Saving Water
Saving Water
Living in Toowoomba, Queensland we are about to hit level 5 water restrictions which means no outside usage of water whatsoever. Any of you guys have any tips on how to save water with this hobby as I often feel guilty about the amount of water I use when cleaning. I am thinking about getting a water feature pump for the stilling so that I can circulate water through a reservoir of ice or something but its harder for beer where cleanliness is of the highest importance.
Hello again cavanor,
In the same location, and therefore the same boat, as you. Unless I am mistaken, you appear to have several brews on the go at any given time.
I have two fermenters, but time usually restricts my bottling and brewing activities to weekends. Have only racked once, and that was yesterday morning, and I bulk primed at the same time (another first). So I had one empty fermenter this morning, and the other ready, I hope, to bottle.
After racking yesterday, I filled my empty fermenter with cold water and allowed to soak overnight. This morning I cleaned it by wiping away the ring before emptying. Then put the appropriate number of Milton Anti Bacterial tablets in, and filled with cold water. One of the stated uses for these tablets is for HB equipment, and have noted on this site and others that several HB devotees use these tablets.
Left for 60 minutes (min time is 20 min), and then transferred contents to swingtops to be used for racked beer from 2nd fermenter. After another hour, I emptied each swingtop back into empty fermenter, and let bottles drain on bottletree. Then bottled.
Cleaned racking fermenter, which took bugger all time and minimal water usage. Then transferred Milton sanitiser from first fermenter. Whilst second fermenter was sanitising I put down a brew in 1st fermenter. Then I emptied sanitiser from 2nd fermenter and put another brew down.
So today, I did one bottling and put down two new brews, using the one batch of sanitiser and accompanying water. Hope to God it works, otherwise my economies of scale will not be very economical!
Hope this helps cavanor.
Came up with another idea today, but will put on separate post.
In the same location, and therefore the same boat, as you. Unless I am mistaken, you appear to have several brews on the go at any given time.
I have two fermenters, but time usually restricts my bottling and brewing activities to weekends. Have only racked once, and that was yesterday morning, and I bulk primed at the same time (another first). So I had one empty fermenter this morning, and the other ready, I hope, to bottle.
After racking yesterday, I filled my empty fermenter with cold water and allowed to soak overnight. This morning I cleaned it by wiping away the ring before emptying. Then put the appropriate number of Milton Anti Bacterial tablets in, and filled with cold water. One of the stated uses for these tablets is for HB equipment, and have noted on this site and others that several HB devotees use these tablets.
Left for 60 minutes (min time is 20 min), and then transferred contents to swingtops to be used for racked beer from 2nd fermenter. After another hour, I emptied each swingtop back into empty fermenter, and let bottles drain on bottletree. Then bottled.
Cleaned racking fermenter, which took bugger all time and minimal water usage. Then transferred Milton sanitiser from first fermenter. Whilst second fermenter was sanitising I put down a brew in 1st fermenter. Then I emptied sanitiser from 2nd fermenter and put another brew down.
So today, I did one bottling and put down two new brews, using the one batch of sanitiser and accompanying water. Hope to God it works, otherwise my economies of scale will not be very economical!
Hope this helps cavanor.
Came up with another idea today, but will put on separate post.
Cheers,
Pacman
Pacman
Yes cavanor, me again!
Yesterday I started drinking Coopers Draught bottled 1st May (8 weeks ago give or take a day or two). Rinsed bottles as I went, as I usually do, and turned upside to drain. But hey! When I proceeded to recycle bottles, I noticed there was still some yeast sediment caked on the bottom. Tried rinsing away the sediment, but it wouldn't go away. Only way was to partially fill with water, hold swingtop in place, and give a few vigorous shakes. Then rinse & drain.
Grolsch swingtops for this batch instead of my usual Schwelmers. Green glass v Brown glass. The green glass seems to be more transparent. Big worry - have I since bottled in Schwelmers that have not been thoroughly cleaned? Don't think so, but am a little uneasy.
On the upside, first Coopers Draught. Yeast on bottom is almost like cement & don't think I have encountered this before.
Still on upside, better to quarter fill empty bottle & shake vigorously, then repeat a couple of times, then drain. Unbelievably, I am suddenly using less water than my previously wasteful method of filling, draining, then repeating.
Downside is the possibility of some surprise Schwelmer bottles down the track.
Remaining positive.
