The first time I brewed last year I used the type of water filter you screw on the end of a faucet. It worked, but it was slow and with 2 people brewing it took a while to run 10 gallons of water through it.
Next up was buying a 5 gallon jug of bottled water. Faster, but not the easiest solution out there.
For the third batch, I switched to 1 gallon jugs of water. Easy to move, measure, and inexpensive at about $1/gallon; this worked well for the next few batches. This year we added a 3rd guy to our brew day which moved us up to 15 gallons of water and with the possibility of making larger batches, adding more people, and going all-grain, I started looking around other ideas. Enter a little project:
Weekly Photo – Home Brewing Water Filter
My weekly photos don’t always have to be scenic HDR creations, right? I think this counts.
We ran about 20 gallons through it this past weekend and it worked out perfectly. The idea came from this thread at HomeBrewTalk.com. Scrolling through the thread shows how different people have made their own and provides excellent ideas. I went with a 10ft 1/2in hose on the intake side which I can connect to both an outdoor water faucet or a sink faucet. Then on the outgoing side it’s just a 90deg elbow which allows it to hang over the side of a bucket:
Looking to make your own?
Here’s a photo of all the parts I used, but be sure to check out the thread mentioned above for more ideas. Click on the photo to jump to a larger version to see all the part details:
Changes Already?
I didn’t notice when I bought the filter housing that it doesn’t have a shut-off valve on the top. A couple I bought years ago all did and I never thought it would be missing when buying this one. I’ll be adding a shutoff valve to the intake side of the filter, but I’m not sure exactly what I will use for that yet.
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Do you have a filter for a home brew setup? Post a comment with details or a link to a photo so I can check it out!