Waste water

[rclarke]

It has been a hot dry few weeks here in the North of England, do you conserve water when you brew? Care to share your tips/tricks?

I'm cleaning my corny keg this morning, and half filling it with water, then inverting it for the soak so it gets a good clean without filling to the top. Ideally, I'd like to have a way to use this water which doesn't involve throwing it down the drain. Do any of you re-use water which has PBW or similar added to it? I think it would kill my plants, and I once used it to attempt to clean my car but it (or maybe it was sanitiser, I can't recall) left white residue all over the paint work and I had to wash it again.

When I purge starsan solution from my corny for oxygen free transfer, I'll usually transfer it to another keg (rather than pour it down) so I have a keg ready for the next batch.

Generally I always do no chill on my brew nights, I'll transfer to my fermented while it's still 80C and whack a fan on the fermenter to cool. It's usually pitching temperature by the next morning, and because the hot wort sanitises all the equipment, I don't need to worry about infection.

Do you have any other good ideas? I was wondering how I could use water with PBW in it from corny cleaning, but I think it will kill the organisims in soil, so watering my thirsty plants with it (or star san for that matter) is probably a bad idea.

 

[Agentgonzo]

I wouldn't trust anything with pbw in it. That goes down the drain.

The first hot (70°c) water from the chiller gets collected in my sparge water heater to be reused for cleaning to prevent needing to heat it back up.

The rest of the cooling water gets diverted into the water butt. I haven't quite got around to setting up a pump to be able to use the water butt as a source of cooling water for the chill yet though.

 

[RoomWithABrew]

You could soak some white washing in the PBW as it's mostly sodium percarbonate with the remainder sodium metasilicate and edta.

 

[rclarke]

You could soak some white washing in the PBW as it's mostly sodium percarbonate with the remainder sodium metasilicate and edta.

Genius idea :)

 

[RoomWithABrew]

Plus buy the ingredients to make your own pbw very easy and much cheaper. Also top up the oxi action or other whitener for the washing.

 

[rclarke]

I actually use non-branded soda crystals, I said pbw, just in case folk didn't realise thats what pbw essentially is!

 

[RoomWithABrew]

I actually use non-branded soda crystals, I said pbw, just in case folk didn't realise thats what pbw essentially is!

Washing Soda is Sodium Carbonate Na2CO3, it's really a cutting agent in the Oxiclean/ Oxiaction diluting down the active ingredient you want which is sodium percarbonate that releases the oxygen. The Oxiaction ( unperfumed Vanish) is the source for your sodium percarbonate which is what you really want.

Soda crystals are normally NaOH and very caustic certainly not in the PBW recipe at all.

The rough quantities you want to make your own PBW are 75% Sodium Percarbonate, 20% Sodium Metasilicate and 5 % EDTA by weight.

I buy the separate ingredients pure and mix it up, much cheaper.

 

[Cwrw666]

I use soda crystals for cleaning beer bottles. Works a treat. Also for cleaning out my boiler - apparently it's good for stainless steel. Said so on the internet so it must be true.

 

[MashBag]

I prefer caustic TFR. Easier, cheaper and only needs rinsing not soaking.

I also wash cold, so no electric.

Biggist water and time saver - don't chill

 

[Keruso]

It has been a hot dry few weeks here in the North of England, do you conserve water when you brew? Care to share your tips/tricks?

I'm cleaning my corny keg this morning, and half filling it with water, then inverting it for the soak so it gets a good clean without filling to the top. Ideally, I'd like to have a way to use this water which doesn't involve throwing it down the drain. Do any of you re-use water which has PBW or similar added to it? I think it would kill my plants, and I once used it to attempt to clean my car but it (or maybe it was sanitiser, I can't recall) left white residue all over the paint work and I had to wash it again.

When I purge starsan solution from my corny for oxygen free transfer, I'll usually transfer it to another keg (rather than pour it down) so I have a keg ready for the next batch.

