it I figure I just need minimal sanitizing. When that day comes it's just a few cups of water and a dash of star san in a small bowl, I'll soak the various keg bits for a minute then assemble them, and put the sanitizer in there as well. Slosh it around, pour it out, and call it good. Hasn't failed me yet.

I've also only recently started having the blow-off form fermentation run through the keg itself. I did this to save trips to the store for CO2 but it could also mean you skip filling it with water / star san only to pump it right back out to have it filled w/ CO2 in prep for a cold transfer. It also means, and I hadn't thought of it for water savings, that you can use the same little batch of sanitizer for both the fermenter and the keg at the same time.

 

[Bramling Cross]

I think you'll find a keg washer is pretty good at conserving water. Something like this is cost effective and perfectly adequate. I upgraded mine with a spinning CIP head for an additional twenty bucks.

The nice thing about keg washers is that it allows you to use just ~2gal water and a single dose of the brewery detergent of your choice to clean multiple kegs. I simply toss a keg on the washer, set my watch for 20min, then swap in a new keg. Each keg will need to be rinsed individually, but remember your high school chemistry: three vigorous rinsings are all that you need in an otherwise clean vessel.

At that point, mix up one batch of sanitizer and fill one keg to the brim. On kegging day, pump the sanitizer into one of your clean but empty kegs. This allows you to reuse the sanitizer and produce an oxygen purged keg ready to receive beer.

I typically wait until I have three empty kegs available before I start a new wash/sanitize cycle.

 

[Tony B]

I have one keg dedicated to holding starsan solution made with RO water. I usually keep it for a couple months and use it for sanitizing everything. I will transfer some to a spray bottle that I keep handy. On a brew day I will generally top it off with more RO water and starsan concentrate if necessary, making sure the ph remains around 3 or slightly lower. Once fermentation kicks off, I use a gas to gas jumper from the FV to the starsan keg and from that to a clean empty keg. When all the starsan is in the empty keg I’ll swap them and wind up with a sanitized, purged keg.
I also cool my wort using a cheap pump and once the temp gets below around 90F I will begin recirculating it and adding ice to get down to pitching temp.

 

[Slim M]

I have one keg dedicated to holding starsan solution made with RO water. I usually keep it for a couple months and use it for sanitizing everything. I will transfer some to a spray bottle that I keep handy. On a brew day I will generally top it off with more RO water and starsan concentrate if necessary, making sure the ph remains around 3 or slightly lower. Once fermentation kicks off, I use a gas to gas jumper from the FV to the starsan keg and from that to a clean empty keg. When all the starsan is in the empty keg I’ll swap them and wind up with a sanitized, purged keg.
I also cool my wort using a cheap pump and once the temp gets below around 90F I will begin recirculating it and adding ice to get down to pitching temp.

Yeah few years back when I started back that’s what I started practicing. The hot chill water gets captured in some buckets and then when Wort temp gets South of 100f I start recirculating ice bath water with a pond pump. Save quite a bit of water. My process usually yields just under 12 gallons of beer packaged.

 

[Slim M]

I think you'll find a keg washer is pretty good at conserving water. Something like this is cost effective and perfectly adequate. I upgraded mine with a spinning CIP head for an additional twenty bucks.

The nice thing about keg washers is that it allows you to use just ~2gal water and a single dose of the brewery detergent of your choice to clean multiple kegs. I simply toss a keg on the washer, set my watch for 20min, then swap in a new keg. Each keg will need to be rinsed individually, but remember your high school chemistry: three vigorous rinsings are all that you need in an otherwise clean vessel.

At that point, mix up one batch of sanitizer and fill one keg to the brim. On kegging day, pump the sanitizer into one of your clean but empty kegs. This allows you to reuse the sanitizer and produce an oxygen purged keg ready to receive beer.

I typically wait until I have three empty kegs available before I start a new wash/sanitize cycle.

Yeah been thinking about a keg washer or diy cip type thing.

 

[Slim M]

If you have the stomach for it, you could try what’s being discussed here….
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/question-regarding-kegging.736540/#post-10465749

Basically don’t clean your kegs between batches.

Or you could pump a few ounces of Starsan into your sealed co2 filled keg after it kicks to break up the sediment and do a sort of sanitizing rinse, and then purge it out with co2 and then fill it again.

You could also try cleaning your kegs without so much cleaner, just using a little hot water and giving them a quick scrub and rinse with a quart or two of hot water. Unless you ferment in your kegs (which is a whole different story) they should be pretty clean after they are empty and should probably just need a light cleaning. I’m told a toilet brush (preferably new) makes a good scrubber that’s ridged enough to break up any crud without scratching the keg.

Edit: you could also build a keg washer that recirculates the cleaner and rinse water. It might not save you much water doing one keg but if you did a few at a time it might help.

