Trying to conserve water with wort chiller

[nik_taylor]

I thought i'd share my experience with my first all grain brew, with my first wort chiller. As i was stepping up to all grain with a much larger boil volume than a partial, i wanted to cool much quicker than the standard ice water bath. I live in SoCal and as there is a water shortage i wanted to try and conserve as much as possible.

I bought the 50ft wort chiller kit from coppertubingsales.com and i already had a this submersible pump lying around: http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_792_792. I put the boil kettle with the wort chiller in the sink along with the submersible pump. Hoping to get cooling from as many surface areas as possible.

The first 5 mins or so, i used tap water (no ice) and let the water drain away as it was way too hot. As i got closer to tap temp, i dumped ice and re-usable ice blocks into the sink and started to re-circulate the water into the ice cooled water in the sink. I tested the temp out of the hose and as (physics says so) the temp of the wort gets closer to the temp of the bath the cooling slows down. The water out of the end of the chiller is still cooler than tap water so it's ok to recirculate as long as you have sufficient ice cooling.

All in all, i am now a huge fan of wort chillers and i managed to go from boiling to just below 70 in about 12-13 mins. It's nice to see the thermometer rocket down in the first 5 mins!

As a further note, i also made my first yeast starter and it took off like a rocket and was bubbling within 3 hrs.

 

[Foosier]

If you are really interested in conserving the water, take the first hot output and run it into a bucket to conserve it for cleaning your gear. I have also heard of folks filing their washing machine with it (especially if you are brewing indoors.) There are lots of options to be as conservative as possible. You could even look into No-chill where you just place your boiling wort into a collapsible water cube and let it come down to temp naturally (it works, just takes longer.)

 

[sumbrewindude]

If you are really interested in conserving the water, take the first hot output and run it into a bucket to conserve it for cleaning your gear...

This is exactly what I did using my IC for the first time, got a little under 4.5gal and put it back into the mash tun to rinse it and hold the water to clean other items.

You're right though, it's amazing to see that thermometer rocket down to pitch temp! :rockin:

 

[skuhn2004]

A friend of mine puts his wort chiller in a 5 gal bucket, fills it with water and drops it in the chest freezer. He then pumps the wort through an inter-cooler then to the frozen wort chiller and back into the kettle. He has started dropping a cup of ice cream salt on the wort chiller bucket and he is getting better results. He is doing 20 gal boils.

Take the inter-cooler out of the picture or use that water elsewhere and you are not wasting any water. Well reusing salt water is tough but it's only a few gallons and you do not need to salt it.

I keep saying he is going to get an infection, but he never does. He pumps star san through the setup starting the day before brew day. Between that and the temps of the first wort to go through it seems to be killing all the nasties.

 

[nik_taylor]

Thanks all. I'll definitely start saving the hot water for cleaning. Should have thought of that before.

 

[zdbrown1]

In the summer I hook the out from my chiller to a lawn sprinkler...works pretty well too.

 

[jleiii]

Thanks all. I'll definitely start saving the hot water for cleaning. Should have thought of that before.

I've been doing this for the last 6 mo or so, and use 2 5 gal buckets. Once the sink is free the pot goes in, gets a quick scour & rinse, then filled with all the other tools/hoses 1/4 cup oxyclean then filled from the buckets for an overnight soak. Having a dedicated sink in the basement helps!

I've also reduced the water used for cleaning carboys to about 1 gallon using a carboy/keg washer. The washer pump is also used for the chiller, and I am building a bottle cleaner/sanitizer rack that will also use it. No more soaking bottles in a bucket for cleaning.

I've probably cut my water usage by 75% this way. Most of my carboy dregs & rinse get dumped in a 'natural' landscaped not far from the basement door.

 

[HopSong]

I collect all or part of it in a couple of 10g brew pots and use it to flush the terlits or in the washing machine. Besides using the first runnings to clean equipment it can also be used for washing or rinsing dishes. THEN flushing the terlits.