25 replies to this topic

[Deerslyr]

Yeah, the thermoelectric elements don't have the juice to keep up with wort chilling, unless you have a bunch of themIf you can get a hold of a cheap/free AC condenser, look at evaporative. It'll be much cheaper than ice.

The one thing I love about this hobby is that once you "think" you are settled into your system, there's something else that you feel you can do to "push the envelope". My neighbor asked if I ever figured out the cost of the beer and I told him that the ingredients would get me to around $0.35 per bottle, but that you simply have to factor out the cost of the equipment because it would be a long time to break even.I'm gonna talk to my neighbor and see if he has any ideas on this matter. I'd give him 2 cases if he'd help me figure this one out.

[NomNomHopzinator]

How much water do you typically use for chilling?

[Deerslyr]

How much water do you typically use for chilling?

Too much! Garden hose running for approx 15 - 20 mins. And don't tell me to try and water things or hook it up to a sprinkler... tried that one time, wasn't paying attention to a kink or something and no water was flowing out for several minutes. (that was a bad brew day all around.)

[siouxbrewer]

I know what you mean about too much water. I try to put the waste to use whenever I can though. I use the uber hot first runnings from the exit on my IC to clean up any sugary messes in the immediate area, clean out my mashtun etc, then I fill up my keg washer, then my bucket for sanitizing, then I route the rest to my washing machine. Have to mention that I circulate ice water with submersible pump thru the IC for the last 15 min or so to get the wort down to pitching temps. The ice comes from IC waste water that I put in plastic food containers and store in my kegerator's freezer compartment, it's otherwise empty and running anyway. Even with repurposing it seems like too much water going down the drain.

[NomNomHopzinator]

I just heard on the radio about the water shortage in CA and how the Los Angeles Anheuser site is hurting from the cost of water alone. The idea of green practices is really taking off.... it would be cool to see the homebrew community become conscious of it and come up with some ideas.The wife and I were thinking about making a rain barrel for watering plants so we could cut back on water use. It would be sweet if we could get around to that...then I can use the chiller run through to help water my hops. That would be a nice cycle for putting the water back into brewing rather than down the drain!

[Deerslyr]

I just heard on the radio about the water shortage in CA and how the Los Angeles Anheuser site is hurting from the cost of water alone. The idea of green practices is really taking off.... it would be cool to see the homebrew community become conscious of it and come up with some ideas.The wife and I were thinking about making a rain barrel for watering plants so we could cut back on water use. It would be sweet if we could get around to that...then I can use the chiller run through to help water my hops. That would be a nice cycle for putting the water back into brewing rather than down the drain!

Saw my neighbor who does HVAC work and he said he should be able to "condemn" a heat exchanger within the next month! Put the heat exchanger on the output of the CF chiller and sit that in a tub of ice and should be good to go. I think until I get that, I'll brew as normal... errr... wasteful.