Wow! Amount of water used in Brewing.

[cessick7]

Is it just me or has anyone else seen their water bill go up since you started brewing. From cooling my starter wort to making a 5 gallon batch of star san to brewing to cooling the wort and cleaning all the equipment and kegs, it seems like my faucet is always on for something. I am not complaining, but I was wondering if anyone has figured out a good way to use the water they run through their wort cooler. I was thinking about putting a hose connector on the out tube and hooking up a sprinkler and watering my grass.

 

[cdubbaya]

I know a lot of brewers gather the water in a big tub and use it in their laundry machine. This makes the most sense since the water is typically pretty hot.

I'd be careful with watering your lawn with it, because it usually starts out around 180F, but eventually it cools down. Either way, do a search and there are a lot of clever ways to reuse water!

 

[hamiltont]

I run my Immersion Chiller water into a 19 gallon tub. Nice warm water for clean up. Once it's full I run it on the lawn. I guess I can say my water bill hasn't gone up at all since I started brewing. I'm on a well...

 

[Ramitt]

I run the water from my IC into my cooler MLT with some oxy in it for clean up. Into a bucket for rinse.

 

[phoenixs4r]

I thought about this the other day when I couldn't seem to get down to pitching temps with my chiller. Then I remembered I don't pay for water

 

[TyTanium]

See you're in Elgin - are your water rates also going up by ~30% like mine? Thanks, Chicago.

- Definitely collect your immersion chiller runoff. 5-10 gallons of warm water is great for cleaning. I like your sprinkler idea too.
- No need to mix up a full 5g of StarSan, I usually only do a gallon or two. It just needs wet contact time, not full submersion.
- Get a spray bottle and mix up a 1 gallon jug of distilled water - it will last indefinitely. A spray bottle is very handy for incidental needs like taking samples
- Collect rain water. Do you have a rain barrel? My 55g barrels fill up with only a quarter inch of rain...it's amazing. Very handy for rinsing / soaking water. (NOT used for brewing / sanitizing...)

 

[cessick7]

Great ideas so far. I do have a rain barrel and never thought about that for cleanup. I probably need to get a larger container to collect my water. At least the beginning water, and then I can use the cooler water to help my grass grow. Thanks again for all your suggestions.

 

[Seven]

This is one of the reasons I've been experimenting with no-chill brewing lately. No need to use an immersion chiller.

 

[thisgoestoeleven]

I live in an apartment where all our utilities are included

 

[TomSD]

My garbage can sprung a leak so I had to waste a lot this go round but typically I fill a mop bucket, a 5 gal pail for cleaning then the rest goes in the dedicated garbage can which goes for watering and whatnot until it is used up.

 

[Lucky_Chicken]

I put it in the MT and the HLT for PBW water and rinse water respectively

 

[NorthBayBrewer]

I use the 20 minute IC runoff to water the yard/plants