[a10t2]

I have yet to hear anyone coherently explain "lawns"...

[klickitat jim]

I have yet to hear anyone coherently explain "lawns"...

Its a 60s thing, like upholstery on the floor.

[jeffy]

I have yet to hear anyone coherently explain "lawns"...

Its a 60s thing, like upholstery on the floor.

Ever been to Graceland?  Elvis had upholstery on the walls and ceilings, too.

[Pinski]

I have yet to hear anyone coherently explain "lawns"...

Its a 60s thing, like upholstery on the floor.

Sorta, it's really more like a 1600's thing. Descended from the open areas surrounding European castles and villas created for security purposes, that evolved into status symbols.  Americans imported the tradition and have carried it to a ridiculous extreme. 

I'm not anti-turf mind you, I like to promote "functional turf".  Meaning for whatever reason, the resource inputs necessary to maintain a "lawn" are worth the function provided.

[HoosierBrew]

I'm not anti-turf mind you, I like to promote "functional turf".  Meaning for whatever reason, the resource inputs necessary to maintain a "lawn" are worth the function provided.

^^^   I'm with you.

[Stevie]

I'm not anti-turf mind you, I like to promote "functional turf".  Meaning for whatever reason, the resource inputs necessary to maintain a "lawn" are worth the function provided.

^^^   I'm with you.

Same. Kids and dogs are two of the only exceptions IMO. Grass does help a yard feel cooler during the hot days via evaporative cooling, but that requires water.

[EHall]

depends on the type of grass seed you're using... some have been developed to be really green with very little water.

[richardravenshead]

Thanks for the tips, all! Chiming in from Reno, NV.

I save my chill water for clothes washing. I loose maybe 15 gallons a batch to rinsing on the grass, spillage, and dumping the cleaning bucket after everything is cleaned. A brew pump with whirlpool arm would help as well.

+1 to clothes washing. If I know I have a brew day coming up, I just wait on laundry and plan ahead. Chilling water goes into buckets, buckets into washing machine.

Also, as mentioned by others, plate chiller is definitely helpful.

By far the biggest water saver I've found is a keg/carboy washer. Uses 1-2 gallons in place of 5-10. I'll let my dirty kegs and carboys stack up, then do a bunch on one day. Amazing how clean it gets them with a little pbw and a lot of time (bonus is NO scrubbing required). Also use for sanitizing carboys/kegs. Again, sanitize all my kegs at once and store under light CO2 pressure. Homemade version on previous link looks great. The one I use (easily modifiable for multiple purposes) is similar to this one: http://www.morebeer.com/products/mark-ii-keg-carboy-washer.html

[runningonempty]

I am pretty sure that sanitized frozen water bottles have been mentioned here before, as well.  I don't know how well they hold up to boiling temps, but certainly they could be used somewhere along the chilling process...

I wouldn't want to put that kind of plastic in hot wort, but they could be used to pre-chill the water going into the wort chiller.

Great points. Definitely don't put plastic water bottles in boiling water.

As a veteran of the world of food safety and health departments, I have recommended the ice wands many times.  They are intended to rapidly cool very hot foods and they'll hold up very well. 
Be sure to stir them around in the wort to promote a more even chilling.
One key is to stir them around to promote an even chill.

[tempest4]

I use a closed system for chilling.  I use an immersion coil with an ice bath reservoir.  I use my 10gallon cooler mash tun filled with 6 gallons of water which is pumped through the coil with a pond pump.  I have a bunch of plastic bottles of ice that I drop in the cooling water and recirculate for about 10 to 15 minutes. This will usually drop the wort temperature into the low 70's.  If I want to get colder I'll swap out more ice bottles.  When I am done the bottles go back into the freezer for the next brew day and I use the water for cleaning.

Dan in New Mexico.

[69franx]

Dan, I really like the sounds of that process. Going to have to find room for some frozen water bottles. And buy a pumo

[doctorbob]

Because (a) I have a well which has the potential to run dry and (b) I don't like to waste anything, I use a 55 gal drum to hold & recycle my cooling water for my all grain brewery. At the bottom of the drum I have a small pond pump connected to a garden hose that pumps the water (which has a little santitzer to prevent mold) thru my plate chiller and then returns to the drum. The temperature of the cooling water before use ranges about 48 in winter to 62 in the hottest summer since it is in my basement. If the temperature were to get too hot, I would simply add some ice although I have never had to. In 5 years of brewing I have had no issues with this system. In fact most of the water in the drum is 5 years old since I have had to add very little additional water due to the tight fitting lid which has only small holes for the hoses.