Reusing chilling water after storage

[inthedark]

Hi, I was wondering what good use I could put the outflow water from my IC to and thought that the most obvious would be to make the next brew out of it.

Only thing is, I don't brew every day, or even every week (I know, Slacker...) so any stored water would be around for at least two weeks.

If it's kept in a sealed container, is it going to be ok over that time? I don't usually boil water before mashing - just treat with Campden to remove Chlorine. I could leave that treatment till just before using it so that I keep the benefits, but what do you think in general? Has anyone tried it?

[Parva]

I can't see any reason why you couldn't, other than the storage issue. As long as it's bolied after mashing I can't see any problem.

[mshergold]

I was wondering about what do do with all that water too. I've not yet gone all-grain, but when I do I'm thinking of buying another water butt for the garden and using a drill pump/whatever to force the water from one butt throguh my CFC into the other butt so there's water for the garden in the summer and I'm not wasting loads of water. Whether it'll happen or if I get around to it it even works is another matter!

[agentgonzo]

I do my brewing in a shed in the back garden. Instead of running the hose to the IC, I have a water butt (220 gal I think). It's full pretty much all of the time and I just pop an aquarium pump into the bottom and run that through my IC. In mid summer when it's hot it needs a bit of top-up-cooling from the hose at the end, but in autumn/winter it chills it to 20° without any additional water from the mains. I have no idea how much water I use, but to chill it for about 30 mins will probably use about 10-20gal a brew that I now save.

[Bru4u]

I simply divert it to the HLT where it gets a second life for wash down after a brewday, may not be your solution but helps a bit. I have my own well and it only costs me the electric to pump it out, but I try and do my bit for the planet. Makes cracking beer aswell and no chlorine or other stuff in it.

[inthedark]

I've been using mine for washdown too, but after the last one I realized that I'm going to need more water to get the temp down enough to pitch, I'm going to need to do something with the mostly lukewarm water.

Thanks for the replies, guys - I'll give it a go for my next couple and see how it goes. Maybe report back in a few months when I'm drinking the result if I remember!