Water Conservation When Brewing

[Nosybear]

Okay, I've never soaked anything in PBW or Star-San as a rule. If a carboy or bucket is very grimy, I'll mix in some oxygen-based cleaner (never PBW, too expensive for a small pail of relatively cheap chemicals), fill the container and let the grunge soak away but as a rule, a good cleaning as soon after emptying works just fine. The brew kettle? It's going to be boiled, no need to sanitize. Mash tun, everything that comes out of the mash tun will be boiled, ditto. As for sanitizing itself, pour a few quarts in and swish vigorously. Soak the little bits. Mix the Star-San using distilled water - it's good for several weeks done that way. Since keeping the water from our roofs is illegal here in Colorado, run the chill water off into a rain barrel (which we just happen to have sitting around.... ). For most cleaning, a good hot water rinse will work just fine. Save the chemicals for when elbow grease and hot water just aren't good enough.

 

[lump42]

You can save more water by not soaking the fermentor in StarSan. The label specifics and several interviews with Five-Star reps state that spray the sanitizer onto equipment is sufficient as long as the pH is proper and the contact time is at least 1 minute. I use about half a gallon of sanitizer for a 5-gallon batch and recover most of it for another batch. http://www.fivestarchemicals.com/wp-content/uploads/StarSanTech-HB2.pdf

 

[barnaclebob]

I don't think i have ever filled a brewing vessel completely full to soak. Absolutely no need besides to calm your nerves for no real reason.

 

[ayrlander]

I've been hesitant about getting an immersion chiller because of the water waste. I like the idea mentioned in the comments about draining it into the washing machine, then doing a load of laundry. I only do at most 2 gallon batches at a time, so it should all fit in the washer, plus the wash basin next to it has a faucet with a garden hose attachment to make hooking it up a chiller simpler.
Alternatively, could one do no-chill with a plastic bucket fermenter? Is it still food safe at high temperatures? Could just rack into one of those, put on the lid and a tiny solid stopper, wait a day, then pitch and add an airlock.

 

[evolume]

I don't soak anything in Star San. I just pour in about 500mL into my 6 gal fermenter and slosh it around. Or sometimes I just use a spray bottle and mist the heck out of everything. I've never had a contamination issue.

 

[bleak]

Can't get much cold-break out of the wort that way, though.

 

[Chris]

When a hot liquid cools, the density decreases and will pull in the vessel walls. Be careful to use a flexible container. To see what I mean, fill a plastic 2 liter bottle with a little hot water and then let it cool off.

 

[smmangus]

great article - going to try some of these out next time around

 

[oldhousebrews]

I collect all my chilling water, which runs through a plate chiller, in 5 gallon buckets and use it to water my horses.

 

[MagicMatt]

While the concept of this article is good, a lot of the ideas listed here are completely off-base. I urge any newer brewers to do a bit more research and not take things listed here for face value. Allow me to point out some of the mistakes:
"Do you soak your lauter tun, mash tun and brew kettle with PBW? That’s 20 gallons. Rinse them again to remove the PBW, lets say thats 5 gallons, and another soak with Star San makes another 20. "
---- There is absolutely no need to soak your hot liquor tank, mash/lauter tun, or brew kettle with StarSan. There is no need to sanitize anything on the "hot side" - that is, anything that happens prior to chilling the wort. Also, there is no need to "soak" you HLT, MLT, or BK with a full volume of PBW. Just a gallon is all you need - I start with the cleanest vessel (HLT) and add the gallon of PBW to it and scrub, then dump into the MLT and scrub, and then dump into BK and scrub. I've never heard of anyone doing full soaks with this stuff. Fermenters, yes, but not hot side equipment.
" Your fermenting vessel, whether carboy or conical, most likely needs to have a good rinse with water, perhaps some scrubbing, another rinse and a full soak with Star San. You can’t avoid the soak in this case..."
---- Completely false. You rarely, if ever, need to do a "full soak" of StarSan. At most you need 1 gallon in the fermenter. StarSan only needs 1 minute of contact time to fully sanitize - this means you only need to add enough to coat the inside of the fermenter when shaken. So add a gallon, give it a good shake to ensure full contact, let it sit a couple of minutes, give it another shake to be certain you got it all sanitized, and dump (or collect for reuse). I can only imagine how quickly you must go through StarSan and PBW if you are doing full soaks each time. I've only owned one bottle of StarSan (32oz) since I started brewing 4 years ago, and I've still got about 1/4 of it left.
Also, by your description of your brew day, it seems you clean your hot side equipment (HLT, MLT, BK) both right after a brew, and then right before a brew. Why? If you collect your chilling water runoff as you described, which should be warm to the touch from cooling your wort, then just add PBW to that and use it to clean all of your equipment at the end of the brew day. Now everything is clean - there is no reason to scrub it all again before brewing next time. Do you clean your pots and pans, plates, forks, etc, again before you use them? Of course not. No different with brewing equipment. Even if there are some little nasties in there (there shouldn't be), everything will eventually be boiled so there is nothing to worry about.

