Question about cooling and pitching yeast.

I'd argue that I can offset the water that I use in the immersion chiller by not showering on brewday. :-)

More seriously, in dry weather we're looking at running the outflow into buckets to transfer to the garden water-butt.

 

My stove is a laggardly builders grade smooth top and it frustrates me whether making beer or hard boiled eggs. Weather permitting, my kettle goes outside on a propane burner...makes a huge difference.

How To Brew touches on a possible undesirable result if leaving the lid on during the boil. Some say this is less of an issue with extract brewing but I haven't found anything definitive about the extent to which potential off flavors (specifically from DMS) are mitigated during the extract manufacturing process, which could vary among manufacturers.

If you don't already have it, the print version of How To Brew is good to have around.

 

I use about 20 lbs of ice, and 20 gallons of water in 2x 10gallon water coolers.

 

I am also an extract brewer, and was also aware that extract does not have the same concerns for DMS as all-grain does, but I keep my lid about one-quarter open just in case. Having a small view also allows me to see any impending boil-over.

 

Lid? No lid at my house. I've brewed ~150 batches on my kitchen stove top. Sure, it requires multiple kettles if I brew more than 3 gallons (about once a year -- otherwise I only make 2 gallons usually), but it's cheap 'n' easy and makes the house smell super nice for several days.

Cheers.