Yesterday I started drinking Coopers Draught bottled 1st May (8 weeks ago give or take a day or two). Rinsed bottles as I went, as I usually do, and turned upside to drain. But hey! When I proceeded to recycle bottles, I noticed there was still some yeast sediment caked on the bottom. Tried rinsing away the sediment, but it wouldn't go away. Only way was to partially fill with water, hold swingtop in place, and give a few vigorous shakes. Then rinse & drain.
Grolsch swingtops for this batch instead of my usual Schwelmers. Green glass v Brown glass. The green glass seems to be more transparent. Big worry - have I since bottled in Schwelmers that have not been thoroughly cleaned? Don't think so, but am a little uneasy.
On the upside, first Coopers Draught. Yeast on bottom is almost like cement & don't think I have encountered this before.
Still on upside, better to quarter fill empty bottle & shake vigorously, then repeat a couple of times, then drain. Unbelievably, I am suddenly using less water than my previously wasteful method of filling, draining, then repeating.
Downside is the possibility of some surprise Schwelmer bottles down the track.
Remaining positive.
I'll pass this on as my contribution to saving water which I've used for my last 8 brews, which (touch wood) hasn't caused any problems. It would seem to me that the only part of 30 lts of sanitized water which does any work in the fernenter is that bit immediately in contact with the fermenter wall' so now I fill a 1lt spray bottle and make sure to fully cover the insides. Leave for ten mins or so and then rinse with about 5 litres of fresh. I might add that this came about because two 16yr old g'daughters thought it serious enough to bring up over dinner and a 17yr g'son reconed that if I took into account the social cost of my water wastage my beer wasn't cheap. Don't u just love education
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Growler & 1/2 Pint
- Posts: 47
- Joined: Monday Jun 12, 2006 3:46 am
- Location: Austin, Texas (an Aussie and a Yank)
I used to go crazy on the sanitization of fermenters, carboys etc until I watched my friend who has been brewing for 10 years. He mearly swished about a litre of water in the fermenter, drained, wiped the scum off the inside with a cloth, threw some one step sanitizer in with about another litre of water, swished, and then proceeded to recycle the sanitiser and use the fermenter. All in all about two litres of H2O and the sanitiser was used again to clean another a carboy and his siphon. His fermenter was heavily stained from past brews on the inside (unlike mine which in hindsight has been continously "oversterilized") and he consistantly makes fantastic AG brews.
"Sir, if you were my husband, I would poison your drink."
-Lady Astor to Winston Churchill
"Madam, if you were my wife, I would drink it."
-His reply
-Lady Astor to Winston Churchill
"Madam, if you were my wife, I would drink it."
-His reply
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da_damage_done
- Posts: 150
- Joined: Sunday Oct 23, 2005 11:54 am
- Location: Wollongong, NSW, Australia
- Contact:
My sanitisation procedures are being slowly reduced.
I used to wash everything with boiling water first then fill up the carboy to the top, throw in everything that would have come into contact with the beer and also 3 or 4 capfuls of bleach. Then I would let this sit for 1/2 an hour or more. Then wash everything with cold water until it no longer smelt like bleach. This was really time consuming.
Now I leave the tap off the carboy and fill it up to the tap level with hot tap water and 1 capful of bleach, and throw in the spoon + tap + o-ring. Put the carboy on its side in the laundry sink and spin it round and round on its side. I then pull out the stuff inside and rinse it with cold water and then maybe put some more hot water in the carboy and spin some more. I then rinse it out by replacing the bleach water with cold tap 2 or 3 times and continuing to spin. I don't have to worry about the lid or airlock because I use gladwrap instead.
I've also found that if I rack about 5 days in I don't get as much stuff clinging to the primary fermenter when I have to clean it. This may also be a function of brewing in a fridge. When I do wash out the fermenter I just use hot tap water and maybe a cloth to get off the hard bits. Again I'll sin the fermenter with water to wash it.
Cheers
From the above many'd think I enjoy talking about myself
I used to wash everything with boiling water first then fill up the carboy to the top, throw in everything that would have come into contact with the beer and also 3 or 4 capfuls of bleach. Then I would let this sit for 1/2 an hour or more. Then wash everything with cold water until it no longer smelt like bleach. This was really time consuming.
Now I leave the tap off the carboy and fill it up to the tap level with hot tap water and 1 capful of bleach, and throw in the spoon + tap + o-ring. Put the carboy on its side in the laundry sink and spin it round and round on its side. I then pull out the stuff inside and rinse it with cold water and then maybe put some more hot water in the carboy and spin some more. I then rinse it out by replacing the bleach water with cold tap 2 or 3 times and continuing to spin. I don't have to worry about the lid or airlock because I use gladwrap instead.
