Does anyone collect and save the water they use to cool their worts and use that water for the mash and/or sparge for future brews? If so, how do you collect and save your water? Is there any negatives in doing this?
I currently don’t do an treatments to my water and just use the good ole’ tap water here in Aurora, CO. One day I’ll get around to getting my water analyzed and adjusting my water where needed.
Could toss it in gallon jugs but I think you’d be better off just repurposing it, like water the yard or wash the truck…
I’ve been using it to water flowers, the lawn, hops, and using it to clean equipment. Yet, as I was watering the flowers this evening, I was wondering if anyone used the water in their next brew. I probably would need to use a RV hose instead of a garden hose to hook up to my IC.
some pro brewers run the hot chilling water right into the tun for the next mash. Why waste the heat? but your’ just talking about saving it till you brew again some other day. Get some big 5 gallon jugs if you want. It’s never a bad idea to have 10-15 gallons of drinking water available.
I put it to use watering the hops/garden/yard depending on what needs watering the most.
Your right, I was thinking about using the collected water for mash and/or sparge for another day. I usually brew 3-4 times a month, so the water would sit around for a week at most.
Are you prepping, Mort?
;D
Nah, Really it’s just because I live in earthquake country. Not to say the apocalypse isn’t coming, I’m just not specifically preparing for THAT.
You’ve put my mind at ease. But seriously, I agree that it’s not a bad idea.
I’ve thought about it when we’ve had some particularly bad winter storms, but we never really lose power where I’m at. And, if I’m snowed in there’s plenty of water outside and plenty of beer inside.
We lose power so many times during most winters that it’s become SOP for me to fill a few kegs with water. We have a well, so no power=no water.
Same here. In the 3 years we’ve lived in this house we’ve had at least one multiday power outage every year. If they predict a potential outage I fill my carboys with water in advance. Think I’m going to pull the trigger on a whole house generator this year though. No water and no heat royally sucks.
I actually just did this a couple weeks ago. The water sat overnight then I used the water for brewing 2 more batches. I collected the water in a 20 gallon food safe garbage can. The wort from both batches tasted good. Now to taste the beers since they are done fermenting!
Cheers,
Brandon
Thanks, I’m going to give it a go this weekend. Gonna save the water from Saturday’s brew and use it for the mash and sparge for the Sunday brew.
[/quote]
Are you prepping, Mort?
[/quote]
What’s wrong with prepping? Its why I started brewing. What’s the point of surviving the ZA if there’s no beer?
I’ve been doing this for awhile when I’m brewing again within a few days. I used to run off into the washing machine, but I got a newfangled one that can’t handle being pre-filled.
Are you prepping, Mort?
[/quote]
What’s wrong with prepping? Its why I started brewing. What’s the point of surviving the ZA if there’s no beer?
[/quote]
Many good suggestions here: http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/forum/index.php?topic=13798.0
But none related to collecting cooling water.
just make sure you are using an RV hose or other potable water hose to connect to your cooling water source. regular hose water is NASTY.
Thanks Blatz, I thought of that and getting an RV hose today. I just moved up from 3 gal batches to 5 gal batches and started doing my boils in the garage w/ a burner. I still heat my mash and sparge water on the stove in the kitchen, so I’v been looking for an RV hose recently so that I can fill my water in the garage.