Top off water

[Josh Hughes]

Alright. Plumber came and put in a new larger sink and cool faucet….my immersion chiller cannot attach to it. So I have an issue. My other option is a faucet in the garage. This morning the garage door opener didn’t work. Kim won’t let me run a hose from the garage to the house. So I’m screwed until I do some garage work.

My question deals with top off water. I’m using 5 gallons of water for my brew day. Let’s say I mash and boil 3 gallons then top off with roughly 2 gallons of water, what issues if any will I have topping off that much? Brewing salt adjustment? Hop adjustments? Efficiency issues? This should cool it enough that wishing 30-45 minutes after brew day I can pitch yeast?

 

[Minbari]

I do this this all the time. As long as you calculated everything for 5 gallons, then you should be good. I would take a gravity reading and then use the top up tool to see if 2 more gallons will work. (Don't want too much water)

If you want it to cool too, put ice in it.

 

[Sunfire96]

I've been doing 4 gallon batches with a post boil volume of 3-3.25 gallons. Recipe calculator seems to handle it just fine

 

[Josh Hughes]

Good deal I used to always add a gallon due to kettle space but I’m spoiled now.

 

[Pricelessbrewing]

You'll get lower efficiency since you're not mashing or sparging with that water, and your hop utilisation will be lower, and limit your max IBU. Otherwise you should be good.

For the attachment, I ended up using an add a line tee splitter with a valve under the sink thats usually designed to add a line for a dishwasher supply, then changed the attachment to my immersion chiller from a tubbing attachment to the same dishwasher fitting.

 

[BarbarianBrewer]

Alright. Plumber came and put in a new larger sink and cool faucet….my immersion chiller cannot attach to it.

I've seen kitchen-faucet/garden-hose adapters next to the immersion chillers at my LHBS. That might be all you need.

 

[Starter Hops]

I refrigerate dilution water overnight prior to use and add at pitch to push wort temp even lower.

 

[Josh Hughes]

I've seen kitchen-faucet/garden-hose adapters next to the immersion chillers at my LHBS. That might be all you need.

I have one of those and used prior to yesterday, but his faucet is simply perforated holes instead of a traditional type.

wonder what utilization changes to? Been a long while since I’ve topped off at the end.

 

[Megary]

I have one of those and used prior to yesterday, but his faucet is simply perforated holes instead of a traditional type.

wonder what utilization changes to? Been a long while since I’ve topped off at the end.

Most new faucets have tamper-proof aerators.

 

[Donoroto]

So a tee fitting under the sink with a little pipe, ball valve and garden hose (or whatever) fitting is all you need. Plumber might charge $120, it is quite fool-resistant so you might try it yourself.

The tee is the kind used for a fridge icemaker. It is installed after the shutoff valve for the sink, not before! If you have a hardware store near by, take a picture of under the sink and ask them to educate you. They will sell you what you need, all installed with just a wrench.

 

[Bubba Wade]

Ice for cooling is a great way to go. Use a clean ice cream pail or equivalent, add boiling water, cover, and freeze. This will give you sterile water and drop the temperature quickly.

So if you have 3 gallons of wort at boiling and add 2 gallons of ice, final temperature will be around 75 degrees, perfect for pitching. I approximated the calculations, but that should be in the ballpark.

 

[The Brew Mentor]

https://www.lowes.com/pd/SharkBite-...-B-23h7K4cRDCtlrRjkaAoqQEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

 

[The Brew Mentor]

Something like the above would work under your sink as Don suggested.

 

[Minbari]

https://www.lowes.com/pd/SharkBite-...-B-23h7K4cRDCtlrRjkaAoqQEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

This things are a plumbing dream. I added a hose bib in the basement using those off the existing water pipes

 

[Josh Hughes]

Crisis adverted, found a new hose so Kim will allow me to run it from the faucet in the garage to the house

 

[Sunfire96]

Crisis adverted, found a new hose so Kim will allow me to run it from the faucet in the garage to the house

The simplest solution is often the best solution

 

[NorthWest Small Batch Brewing]

you can use the boil off calculator ... but I found that if you try to squeeze to much ....it will effect efficiency because lets say you add 2 or 3 gallons water at the end ...thats plain clean water rather than using sparge water that will add body and some sugars from the grain. I would say you will have diminishing returns if you try to boil / mash too little and then do a major top off of plain water. Have to find the balance.

 

[NorthWest Small Batch Brewing]

P.S. I use a poor mans cooling system. I freeze water in about 5 empty 2Liter soda bottles. I sanitize them and drop them in the pot ...when cooled I pull them out. Ya ... higher risk of contamination but as long as you sanitize it's pretty low and so far ..knock on wood .. I haven't had any issues.