Conserving Water......

[homeslice]

I know the question is a bit taboo but what do you do to conserve on water during the brewing and cleaning process? I find myself draining a considerable amount and wouldn't mind trying to change things up a bit.

 

[Dwain]

There are several threads on here you can find. However, there are several things you can do. Right off of the top of my drunken head:
Use a contact sanitizer. mix a small amount in a spray bottle and use it to sanitize carboys/equipment. this saves you from mixing 5-6gal of sanitizer for your brewing stuff and then dumping it out.
By thinking out your process, you can probably think of other ideas to cut/conserve water.
I have a well, and will pipe the outlet of my high volume wort chiller back into it. Luck - Dwain

 

[ChshreCat]

Many folks that use an immersion chiller will reuse the water in different ways. Some recirculate the water using a pond pump so they use a smaller volume of water to start with. Then some people will capture that water and use it for their after brew cleaning. I've even heard of people filling their washing machines with it so their next load of clothes doesn't use as much water.

 

[smizak]

+2 on immersion chiller outflow and pump. I take advantage of both.

If you use an immersion chiller, definitely save the hot out water for cleaning. I usually fill my mash tun with the output and some oxyclean, then a five gallon bucket. I easily get 10 gallons of hot cleaning/soaking water out of it. After 10 gals. the temp of the wort is around 100F, so I throw a bag of ice in the bucket with the pump and recirculate the chilling water. I actually only "wasted" 2-2.5 gals. of chill water last brew session.

 

[The Pol]

I use 10 gallons of water to cool my wort from boiling.

Then I use that 10 gallons, reheated in my E-Keggle, combined with OxiClean, to clean my system using CIP.

Aside from the water that is actually in my wort, I use 10 extra gallons for the whole cooling process and cleaning process.

 

[Pappers_]

Good topic! Where my water waste is most apparent is bottle preparation. The good news (conservation-wise) is that I have friends, neighbors and a pub that give me bottles to reuse - which is even better than recycling.

But getting them ready for re-use requires a lot of water. I fill a large rectangular cooler with water and oxyclean and soak the bottles there. That's fine, I leave the oxyclean water in there for weeks and it's fine. But I need to rinse the bottles exceptionally well and use gallons and gallons of water for this - it is by far the most water usage in my brewing process.

 

[homebrewer_99]

Yep, when using a wort chiller run the water into several primaries to use for cleaning later is the best use of "waste" water.

Clean as you go is a good work policy especially since most of the cleaning is taken care of by soaking it in warm/hot water.

 

[Bobby_M]

You probably use more water every time you shower and that just goes down the drain to the treatment plant. Anything you do to reuse the brew-related water is conservative. Collect it for cleanup or to water plants or wash laundry. Using chiller output water for something that can use the heat is worth bonus points.

 

[broadbill]

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned no chill brewing...

 

[smizak]

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned no chill brewing...

That too.

However, almost everything I brew has late hop additions, so that won't work for everyone.

 

[The Pol]

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned no chill brewing...

Well, in my case, no chill doesnt save water, really.

In many cases though, it certainly will.

 

[springer]

Here I have no need to conserve water . My water comes from the Hudson river . All the water that is used in my home goes either into a septic tank or into dry wells. So 100% of the water is going back into the ground. Even the storm drains on my street are dry wells huge ones. And water is cheap my monthly bill is less than 20$.

But I don't waste water either I will use the run off of the IC to clean the brew equipment .

 

[arturo7]

Water your foliage, wash your dog, hose off your grill.

 

[ChshreCat]

That's one thing I kind of like about the place we're moving into (next week... I hope... crossed fingers) is that we're on well water and we have a septic system. So I feel like everything we use is going right back into the supply.

 

[Bobby_M]

And just in case it's a cost concern (it's probably not), my water bill just got here. $39 for 6000 gallons. That's $3.90 for 600 gallons, $.39 for 60 gallons, $.04 for 6 gallons. So, I use about 25 cents worth of water on brew day.

 

[The Pol]

Our water bill is $10 a month, but I just hate watching water pour into the streets in the summer. Hate the ice skating rink in the winter.

 

[MultumInParvo]

You probably use more water every time you shower and that just goes down the drain to the treatment plant.

