Cooling in Apartment Homebrewing

[fusa]

Hopefully will end up using something similar to what @SanPancho did. I'm still in middle of unpacking with a 50-60 hour work week. As long as done correctly it seems like the best unattended way to chill. The universal adapter has some bad reviews of it busting, so would have to check it often. I might just brew in the laundry room, 240 outlet is there and hot/cold water.

 

[SanPancho]

Hopefully will end up using something similar to what @SanPancho did. I'm still in middle of unpacking with a 50-60 hour work week. As long as done correctly it seems like the best unattended way to chill. The universal adapter has some bad reviews of it busting, so would have to check it often. I might just brew in the laundry room, 240 outlet is there and hot/cold water.

ha! thats exactly what happened to me at our new place. just moved it on down to the laundry room. in that case, buy two of these-

one for hot, one for cold. the washer gets its outlets, and the others are for you. i have cold side GHT adapter for my chiller, and the other i have an GHT-. barb adapter to some 1/4 tubing with a carbonation cap on the end. super easy to blast your corny QDs with hot water, then set it aside to be washed later.

@bwible you should really try the fitting i posted earlier. crazy simple. no problems at full blast. install it and you're done.

 

[Teufelhunde]

I recently moved to a new apartment. Previously I would remove the aerator from the faucet and connect a male quick disconnect. I would connect the immersion chiller to this to cool and also fill my brewing vessel. The faucet is much nicer, but does not have the regular aerator to replace with a disconnect.

What is another way to cool after a boil? I have been suggested using a pump, but not sure if that would be the best method. I have both an immersion chiller and also have a counter-flow chiller. I would brefer not to top up with cold water. This seems to increase the risk of contamination.

I'm not in an apartment, but I brew indoors. To chill, I use a cooler filled with ice water and a submersible pond pump to push cold water into my chiller with the return going back into the cooler. I collect ice from the icemaker in my fridge into a plastic bag until I have around 20 pounds, which I store in my chest freezer until needed, along with a dozen of those freezeable "blocks" designed for coolers which I put in the freezer 2 days prior to brewing, and that allows me to chill to pitch temp with my Brewzilla supplied chiller (stainless steel and not the most efficient) in around 20 minutes.

Bonus is that the water left in the chiller is my cleanup water and get dumped on my climbing roses, so I basically get three uses out of the same water....

YMMV

Lon

 

[Teufelhunde]

I'm not in an apartment, but I brew indoors. To chill, I use a cooler filled with ice water and a submersible pond pump to push cold water into my chiller with the return going back into the cooler. I collect ice from the icemaker in my fridge into a plastic bag until I have around 20 pounds, which I store in my chest freezer until needed, along with a dozen of those freezeable "blocks" designed for coolers which I put in the freezer 2 days prior to brewing, and that allows me to chill to pitch temp with my Brewzilla supplied chiller (stainless steel and not the most efficient) in around 20 minutes.

Bonus is that the water left in the cooler is my cleanup water and then gets dumped on the wife's climbing roses, so I basically get three uses out of the same water....that's important to Arizona folks....

YMMV

Lon

 

[DuncB]

@fusa if the faucet thing doesnt work out this is what i did back when i had the same problem. you shut off the water line at the valve. unscrew the faucet supply hose, and then put this baby on. then your faucet supply hose goes on top of this guy and you're set to go. when its time to chill you just pop in some tubing and the blue handle controls the water for your chilling. you gotta assemble it once, and then you're done. easy peasy.

John Guest ASVPP5LF Angle Stop Adapter Valve, 1/2" x 3/8" x 1/4" OD: Amazon.com: Tools & Home Improvement

they also make them with regular plumbing oriented outlets instead of the push connect. cheaper too. but then you gotta figure out total cost as you might need an adapter from 3/8 to 1/2 to GH or whatever. or you just just leave a 3/8npt x hose barb fitting on it, and you'd just have to pop your tube on and tighten a clamp.

Used one of these to plumb the water filter into the fridge worked great.

 

[DuncB]

Laundry room brewing sounds the best idea. But call it the brew room.

 

[bobeer]

I'd try no chill brewing. It takes extra time to cool off but you don't have to mess with any plumbing or any of this stuff. Lots of threads here about it so check it out!

