Recovered water from knockout

[rich24]

Just curious about some practices for recovered water gathered from the HX during transfer from boil kettle to fermenter.

On my system it's possible to recover all the water needed for an additional batch. But if a busy schedule gets in the way of brew days - how long can or should water be saved for brewing purposes? A week? And if held onto that long (or longer), would you have any specific treatment protocols?

I've noticed water that smelled a little not right but tasted fine. Occasionally some algae growth in the holding tank. I've yet to actually brew with older water but use it for initial rinses of kegs, floor cleaning - sort of treating it like grey water. But not sure if this is being overly cautious over any off aromas or flavors carrying over. I speculate that bringing it to boil to kill off any critters and scrub any aromas out could work? Any words of advice for a brewer trying to re-use as much water as possible?

[kererubrewing]

Our recovered cooling water goes directly into the HLT and is kept at 85C.

I would never let it cool below 50C for risk of Legionaires and other microbes.

[rich24]

What if say running it through a filter then boiling it the night before? My logic is that its originally coming through pipes and plumbing from municipal systems that do the job but are not pristine. Its the same water. If you can't immediately use the water for a follow up batch, and maintaining a temp of 125 degrees is not feasible, how else can that water be reconditioned? Heat shock by boiling then letting it sit in a jacketed HLT overnight?

[Buckley]

Recovery

You could pump your HLT back into your kettle after brew day CIP and store heated there until you could use it at a later date.

[dick murton]

"What if say running it through a filter then boiling it the night before?"

If you have allowed bugs to grow between brews, then you should throw the water away, clean your tank and start with fresh water. No telling what sort of off flavours might have developed, even if you think it is OK at the time. I would have thought you would find it cheaper to throw away and heat up from scratch than to try and filter it first. If you know you are not going to be brewing for a few days, and have residual recovered hot water, then I would simply let it go as soon as all the cleaning is finished, and leave the HLT empty, to dry out.

[Ted Briggs]

You could add a UV light with a pump and timer to recirculate the water. Although if you keep it hot it should be ok.

[wailingguitar]

If you can't keep that water hot, dump it... and, as mentioned above, if something has grown in the tank clean it before using it again.

[tjc27]

Just to clarify for my own knowledge now (and anyone else). So keep it over 160 F and the water is fine for a few days? Say a week or so ?

[Todd Hicks]

I am assuming that your CLT and HLT are generally clean vessels and probably have a lid.

You could stabilize the reclaimed water stored in your HLT with a minimum amount of chloramine when you know it will be sitting for a week or longer. Of course, before you use it, you would have to scrub the chloramine with metabisulfite 24 hours before boiling it with some agitation or recirculation. That should work as long as you do not overshoot the chlorine. Keep it minimal.