Practices and Ideas for Conservative Water Use

[ReverseApacheMaster]

I try not to use a lot of water, but what I do use I try to dump into the lawn so we have to water less. Now that I have hops growing it will probably go into the hops.

I was using baths to cool wort and letting it go down the drain but then I realized it was just as easy to siphon it into a bucket and dump outside.

 

[greenfrog5]

Many things I do to save water have been mentioned:

- Hot IC discharge water goes into 5-gal bucket for label-stripping bottles
- This water can be reused many-many times as long as more Oxy is added
- My used bottles get quick rinse immediately after pouring and drip-dry
- Sanitizer is made is relatively small amounts and sprayed/sloshed for maximum efficiency

Another area I'm working to conserve is cleaning carboys:
Cleaning ASAP after bottling is key, and avoiding filling it fully with Oxy water.
I've had some success using about 1.5 - 2 gal of water. I can lay it on its side in a rubbermaid dish-bin and can submerge ~1/6 of the side where the krausen ring is without the water spilling out of the mouth (which is just high enough). Have to rotate it periodically though.

Another idea I have is using the carboy drip-stand to invert it with a drilled stopper with a gas-vent (racking cane and vinyl hose) to relieve any pressure that develops. Similar to on its side, but you can clean the whole ring at once with minimal water.

Aaron

 

[northernlad]

Water ain't going away. You're really conserving the energy to make water available. I recycle as much as I can, due to cost. But the water that is down the drain is eventually recycled anyway. We're kinda locked in as far as that resource. Water conservation is really a misnomer. Water for human consumption is another matter.

While I agree that the idea that running a tap while you brush your teeth does not "waste" water, if you live in a hot or arid climate spilling your IC water onto the hot pavement or lawn at noon is indeed wasting water.

For rinse water (bottles and brewing equipment that have been washed in oxiclean), maybe instead of having the water go down the drain, I could put a big rubbermaid thing in the utility sink and collect the rinse water, then either put it in the washing machine or in the bottle soaking bin. The water would be 'clean' in that whatever gunk I'm washing off would already be gone, this rinse water would be mainly just water with a little oxiclean. Does that make sense?

It does make sense, but the rinse I was talking about is after decanting. IDK if the missus would want that in the laundry and i don't want yeasty dregs in my soak bin.

 

[Pick]

I water the lawn with my chiller water.

 

[Spintab]

Gonna bump this puppy because I was about to post something similar.

While watering the lawn may be a "good" use of extra water, you're still dumping the water. I'd be interested to see just how little water can be used to begin with. To me, it's more of a challenge than saving the planet but dolphins are cool. No harming in saving a couple for karma's sake.

My best solution to conserving water is ice. I've managed to cool and perform a certain amount of cleanup with about a gallon or two of water and a 20lb bag of ice. The gallon or two of water is the starsan solution from my primary then dumped onto ice in a separate vessel with a aquarium pump pumping ice water through my immersion chiller. Once the ice has melted, there is enough water left to do the initial "big gunk" cleaning when brew day is over. Still need to clean a little extra and rinse to get to that final stage of clean where you are ready for the next time you brew.

I'm going to try to take this a step further and use tap water in place of the sanitizer solution. I'll put oxi into the cooling water then use the sanitizer solution to do the final rinse with a sprayer attached to the aquarium pump.

I'm not big on saving solutions from batch to batch but if I could get from start to cleaned up in under 10 gallons of water (including the melted ice) I'd be happy.