I've also found that if I rack about 5 days in I don't get as much stuff clinging to the primary fermenter when I have to clean it. This may also be a function of brewing in a fridge. When I do wash out the fermenter I just use hot tap water and maybe a cloth to get off the hard bits. Again I'll sin the fermenter with water to wash it.
Cheers
From the above many'd think I enjoy talking about myself
I've used a similar method for a couple of years now and not had an issue. Probably 3 litres to wash (2 rinses, 1 proper wash), and another one to sanitise.Growler & 1/2 Pint wrote:I used to go crazy on the sanitization of fermenters, carboys etc until I watched my friend who has been brewing for 10 years. He mearly swished about a litre of water in the fermenter, drained, wiped the scum off the inside with a cloth, threw some one step sanitizer in with about another litre of water, swished, and then proceeded to recycle the sanitiser and use the fermenter. All in all about two litres of H2O and the sanitiser was used again to clean another a carboy and his siphon. His fermenter was heavily stained from past brews on the inside (unlike mine which in hindsight has been continously "oversterilized") and he consistantly makes fantastic AG brews.
Steve no function beer well without
Sometime ago I stopped sanitising my carboy chemically, I wash them out when finished bottling and drain, boil the jug when ready to start brewing, tip that in and swirl it around, run some through the tap, let sit for ten minutes, tip out and start adding the brew. had no problems so far and use bugger all water, even though we have plenty here, I still like to be conservative.
Ross
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Growler & 1/2 Pint
- Posts: 47
- Joined: Monday Jun 12, 2006 3:46 am
- Location: Austin, Texas (an Aussie and a Yank)
At the end of the day many a gin has been brewed in a bath tub, many a moonshine distilled through ancient copper lines and countless homebrewed beers boiled up in old wash buckets.
If you've ever wondered why Mexican beer is served with a slice of lime, it's not for the taste, rather, it was so the drinker could sanitise the rim of the dirty recycled bottle before drinking from it.
If you've ever wondered why Mexican beer is served with a slice of lime, it's not for the taste, rather, it was so the drinker could sanitise the rim of the dirty recycled bottle before drinking from it.
"Sir, if you were my husband, I would poison your drink."
-Lady Astor to Winston Churchill
"Madam, if you were my wife, I would drink it."
-His reply
-Lady Astor to Winston Churchill
"Madam, if you were my wife, I would drink it."
-His reply
Makes absolute sense to me. I think I am a convert.quart53 wrote: It would seem to me that the only part of 30 lts of sanitized water which does any work in the fernenter is that bit immediately in contact with the fermenter wall' so now I fill a 1lt spray bottle and make sure to fully cover the insides.
This may be why so many people have that preconceived idea that home brew will taste like "home brew".Growler & 1/2 Pint wrote:At the end of the day many a gin has been brewed in a bath tub, many a moonshine distilled through ancient copper lines and countless homebrewed beers boiled up in old wash buckets.
The idea of sanitation is not so much to prevent making a poisonous batch, but so that the taste of the beer is not affected by any nasty bugs.
This is Homebrew country, Piss On or Piss Off!
As for sanitation, just remember that you will have your wort at about 20*C for at leastv a week. Safe food handling guidelines reccomend about four hours at this temperature before you throw it out, due to the risk of infection. Lots of other organisms other than yeast love these temperatures, so it's important to make sure as few of them are in the fermenter to start with so the yeast gets a good head start.
I left my fermenter in my other pants
Beer might use a bit of water, but the water isn't going to waste, it's making a great, healthy product (a steak in every glass) and the alternate is to drink water or coke. And you probably don't use anymore than one round of a dishwasher. It's not being wasted, it's going to a good use.
Now how about the bulk prime method of adding about 160/180g (depending on type and preference) of dextrose to 250ml hot water, dissolve & let cool for 10 mins, then add this to the fermenter about 20mins prior to bottling by way of criss-crossing the top of the brew with your solution to get as much coverage as possible. Wait 20 mins, then bottle.
Saves racking and another fermenter to clean. But best of all, it works well. I use less for ales (160) and a bit more (170) for lagers.
Now how about the bulk prime method of adding about 160/180g (depending on type and preference) of dextrose to 250ml hot water, dissolve & let cool for 10 mins, then add this to the fermenter about 20mins prior to bottling by way of criss-crossing the top of the brew with your solution to get as much coverage as possible. Wait 20 mins, then bottle.
Saves racking and another fermenter to clean. But best of all, it works well. I use less for ales (160) and a bit more (170) for lagers.
Life is what you make it; let's make it good.