Want to brew in my garage, no running water

[billc68]

To make a long story short, I wan to brew in my shop which is about 50 ft from my house (maybe a bit less) I need some water but don't want to invest a pile of money into running water for one or two uses per year. (most of my brewing will still be done indoors)

What can I use for a water line without spending a fortune?
I can get some food grade braided hose for about $50 and that is what i will likely do if I can't find anything cheaper.

Garden hose, I assume is out of the question and PEX line is cheap but not terribly easy to roll back up and put away, also I am told it will break down after a while if exposed to the sun.

Any ideas?
And do I need hot water? other than for cleaning? I can go with a a garden hose on my hot water line.

 

[artyboy]

I brew in my garage with no running water. I just make a few trips to the house to fill up buckets. It's not that much extra work. Especially if you're just brewing a few times a year.

 

[billc68]

I brew in my garage with no running water. I just make a few trips to the house to fill up buckets. It's not that much extra work. Especially if you're just brewing a few times a year.

I thought about that, my idea was to brew 3-4 lagers (in the winter) at the same time in my garage, as I can control the temp and no need for a laggering fridge, so might be more than a few trips to get some water, but still an option.

 

[LooyvilleLarry]

Hmm. A Potable Water hose works well for me.

 

[billc68]

Hmm. A Potable Water hose works well for me.

Beautiful, I never thought about the camper/boat suppliers, I will check them out or order online if I can't find one. That's perfect.
Home depot had nothing.

Can you run hot water through them too?

 

[Duckfoot]

Define "hot"

I am sure there is an upper temp rating, but I have yet to run anything other than filtered tap water through mine...

 

[ksbrain]

I use one of those camper hoses, too. I don't need hot tap water. I get my hot water out of the tail end of my immersion chiller.

 

[Scut_Monkey]

How big of batches do you do? Do you need water for cleaning and for the beer itself?

 

[billc68]

This will be my first attempt at AG brewing, so I really didn't know if I needed hot water ot not, but figured it never hurts to have some at clean up time.
My plan is to do 3 or 4 batches at once so I can be more efficient with my heating of teh room, might as well heat/cool 4 buckets/carboys rather than one. However, I do fully plan on making 2 from a kit so as to save time.

 

[Homercidal]

FWIW you could use a lead-free garden hose, or buy bottled water in jugs, or even carry water from the kitchen. All will work. But I have just used the regular garden hose and simply flush water through it for several minutes. Any lead or other chemicals will have passed through the hose by then. Generally you will get contaminants by having the water sitting there, especially when the hose is hot from being in the sun.

 

[billc68]

I just found a "drinking water safe" garden hose at Home Depot, even comes with Stainless steel fittings.

Should this hose be sanitized if I plan to use any water after the boil stage? or if I do a recipe that does not involve a complete wort boil? I think I sould, but we don't sanitize our pipes now do we?

 

[brrman]

Any water I use after the boil stage (which is rare for me) comes from store bought gallon jugs. I do not wish to add chlorine/chloramine to the beer after I have just used campden to remove it from my boil water. I do have a RV potable hose hooked to a water spout in my garage for my normal brewing water needs.

 

[bsdx]

Just this weekend I bought a plastic utility sink, faucet with sprayer hose built in, enough flexible hose (like to drain a pool) to run drain water away into the yard and some 1/2" to garden hose adapters so I can use a sink in or near my garage. It rocks!! I'm always using it to clean my hands, sometimes rinse off equipment. I can either use it with one hose to the cold as long as the hot water handle stays off, or hook up a hot water hose too. I don't need hot water to brew unless the weather makes the cold water uncomfortable. I have one hose that is safe for hot water but I can't think of any reason you would drink anything from that. If you bought a food safe cold water line you could use that to fill up pots. I just refill some 2.5 gallon plastic jugs from store water and carry them out to the garage. Easier than carrying 6+ gallons in a pot that can slosh around. My sprayer on the faucet also has a hose thread so you could hook up a wort chiller, but I would recommend using a Y valve before the sink so the sink isn't tied up. Makes for handy rinsing of equipment, gives me a place to throw the wort chiller output water, and at the end of my brew day I can use my siphon hoses to empty out my cleaner/sanitizer water from large tubs into the sink if I don't plan on keeping it. Less trips into the house and touching the door handle. I spent $50 on the sink, $40 on the plastic faucet with sprayer, I think $37.50 on the flexible drain hose, and probably less than $30 on the various adapters and hose clamp. Something cheaper could probably be done for the drain line and maybe sink. The soft flexible drain line seems pretty nice because I can just fold it up and toss into the sink for storage. You could even just put a bucket under the drain if you limit the water use but I'm glad I got the whole thing, very handy! One of my favorite additions.

 

[mikejamesnelson]

just make sure that any garden hose you use is listed as "water safe" regular garden hoses may have a bunch of nasty chemicals waiting for you

 

[smokinghole]

Just use a regular garden hose which you probably have on hand and attach a https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/water-filter-setup-29145/ on the end. It will serve you well both indoor brewing and in your shed. I got a .5micron charcoal filter and bought most of the pieces pictured at lowes. I found I didn't need some of the parts.

 

[billc68]

My water is quite good here, however also quite hard, I am on a well, I may try some bottled water before investing in a water filtration/softening.

 

[DavidP]

I use one of those camper hoses, too. I don't need hot tap water. I get my hot water out of the tail end of my immersion chiller.

+1 on using your chill water for cleanup. I brew outside with only cold hose water. After rising out my kettle I'll pour in my collected hot waste water and use it as a wash tub. And if needed I'll heat the wash water to make it more effective.