Conserving Water

Do you really need to, once you sanitize it just keep it covered and dust free. It doesn't need to be green from the wash, just clean. It really isn't about sterilizing everything before the operation, but more minimalizing the risk exposed.

-victor

If that is all it takes then I am happy. Would certainly save me a lot of time on 'brew day' if everything can be prep'd earlier.

Again a concern at this point would be the 'damp'. If I was to sanitize a bottle and then cap it to stop anything getting in, what about the excess water in the bottle. could that lead to mildew or something?

If I leave it to dry, then that risks exposure to contamination again!

I don't have a dishwasher that I can use like some people so my options are quite limited.

Any water in the bottle should be *nearly* sterile. (I.e. there should be no mildew in there).

I've had good results by just standing all my bottles together of similar heights and covering with a (new) piece of "Saran Wrap." I've left some for a couple weeks with no problem at all.

Clean a dish drying rack off real well (using some sanitizer solution) and then let the bottles drip dry upside-down there. They are *just about* dry by the time you get around to doing something with them.

Derric

Why risk it? If you're going to all of the trouble of brewing it yourself, you should at least make sure your bottles are as contamination-free as possible. To me, that means sanitizing on bottling day.

Skip your shower on brew day -- that'll save more water than you're using to sanitize anyway.

John.

gallons to sanitize my keg/bottles

water just to make 1 bacth of beer is in my opinion a

If I could reduce my water usage to just 10 gallons

Why not just use the same sanitized water from your fermenting bin for your keg/bottles. There's the ten gallons. I use 1 bucket of sanitizer for everything before and during my brew session.

Wild

I would like to use the sanitized water from my fermenting bin in my keg/bottles and was trying to get the general opinion whether or not this was deemed acceptable since the water would be in the keg/bottles for about a week.

When I last did this, there was what appeared to be a white jelly looking substance that had settled at the bottom of all the bottles. I think that this was just the sanitizing powder that I had used disipitated from the water, but I couldn't be sure and with no way to tell, I didn't know if it was worth the risk!!!

Some people seem to think it is okay to leave the sanitized water for long periods, others seem tot hink that this is a problem!

That absolutely depends on WHAT you use for sanitizer!

Chlorine, for example, with evaporate in a day or two. Other sanitizers will be fine for long periods. You have to research your particular one.

I don't remember you saying what you used... ???

In my previous post, I thought you meant sanitize your bottles and then leave them (empty) until use. That is OK if you are careful (ie., cover them with foil or plastic wrap).

Derric

jelly

think that this was just the sanitizing powder that I had used

from the water, but I couldn't be sure and with no way to

if it was worth the risk!!!

Yes the gel is the precipitated sanitizer. I wouldn't leave it in the bottle for a week. If you have something else to store your water in, then transfer it from your fermenting bin. Then when it comes time to bottle, add more sanitizer to the solution and go to it.

Wild

I can happilly empty the contents and cover the bottles/keg.

Thanks for the advise :D

I can't remember the name of what I am using. All I know is that it is a powder of some form. Will check it out when I back home.

Hi

Out of pure curiosity I have just worked out how much water I use to brew a 5(UK) gallon batch of beer:-

A) Sterilize 30 litre fermenter (fill to brim with sterilizing solution then 4 give full rinses - yeah, I know this is too many; it's just habit:- 150 litres

B) Water for mash: 10 litres (approx)

C) Water for sparge: 30 litres (full hot liquor tank)

D) Water for cooling: 180 litres (7.5 litres per minute through cooling coil as measured - for approx

E) Sterilize keg: 150 litres (same as fermenter)

Total - 520 litres - (114.4 [UK]gallons - 137.4 [US]gallons) This figure does NOT include water used to clean equipment after a brewing session.

Strewth, it's frightening; I knew I used quite a lot but this almost compares to Las Vegas!!!!! - Lucky our water isn't on a meter and fortunately no water restrictions are in force in my part of the UK this Summer (yet).

Regards

KGB

I've never dried my bottles before bottling. If you keep them dust-free, they should theoretically stay sterile until the apocalypse; of course, one ant, and boom, there you go.

I can't think that I use more than 20 gallons for a batch of extract brew, which like PieOfPah needs to be conserved. Let's see, last batch; state of:

It's strange that no one has mentioned iodophor. Sanitizing does not need to take tremendous amounts of water. Here's a quote from

I asked about contact time and was told that 60 seconds was adequate. Dr. Landman went on to comment that it is not necessary to keep the surface completely immersed in the solution for 60 seconds. He explained, by way of example, that to sanitize a 5 gallon carboy there is no need to prepare 5 gallons of solution. Swishing a gallon of solution, (at 12.5 ppm), around the inside of the carboy for a minute or two will do the job.

Hi Further to my previous post about the appalling amount of water I waste when brewing, I have had a thought for you theorists out there.

My cooling water flows through a copper cooling coil immersed in the wort, one end of the coil being attached to a tap (faucet in the USA???) by a length of garden hose, the outlet from the coil being allowed to just freely drain away - the flow being (a measured) 7.5 litres per minute with the tap/faucet turned on full.

However, do I really need to have the tap turned on full?? If I reduce the flow to - for example - 1.75 litres per minute, then surely the flow of cooling water through the coil would be slower thus allowing more heat to be transferred to the cooling water which would just drain away at a higher temperature - the end result being the wort would be cooled to yeast pitching temperature in the same amount of time.

Is my logic valid or not??

Regards KGB

Well... this has been debated here a lot, on occasion. I think that the final concensus, if there was such a thing, was that you can have fast flow, short time or slow flow, longer time.

Of course, you can also be somewhere in-between. BUT you cannot have a slow flow and the SHORTEST time.

Personally, I continually adjust the flow to keep the water coming out fairly warm to the touch. So, I'm somewhere in-between the two extremes above. I think this conserves a lot of water and still cools in a reasonable timeframe.

Derric

I've done that with bleach. It works, but last time had mold growing on the inside so thought it wise to soak it for once. I'd a few times for good measure though.

Will give that iodophor a try. Seems to me that it is almost perfect for what I want. Seems that it would also help speed things up, especially when sanitising my bottles.

Thanks :D