Cheap recipes

[jeffpn]

Yeah, I have no idea what my flow rate is. But my water softener does. I wonder how accurate it is?!

 

[J A]

I run water for 5 1/2 minutes through it to get to 72-74°F.

You must have some cold-ass groundwater, buddy!
Even with an extremely efficient immersion chiller, I don't see how you can get shed over 130 degrees from almost 50 lbs of mass in 5 1/2 minutes using tap water. If your tap water is super cold - like 40-something degrees, I suppose it's possible. I'm too lazy to figure out the math.
In Texas, we're lucky to get less than 70 degree tap water most of the winter. Forget about summer!...it's probably at least 80 coming out of the tap. I have to run through a chill plate slowly to get a batch down to 85 or 90...probably about 15 or 20 minutes. Lately, I've been pumping through the chill plate back into the pot until it's around 90 - 20 minutes or so - and then switching to an ice chest/aquarium pump . I can get it down to 60 or less that way running out of the pot and into a fermenter at a fairly slow rate.

 

[jeffpn]

I shoot for 6.5 gallons post boil, so that's the volume I'm chilling. I think my water is around 55° in Dayton, OH, a little colder in the winter. From underground to sink is only about 15', not much length to get warmer before I'm using it. Check out the Hydra by Jaded chiller. What you read there is true. It's an amazing chiller!

 

[DanC]

Least expensive 5.5 gallon batch of beer, Cascade SMaSH, < $16.00. I do buy in bulk and do not recycle yeast.

 

[Nosybear]

Least expensive was actually free: The LHBS gave me one of their kits to brew a test batch for them.

 

[jeffpn]

Gotta like that! My LHBS has brewouts at the store. If you attend and brew (BYOE), they give you 10 lbs of your base grain for free, or 6.6 lbs of LME.