I would personally focus more on sanitizing, and you can save and reuse your Starsan if you make it with distilled or RO water. It should last for several months at least. I keep a cheap set of ph test strips around to check the potency just for peace of mind if it’s been sitting for a really long time but it’s almost always still strong enough to do the job.

I’m too chicken and paranoid to skip the cleaning. Not saying it won’t work out ok but I would lay in bed at night thinking of the worst possible scenarios and how it’s all because I skipped cleaning

 

[SkyPilot]

I think you'll find a keg washer is pretty good at conserving water. Something like this is cost effective and perfectly adequate. I upgraded mine with a spinning CIP head for an additional twenty bucks.

I have that keg washer and it works well. What CIP head did you use? I tried one off of Amazon but the pump wasn’t strong enough to make it spin…

 

[OakIslandBrewery]

I have that keg washer and it works well. What CIP head did you use? I tried one off of Amazon but the pump wasn’t strong enough to make it spin…

The CIP head might not be the issue, a stronger pump is normally needed. I use a utility pump with a CIP ball and it works great.

 

[Bramling Cross]

I have that keg washer and it works well. What CIP head did you use? I tried one off of Amazon but the pump wasn’t strong enough to make it spin…

Gee, it's been years. I can't even hazard a guess. Here's a picture of mine, if that helps. I'm sorry I couldn't be more useful, but I just don't remember.

 

[OakIslandBrewery]

The CIP head might not be the issue, a stronger pump is normally needed. I use a utility pump with a CIP ball and it works great.

This kind of pump works with the CIP ball. I took a five gallon pail, drilled holes along the bottom edge. The pump sits in the bucket and I set it in the sink with hot water and PBW.

 

[SkyPilot]

This kind of pump works with the CIP ball. I took a five gallon pail, drilled holes along the bottom edge. The pump sits in the bucket and I set it in the sink with hot water and PBW.

View attachment 874891

Ahh ok makes sense. I haven’t swapped the pump out yet, but may. Thanks!

 

[SkyPilot]

Gee, it's been years. I can't even hazard a guess. Here's a picture of mine, if that helps. I'm sorry I couldn't be more useful, but I just don't remember.
View attachment 874890

Thanks!

 

[OakIslandBrewery]

Ahh ok makes sense. I haven’t swapped the pump out yet, but may. Thanks!

To the bucket lid I added a four inch toilet flange which elevates the keg enough to have keg ad's attached. They are tee"d into the 1/2" pipe from the top of the utility pump.

Hard to imagine but I will dig up some pictures.

 

[Slim M]

I’m wondering if any of our friends down under have any cool tricks or methods, I think I’ve heard them mention tight water restrictions so they have adopted a few unique non traditional methods, no chill brewing comes to mind.

 

[Mack]

I try to time my "end of keg" days to align with brew days, this way i can utilize the chiller water for washing and then like many other I can recirc the water once it hits a certain temp. Since I pressure ferment, my brew day is also a "transfer to serving keg" day, which means I'll gain another fresh fermenting vessel, into which I'll pump my chilled wort into right on the old yeast cake. I can do this for 2 cycles before the trub/yeast cake becomes too cumbersome. Serving vessels get a quick rinse and swirl with starsan and sealed until the next pressure transfer. Not a perfect solution, but I haven't had any off-flavorings since I began this process. And a keg of beer (5 gals) only lasts me around 5-10 days before it's kicked.

 

[Skunkape71]

I built a simple keg washer with a CIP ball, as well as connections to gas and diptube. I rinse my kegs out after they've kicked, close them up and wait til I get a stack of 4-6 of them. I use a 5gl bucket about half full of oxyclean, run through all kegs for 10-15 minutes, change water out to clean rinse water, go through all of them, then the final step, half a bucket of saniclean, close them up, and use some painters tape to identify clean, rinsed and sanitized on such and such date.

All told, I have about 80 bucks into the keg washer.

You will want to do this in the shop, garage, porch, etc.. it will cause a big foam up.

 

[Slim M]

What

I built a simple keg washer with a CIP ball, as well as connections to gas and diptube. I rinse my kegs out after they've kicked, close them up and wait til I get a stack of 4-6 of them. I use a 5gl bucket about half full of oxyclean, run through all kegs for 10-15 minutes, change water out to clean rinse water, go through all of them, then the final step, half a bucket of saniclean, close them up, and use some painters tape to identify clean, rinsed and sanitized on such and such date.

All told, I have about 80 bucks into the keg washer.

You will want to do this in the shop, garage, porch, etc.. it will cause a big foam up.

What pump you using?

 

[Skunkape71]

this one

Of course, I see the price has gone up.. It was $49 when I bought it in October 2024

 

[ClaudiusB]

I built a simple keg washer many years ago, which requires me to manually load and unload the kegs by me manually. All the rinsing, washing, and sanitizing are done by automation. Maybe before I go to beer heaven, the loading and unloading will be automated too.