 

[Deadalus]

I don't think anyone mentioned the bathroom sink faucet?

If it was my own property I'd just modify the supply line to wherever I wanted it. Personally I put a tee on a garage pex line then a sillcock valve with a wye added on for RO water feed and chilling using a plate chiller. But I don't know your apartment layout and your landlord might not allow modifications to that degree.

Be careful if you mess with the undersink supply lines. Those valves are usually kind of crappy, can stick and or break particularly if old. They aren't really made for repeated use. If it breaks, would you have access to get the main turned off quickly? Could be a little safer to use the washer hookup although those valves can freeze up too but easier in that you probably already have garden hose threads on your chillers. Seems you are leaning that way. Probably you're not in too old an apartment over there in Blacksburg, a lot of apartments built there in the last 20 years. (I'm just over the border in WV.)

 

[fusa]

I don't think anyone mentioned the bathroom sink faucet?

If it was my own property I'd just modify the supply line to wherever I wanted it. Personally I put a tee on a garage pex line then a sillcock valve with a wye added on for RO water feed and chilling using a plate chiller. But I don't know your apartment layout and your landlord might not allow modifications to that degree.

Be careful if you mess with the undersink supply lines. Those valves are usually kind of crappy, can stick and or break particularly if old. They aren't really made for repeated use. If it breaks, would you have access to get the main turned off quickly? Could be a little safer to use the washer hookup although those valves can freeze up too but easier in that you probably already have garden hose threads on your chillers. Seems you are leaning that way. Probably you're not in too old an apartment over there in Blacksburg, a lot of apartments built there in the last 20 years. (I'm just over the border in WV.)

Yeah tons of new apartments being built recently. This place isn't new but all appliances are, and valves don't seem too old. I'm in a 3 bedroom, the new places are well over $4k/month for this much space.

 

[Deadalus]

Yeah tons of new apartments being built recently. This place isn't new but all appliances are, and valves don't seem too old. I'm in a 3 bedroom, the new places are well over $4k/month for this much space.

That's pricey! I've seen a few of the apartment floorplans for some of the new construction, they pop up in the FB Marketplace sometimes but never saw any prices. I would have liked to live there myself but the real estate prices were always outside my price range.

You mentioned 240V and maybe using the room to brew. Is there a laundry sink?

 

[fusa]

Not a sink, but laundry outlets and drain. And dryer outlet is 240v. Most new places rent by the bedroom, price around $1200-$1500, so 3 bedroom is 3x that. Rent and housing has skyrocketed here, use to be a cheap place to live when i went to school here. My first apartment in early 90's was about $250.

 

[Deadalus]

A little hazy but that's about what I think I paid off campus for my own bedroom early nineties, NJ though. What caught my eye with the new floorplans was that they were 4 bedroom units with separate baths for each bedroom, seemed built for students. I was thinking that would have been nice! I looked up on campus at Tech and that runs from ~$6000-$11000/year! Crazy how much prices have gone up.

You most likely wouldn't have any trouble with draining a chiller down the laundry drain unless it was clogged. I've got an old house and the laundry standpipe is only 1 1/2" and the waste line has never been remodeled. I added a laundry sink to it which is possible because the laundry standpipe has a trap on it and the standpipe itself is a vent. Because the pipe is undersized and has 75 years of buildup plus the washer pump is a little fast, I get a little back flow into the sink but once I upgrade the pipe to 2" it'll be fine. If your standpipe was in the open (and not the wall) and if it's PVC and if you had the space, you could conceivably tie into the standpipe and be halfway to a fully functional sink! A lot of ifs too though. My basement and garage are both unfinished and the pipes are in the open.

 

[fusa]

Ordered parts to connect to washer cold water and dryer plug. Do I need 10/3 SJOOW or is 12/3 SJOOW ok? If I need 10/3 I'll need to redo the GFCI and the rest of the extension cord.

 

[Deadalus]

Ordered parts to connect to washer cold water and dryer plug. Do I need 10/3 SJOOW or is 12/3 SJOOW ok? If I need 10/3 I'll need to redo the GFCI and the rest of the extension cord.

If you have a 30 amp panel, you'll need 10 AWG. That's what I used. And make sure you check the number of prongs on the dryer.