Hmm. So I guess as homebrewers we should stop showering to do our part, huh? I am for it!

I try to breath as little as possible while I brew. That way I expel less CO2 into the air.

 

[robertwa]

Here in San Diego, it is hard enough to keep my lawn green, so every drop goes out on to the grass. Sometimes I will fill the garden waste trash cans and pour it into the flower beds.

 

[Bobby_M]

Hmm. So I guess as homebrewers we should stop showering to do our part, huh? I am for it!

I try to breath as little as possible while I brew. That way I expel less CO2 into the air.

Well, I'm just saying that people waste/use water for all kinds of things and I wouldn't feel more guilty about it just because it's for brewing.

 

[Pappers_]

Well, I'm just saying that people waste/use water for all kinds of things and I wouldn't feel more guilty about it just because it's for brewing.

But, as the OP said, he wants to conserve water. Its not about guilt or right and wrong - he just wants to conserve water in his brew process, lots of us do. So we talk about ways to adjust our brew processes to minimize water usage, appropriate conversation for a brewing forum.

Discussion about whether people should conserve or not belongs most appropriately in the debate forum, not this thread, in my opinion.

 

[The Pol]

We use low flow faucets and shower heads too, coupled with a high efficiency washer/dryer, furnace, water heater... Conservation runs throughout our home, this is but one small part of a larger thing.

 

[Bobby_M]

Don't get me wrong, I was diverting from the thread topic and I'm not suggesting that conservation is wrong at all. I decided a while ago to take navy showers. It takes a lot of willpower though in the middle of the winter when the hot water feels so good.

Anyway, back on topic. Use the chiller's output water for one extra purpose before it goes back into the system. Laundry, dishes, brewery cleanup. That's why I have like 8 extra buckets. Nested inside each other it doesn't take up much room between brew days. I fill them with the chiller output and distribute it to all the other water need areas of the house.

The other way is to reduce how much water you use by make the water colder. Some people do this out of necessity due to warm tap water but you can chill buckets of water down to 33F in a fridge and pump that into the chiller. You can also use ice. However, this is where the "debate thread" idea comes in. Where does water conservation become wasteful when you use potentially coal burning electrical power production for the electricity to make ice.. Carry on.

 

[McGarnigle]

I don't own a wort chiller. How much water do they actually use, let's say in terms of gallons per 10 minutes?

 

[The Pol]

I don't own a wort chiller. How much water do they actually use, let's say in terms of gallons per 10 minutes?

I could get 3 gallons/minute from mine, for 25 minutes to cool, 75 gallons?

Now I use 10, or dont chill at all

 

[Pappers_]

Anyway, back on topic. Use the chiller's output water for one extra purpose before it goes back into the system. Laundry, dishes, brewery cleanup. That's why I have like 8 extra buckets. Nested inside each other it doesn't take up much room between brew days. I fill them with the chiller output and distribute it to all the other water need areas of the house.

Keeping extra buckets handy near the brewing sinks is a great idea, Bobby. Plus, your thoughts confirm for me what I already know - I need to get rid of my crappy IC and get a decent one, that alone would save significant water, plus lower my annoyance level :cross:

 

[Ellis]

What do you recommend in terms of water pressure while using a chiller?

During my first use of a chiller, I realized I did not need to be running with full water pressure. I figured as long as a steady trickle was coming out, the chiller was doing its job.

What do you think? Is this correct?

 

[Bobby_M]

For max water saving, you'd run it relatively slowly so that the water coming out is pretty close to the current wort temp. I run mine at about 1/3 of full, just a rough guesstimate based on where I put the ball valve handle.

 

[k1200rsvt]

I judge water flow through my IC by monitoring the temperature of the water exiting the IC. Its not scientific but if it feels too cool in regards to the wort temperature I slow down flow to let the water work more in the cooler, if it is quite hot I speed it up a bit to maximize cooling. Stirring while cooling will make a huge water/time savings also.

I push all the IC water into tubs and use it for cleaning and water plants around the house. Seems like I always have water kicking around for about a week after a brew day. I was thinking I would probably get a pump soon to recirculate some of the water but I guess as long as I am using the "waste" water wisely it doesn't really matter.