can I recirculate my wort into the sparge pot?

Hello, I am new to brewing. I keep reading about RIMS vs HERMS. I am wondering if you guys see anything wrong with pumping the wort into the sparge pot. At the same time, allowing the sparge water to gravity feed into a Blinchman auto sparge back into the mash to maintain the water level above the grain bed.

My thinking is to maintain my temp in the sparge pot via heater element after using my burner has quickly reached my desired temps 140 - 155. I'm guessing that the sugars in the wort would slowly rise and reach an equal level in the circuit.

I am concerned that this process would not yield as much.

If this works out, I could even pump all the wort back into the sparge pot and make it become the boil pot???

All thoughts will be appreciated.

Well, I'm not completely clear on your question, but here's how I brew. My "sparge pot" is what I call a mash tun. I do recirculate the wort back onto the top of the grain continuously. I pump tha wort through a coil that sits in a pot of hot water. I change the recirculation rate of the wort and temperature of the water in order to hold or change the temperature of my mash - which actually improves my efficiency.

So If I interpreted your question correctly, the answer is yes you can pump the wort back into the mash tun.

Now as I re-read you question, it looks like you may be asking if you should pump your wort back into your hot water kettle (or hot liquor tank). In that case you're essentially doing the same thing. But I don't know why you just wouldn't pump it into the auto sprage. You might want to pump the first few quarts into the mash tun without going through the auto sparge to avoid clogging anything with loose grains, but after you have clear wort, you should be able to go into the auto sparge. I suppose pumping int toe HLT would help by letting solids settle out, but you may run into an issue of not having enough wort to keep your grain bed saturated.

Thanks for the Response. Sorry, still new to the nomenclature.
Yes, I am thinking of mixing the wort directly with the HLT water.
This way I would not require a coil to transfer heat to the wort.
The wort would mix directly with the HLT water and recirculate to the desired level above the the mash.
Hope my newbie explanation makes more sense.

I am also wondering if the wort can reach a saturation level of sugar and that is the reason for sparging with "virgin" HLT water.

wisdomseeker said:

Thanks for the Response. Sorry, still new to the nomenclature.
Yes, I am thinking of mixing the wort directly with the HLT water.
This way I would not require a coil to transfer heat to the wort.
The wort would mix directly with the HLT water and recirculate to the desired level above the the mash.
Hope my newbie explanation makes more sense.

Click to expand...

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh......... You could do that I suppose. Basically would be no sparge. Not sure how that would affect your mash ph given the high water/grain ratio. People do full volume BIAB, so it can be done. I would think efficiency would take a hit, but I don't have anything off handed to back that up.

ChandlerBang said:

I would think efficiency would take a hit, but I don't have anything off handed to back that up.

Click to expand...

+1 on this.

I believe that your beer would suffer some using the method you describe. There are a few things that concern me.

The first is that you'll be creating a very thin mash, which will effect the way starches are broken down into sugars. The second is the "no sparge" method, which is likely to leave sugars attached to the grain bed, and not rinsed through. The third is temperature control - it would be difficult or maybe impossible to introduce higher temperatures to step through any mash temperature changes you want to make due to the volume of water in the mash, and to use hotter water to stop the enzyme actions quickly at the end of the mash.

For me, dropping a coil into my hot liquor tank (hot water kettle) and pumping the wort through that allows me to keep temperature in the mash, and raise it fairly quickly to the next step. It also allows me to have hot water ready for mash out and sparging - I just need to change how my pump is connected and turn it back on.

Once you decide what you're going to do, send a picture. And have fun. It's really pretty hard to make a really rotten beer - it can be done, but it sounds like you're thinking this through enough that you'll be brewing some great stuff.

Now I'm wondering how my current BIAB method affects my efficiency and wort character. I BIAB on the stove in 2 kettles, but would like to get away from that as soon as I can take my brewing out of the kitchen. I mash in a 30 quart kettle with about 1.25 qt/ lb of water. Then sparge / rinse the bag of grains in a 2nd, smaller kettle in enough water to make up the remaining boil volume. I then combine the sparge water and all I can squeeze out of the bag into the 30 quart kettle for the boil.

A thick wort improves enzyme action and efficiency during mash? How does a full volume boil vs. less that full volume boil effect the wort/beer?

Thanks to everyone for their response. You guys have cleared some things up for me. In the same breath, created more questions.
I have made 4 LME batches and 1 all grain in 5 weeks. This is one awesome hobby. Ive been bitten by the brew bug.

Thanks again for the help.