Generally I always do no chill on my brew nights, I'll transfer to my fermented while it's still 80C and whack a fan on the fermenter to cool. It's usually pitching temperature by the next morning, and because the hot wort sanitises all the equipment, I don't need to worry about infection.

Do you have any other good ideas? I was wondering how I could use water with PBW in it from corny cleaning, but I think it will kill the organisims in soil, so watering my thirsty plants with it (or star san for that matter) is probably a bad idea.

There’s an accountability point here, according to OfWat In 2020-21 England and Wales leaked the equivalent of 51 litres of water per person per day, whilst we can do our best to conserve water it’s literally pissing in the wind until the water companies sort their mess out. I’ve been cleaning my kegs with 2 teaspoons of sodium percabonate and 2 liters of hot water. Give it a good shake, then it’s down the drain. You can’t reuse it. Half filling a keg for cleaning seems really excessive to me.

 

[Keruso]

Forgot to say, in my method, unlike yours, I do use water to fast chill the wort, but I collect it for cleaning and for the garden, I really like your method of no chill but as I have plastic fermenters and can’t guarantee an oxygen free transfer I would be concerned with infection. Sounds like your system is more advanced than mine.

 

[dad_of_jon]

It has been a hot dry few weeks here in the North of England, do you conserve water when you brew? Care to share your tips/tricks?

I'm cleaning my corny keg this morning, and half filling it with water, then inverting it for the soak so it gets a good clean without filling to the top. Ideally, I'd like to have a way to use this water which doesn't involve throwing it down the drain. Do any of you re-use water which has PBW or similar added to it? I think it would kill my plants, and I once used it to attempt to clean my car but it (or maybe it was sanitiser, I can't recall) left white residue all over the paint work and I had to wash it again.

When I purge starsan solution from my corny for oxygen free transfer, I'll usually transfer it to another keg (rather than pour it down) so I have a keg ready for the next batch.

Generally I always do no chill on my brew nights, I'll transfer to my fermented while it's still 80C and whack a fan on the fermenter to cool. It's usually pitching temperature by the next morning, and because the hot wort sanitises all the equipment, I don't need to worry about infection.

Do you have any other good ideas? I was wondering how I could use water with PBW in it from corny cleaning, but I think it will kill the organisims in soil, so watering my thirsty plants with it (or star san for that matter) is probably a bad idea.

I only do a partial boil so no chiller requiring lots of water going thru it.

also a couple of super chilled bottles of water from the freezer can be used to top up the volume and bring temps down.

 

[MashBag]

Forgot to say, in my method, unlike yours, I do use water to fast chill the wort, but I collect it for cleaning and for the garden, I really like your method of no chill but as I have plastic fermenters and can’t guarantee an oxygen free transfer I would be concerned with infection. Sounds like your system is more advanced than mine.

I leave it to "no chill" in the boiler. It's easier than the cube method.

I do my last hop stand at 85c for 30m. Remove the hops, lid on. Run away.
Next day, I drain it into the fermenter.
Never done a oxygen free transfer, I syphon or open a tap & never had an infection.

 

[JockyBrewer]

I’ve put PBW on the lawn. It’s still alive.

First 20 litres or so of chilling water goes into my emptied mash tun along with some PBW, and that’s used to clean everything, including the ketttle. The rest goes into a water butt which I use to water the plants/lawn at another time.

I also only chill down to 30c as I have a glycol chiller to do the rest

Rinsing everything is done on my lawn to give it a water.

I need to get a no chill cube though, another hose pipe ban is coming!

 

[Andrew Booth]

I have a couple of no chill cubes I use especially on double batch brewdays or waiting for space in my ferm fridge.
If I am chilling I get it down to 30 transfer to fermenter and pitch yeast when it’s dropped to around 23 guarantees less lag time from pitching to fermenting starting.

 

[MashBag]

I need to get a no chill cube though, another hose pipe ban is coming!

Or a camouflage hose?