I want to brew outside...

[DatsyukianDeke]

but I don't have a ready source of water to chill with and the thought of hauling a kettle full of boiling wort up a flight of stairs is less than appealing. Is there a straightforward way to get water to the yard? I'm thinking I can split the cold water at the washing machine hookup and running PEX to a ball valve or spigot or something. Am I overlooking something?

 

[mongoose33]

A lot of people use sources of water like the cold water faucet entering their washing machine.

You should just be able to use a normal hose, no reason to fool with PEX. You may want a valve of some sort to control the water at the chiller. I run mine off the outside faucet, and I use this valv to control the water at the chiller:

 

[PADave]

Fill a big cooler with ice and water. Use a fountain pump to recirculate the water. Save the initial hot water for cleanup, then once under 120 degrees or so, start recirculating back into cooler. Only takes about 10-15 gallons of water and a bag of ice to get to pitching temp.

 

[BigCrazyAl]

I just run a garden hose from an outside spigot into a big plastic tub near where I boil. When it's time to cool, I leave the water on a bit so it overflows the tub and recirculates the cool water through. I place by boil kettle in it and just stir until it's cool enough to pitch yeast. Takes less than 10 minutes.

I also use the same tub to keep my fermentor cool while the yeast works. It does okay until I can afford a ferm chamber.

 

[GPP33]

^ this works for me when it's so cold out that the hose and water exiting the chiller would immeaditly freeze. How do you not have a hose though? Not carrying boiling water upstairs is a good idea.

 

[Murphys_Law]

Fill a big cooler with ice and water. Use a fountain pump to recirculate the water. Save the initial hot water for cleanup, then once under 120 degrees or so, start recirculating back into cooler. Only takes about 10-15 gallons of water and a bag of ice to get to pitching temp.

I'll use a garden hose to my IC and fill 2 - five gallon buckets and set these aside for cleaning water. Detach the hose and hook my IC to a recirc system (Coleman cooler filled with water, a 20# bag of ice* and a garden pump**)



* I used to use frozen water bottles but ran out of room in my freezer to store them

** 920 gph

 

[IslandLizard]

but I don't have a ready source of water to chill with and the thought of hauling a kettle full of boiling wort up a flight of stairs is less than appealing. Is there a straightforward way to get water to the yard? I'm thinking I can split the cold water at the washing machine hookup and running PEX to a ball valve or spigot or something. Am I overlooking something?

If that's the easiest to get water to the lower level, sure. But water usually comes in at the lower level already, can't you T it off there?

FWIW, don't leave PEX tubing exposed. UV light from the sun, and possibly other, lower energy level light sources too, will disintegrate it over time. It's usually hidden behind walls and within joist spaces. Where exposed, you could cover it with aluminum tape.