 

[Mr_McGibblets]

Lots of good comments and pointers here. Since I am in Southern California, I too try to re-use as much water as possible.
On brew day, because the "cold" tap water is actually pretty warm, I buy a 20-lb. bag of ice from Costco for $2.30 and add it to the tap water in a 5-gallon bucket for use with my wort chiller and small garden pump. Once that process is done, I dump all of pumped water into my fountain, plants, trees, etc. Next time I will use some of the initial hot water to clean the brew kettle too!
I use the SS BrewBucket as my fermenter and yes, using 5-gallons of fresh water and PBW just to get the level up to the crud at the top seems wasteful, so next time, I'll add something to the bottom 1/2 or so to displace most of the water and end up using much less water & PBW. Does anyone happen to know if used PBW is OK to put on plants or grass?
I can make a 5-gallon batch of StarSan last almost a year as long as I mix with distilled water and make sure that the surfaces are very clean prior to sanitizing, then, back into the large Jerry can it goes. I test with pH strips every now and then, and even a year later, it's still clear and measures under 3.5.
FYI, I got my Jerry can from Winco for just $6.00!
http://selfreliantsisters.blogspot.com/2012/03/winco-bulk-storage-items-containers.html
Also, FWIW, I rarely soak anything completely in StarSan. I either spray it down or add a cup to the fermenter, install the lid, shake it around to evenly coat the inside and then dump it back into the Jerry can for reuse.

 

[bbenesh]

Thank you Matt for your insight.
While I certainly appreciate your input, not everyone may brew like you do. Furthermore, I've spent enough time with other Brewers to see certain habits of theirs and make notes accordingly. Had you written the article, perhaps you would have done so differently based on your experiences. Also, I wash after a brew day and before a brew day because I keep my equipment outside where it comes in contact with lots of dust. I don't wish to let the crud bake on post boil and sit for weeks. So, I wash it afterwards, and maybe a week or three later I will give a quick rinse to remove dirt before brewing.
Also, "add a gallon and give it a good shake" might be fine advice if you are in the business of breaking your back or are using smaller equipment but myself and many other homebrewers do tend to believe that when lifting can be avoided it should.
While I may fill a fermenter with a solution to clean it, I do save it and use it later as stated.
Thanks for reading!

 

[bbenesh]

In curious how the Jerry Can will work out! Let me know!

 

[Apple_Jacker]

I just purchased a water pump from Harbor Freight and used that to make a closed-loop wort chiller and used it for the first time last week. I took my largest cooler and packed it with several ice packs you get when you order from Blue Apron (I saved a dozen or so of these; you get 2 large ice packs per shipment), and then filled all the way up with water. I made the mistake of letting the first few gallons of hot recirculated water back into the cooler before I let the hose drain outside into my yard. This water made its way down to water my muscadine and concord grape plants. After the water stopped being overly hot, I put the hose end back into the cooler.
This still took longer than I wanted (almost 40 minutes). Next time I'll try to add ice to the water as well to cool it even more, and I might also use my utility sink instead of my cooler as it can hold much more water. I have a feeling that I was trying to use too little water.
Regarding sanitizing and cleaning - I've always only sprayed Star San on my stuff after I cleaned it. I never let solids dry up or solidify on my equipment anyway, so cleaning, and therefore sanitizing, is always quick and easy. I just bought my second bottle of Star San this past weekend. I bought the other bottle 4 years ago.

 

[MagicMatt]

I guess my point was more towards the fact that your article is geared to reducing water usage, yet you say there's no way around filling up your equipment to the top for "full volume soaks". If you really want to conserve water, you can easily eliminate almost 40 gallons of wasted water by altering the methods you describe.
I don't think it should matter who writes the article - if the goal is to reduce something as much as possible, one would expect all shortcuts to be taken (those that do not pose risk). I was simply pointing out that your methods of "saving water" sound more like an added waste of water to me.

 

[bbenesh]

Fair enough.

 

[ben]

I disagree. After letting it sit and cool off I end up with completely clear wort. I then transfer it to my fermenter through a siphon to avoid the junk that has settled and to aid in aerating it before adding my yeast

 

[VT_jlee]

I have an immersion chiller, when I chill I first hook it up to a hose and collect the water in a bucket for cleaning, once that is full the water goes into the fermenter for sanitizing. After those are full my wort is usually down to ~100F so I hook up a submersible pump in a small cooler filled with frozen water bottles. I run the chilled water through the coil and back into the cooler and that drops it down from 100F to pitching temp. The couple of gallons in the cooler can then be used for clean-up. This way all water is reused and I don't really consider it wasted!

 

[VT_jlee]

I mentioned my method in detail above, but I also use a closed loop cooler. I keep old water bottles in the freezer and drop those into the water with my submersible pump and it my chilling water nice a cold. Once I'm done, the ice is melted but I just put them back in the freezer and pull them back out again next brew day. The bottles have been through at least a dozen brews and I haven't had to refill them yet.

 

[oakbarn]

Saving the cooling water. What a brilliant idea, I brew large batches and use lots of water in Texas. But I could reduce that by simply re routing the cooling water into my Mash Tun. I use the same water to clean the Mash Tun as I do the Brew Kettle and the rest of my system. I never thought about using the cooling water. Great idea.

 

[maxxxx]

Spray bottle works great!

 

[Jacob]

One Step is a sanitizer. They no longer market it as such in the US because they would have to get it certified in each state, but it does sanitize after about three minutes soaking.

 

[homebrewer_99]

My wort chiller is attached to a sink faucet. The first hot water is collected in a 3 gal bucket with some Dawn added. It's used for cleaning up later. After the brew is chilled I leave the chiller hooked up and run hot water through it for spraying/cleaning in the sink. Basically, it washes itself. Whenever I make up a batch of StarSan it's usually 5 gallons in a primary bucket. I also fill up a spray bottle from the new batch. ; ' )