My Attempt To Save Water In The Brewing Process

[Tony]

I Usually run the water through my chiller from the tap and then out to the pool of the garden.

Latley we have had cool water and rain so the garden is watered and the pool is topped up.

The only place to go is down the drain, yeah the washingmachine is an option but what a pain in the arse.

I have had a couple of davey submersable pumps sitting around for a couple of years and thought i might use one.

I have a 9 meter pool that holds........ what......... about 50000 liters of water, thats a good resource.

A poke with a thermomiter tells me its 19 deg...... perfect.

hook up a hose from the pump to the chiller and a return to the other end of the pool and we are in environment saving buisness.

It cooled the wort as fast as the tap and i didnt feel guilty leaving it to run for a while to get the last degree or 2

i had a pitching temp of 19.5 deg in 45 min...... very happy.

here are some pictures........ excuse the dirty pool

cheers

 

[domonsura]

Awesome Tony, wonder how many other brewers there are out there with this same resource right under their noses?
Take a while to change the temperature of that reservoir!

 

[Jazzafish]

Looks like a bulk buy of pools is coming up :lol:

 

[Darren]

Tony,

Do you worry about the chlorine chewing away your chiller?

cheers

Darren

 

[SpillsMostOfIt]

Almost makes me wish I had the space to install a swimming pool.

 

[T.D.]

Almost makes me wish I had the space to install a swimming pool.

I just bought a house that has a swimming pool, and apart from chilling wort, all they are good for is taking up entire Saturdays and Sundays for cleaning! :angry: Desparately trying to come up with a good enough reason not to fill the bugger in! Especially when the beach is only a hop, skip and a jump away!

Sorry for the rant! :lol: h34r:

 

[ozpowell]

I have a spear-pump (bore) which I have used to cool my last couple of batches. That way I don't feel guilty running the output from my wort chiller into my garden. Kills two birds with one stone as I save some time watering my garden also....

My initial concern was that the spear pump water (which is high in iron) would damage my copper immersion chiller, but it doesn't seem to have effected it in any way....

Cheers,
Michael.

 

[kook]

I'll be giving this a go once I get the brewery up and running again.

Do you think that a 1400l/h cheapy aquarium pump will have enough flow to run through a CFWC?

 

[kook]

Tony,

Do you worry about the chlorine chewing away your chiller?

cheers

Darren

Darren,

Do you think this would be an issue if rinsed with tap water after?

Or is the ~ 10 min exposure enough to strip away a fair bit of copper?

 

[lucas]

I save some time watering my garden also....

I assume the restrictions on the gold coast arent as bad as the brisbane ones at the moment? I was under the impression that watering your garden up there was cause for neighbours to leave flaming bags of dog turd on door steps

 

[Chris]

Awesome Tony

 

[Tony]

i flush iit out with clean water...... no idea of its effects though

cheers

 

[ozpowell]

I assume the restrictions on the gold coast arent as bad as the brisbane ones at the moment? I was under the impression that watering your garden up there was cause for neighbours to leave flaming bags of dog turd on door steps

Water restrictions on GC are the same as Brissy. I only water my garden with bore (spear-pump) water, not town water. And I have a sign on my front fence letting everyone know that I have a spear pump to avoid those steaming bags of dog turd

Cheers,
Michael.

 

[dairymaid]

Well done Tony,
I Don''t brew much in the summer here, due to lack of water,
and even washing bottles
seems to use a hell of a lot of water.

But I have learnt that I can run my still - with the use of a fish tank pump -
I only use one tub of water and some ice to cool it down, (sorry we don't have a pool to use)

Cheers/Beers
Dairymaid
Nelson NZ

 

[lucas]

Water restrictions on GC are the same as Brissy. I only water my garden with bore (spear-pump) water, not town water. And I have a sign on my front fence letting everyone know that I have a spear pump to avoid those steaming bags of dog turd

Cheers,
Michael.

ahh... I hadnt made the connection that a spear pump was pumping bore water... makes a lot more sense now

 

[DarkFaerytale]

thanks for the thread Tony and for bringing up bore holes ozpowell, we have a bore hole at Dad's we use for the garden, never thought to use it for wort chilling

-Phill

 

[Airgead]

Folks

Rainwater tanks work a treat for water wise chilling as well. And you can water your garden sans flaming bags of dog turd.

In the middle of a hot summer the water in my tank was still only 20 degrees and a pre-chiller in an ice bucket helped get the word down those last few degrees.

Cheers
Dave

Edit: They are cheaper to put in than a pool as well...

 

[ozpowell]

Folks

Rainwater tanks work a treat for water wise chilling as well. And you can water your garden sans flaming bags of dog turd.

In the middle of a hot summer the water in my tank was still only 20 degrees and a pre-chiller in an ice bucket helped get the word down those last few degrees.

Cheers
Dave

Edit: They are cheaper to put in than a pool as well...

Nothing to stop you pumping straight back into the tank also if you didn't want to use it on your garden...

Cheers,
Michael.

PS - I have my brew day town water consumption down to 50-60L with 28L in the carboy at day's end.

 

[Tony]

I just bought a house that has a swimming pool, and apart from chilling wort, all they are good for is taking up entire Saturdays and Sundays for cleaning! :angry: Desparately trying to come up with a good enough reason not to fill the bugger in! Especially when the beach is only a hop, skip and a jump away!

Sorry for the rant! :lol: h34r:

just do what i do.

dont bother cleaning it between april and october.

well..... maybe once or twice. thats all i do.

Anyone got any info on the use of clorinated water in a copper chiller ?

Im interested to know if its going to be a problem ?

Im going to do the same thing with my "purifier" as well so im interested in anyones opinion.

cheers