Cooling Methods in a Drought

You could recirculate your water with an immersion chiller with a cheap pond pump

 

You could collect all the cooling water and return it to the water department for a refund.

 

You could claim the increased amount used as a baseline for next years' "bracket creep"

 

You could use a plate chiller to decrease your water consumption by 75%.

 

I am with @CurtFromHershey by doing recirc and a pond pump. I have a couple of the big freezer blocks that I swap out to get the temps down. You could also do straight ice in the bucket as well.

 

I started doing the recirculating method mentioned above. I use an igloo cooler and add water with a ton of of ice cubes.

You can also do as the Aussies do. Put the wort in a plastic, santitzed of course, bucket sealed and let it sit over night in a fridge then pitch the yeast the next day. I did that before I had a wort chiller. I had no ill effects or infections.

 

You could start doing no chill... I did it for awhile and made some awesome beers.
Never tried an IPA with it though,not sure how the hops would deal, but I don't normally make them and stick to darker / maltier beers and belgain beers.
However, it uses no water and it's fairly cheap to get into (hell, a number of people just put the lid on the kettle and walk away until the next day and pitch yeast)

 

I run my chiller water into the washing machine. Then there is already a full tub of water when it is time. It's very simple to do. It won't be hot though, just warm. And of course it's cold water only if it sits there until you get around to doing some laundry.
Cheers.

 

I don't know how the sewers are configured where you are, but, in many areas, the sanitary sewers send the water to a treatment plant, then back to the source. Storm sewers go to the same place, bypassing the treatment plant. Evaporation and incidental spillage would be the only 'waste'.

Living in the Great Lakes drainage basin makes this a non-issue. We don't do droughts.

 

We don't do droughts here in VT either, but I did live in Utah for 9 years. There, I'd run some hot water into the washer and use it for laundry if we had dirty clothes, otherwise save in a drum till it cooled and use to water the garden, soak dishes and brew gear... or for the next mash.

 

On a semi-related note, how much water would (or should) an immersion chiller use to cool a 5 gallon batch?

 

Depends on ambient and temp of water (flow rate X 20-30 min average I would guess)

 

Go over to Tom Selleck's house and borrow from his endless supply.

Run a hose to your washer and use that water for laundry. I wish I had an attached garage for this kind of project.

 

When using this approach, what approaches are used to keep the water cold?

 

Ice in the bucket you're draining into/pumping out of

 

How much ice would you keep on hand to do the trick for a 5 gallon batch?

 

I don't actually use this method, so I will match my answer to:

 

This might help.
https://www.homebrewersassociation.org/attachments/0000/2490/Beat_the_Heat_JAzym00_.pdf