Temp rise with direct fire recirculation mashtun?

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ghart999

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Hi all. I am moving to a direct fire recirculation mashtun with a sanke keg and a Little Giant pump.

I would like to be able to do step mashes with this setup as well as bring the mash up to mashout temps. How quickly, temp-wise, can you increase your mash without scorching the wort? I will be use one of Jaybird's 15" false bottoms with this setup. So how many degrees per minute can I go without scorching issues? I was hoping for 3-4F per minute on 5 Gallon batches but I don't know if that's unrealistic. Obviously doing 10G batches will take longer.

Thanks all.

Gregg
 
I think it all really depends on the temperature of the mash coming out of the keggle for recirculation. I would think you would not want to get over 160 and start killing enzymes.
tom
 
I step at about 2 degrees Fahrenheit per minute on a 5 gallon batch with direct heat while recirculating in a 15 gallon keggle. I wouldn't go faster than that personally*. If you want to go faster, I recommend using a small hot water infusion plus direct heat. This gets me a max liquid temp (eg on the mash tun outflow) of about 5 degrees Fahrenheit above my target.

* I think that especially on darker beers I could get away with faster since I am coming nowhere close to denaturing enzymes prior to a rest, but I don't like to push it. YMMV
 
Thanks remilard. So do you monitor mash temps and the temp of the word being recirced as well? Meaning do you have a thermo at the point where the wort re-enters your MT?
 
Thanks remilard. So do you monitor mash temps and the temp of the word being recirced as well?

No, just the temp of the wort exiting the mash tun which is also what I control with a RIMS tube (steps with direct heat, rests with the tube). What I observe on every batch is that the liquid existing the tun needs to be 3-5 degrees fahrenheit higher than target when I shut the heat off in order for the temp to then stabilize at the target. I do have a thermometer with about a 6 inch probe that I occasionally shove down into the mash and have no reason to believe the discrepancy is every any higher than this.
 
Ahh makes sense. Thanks a lot. So I will have a thermo mid mash level. I think I will then add one with a tee fitting to where the wort leaves the tun as well.
 
I can get about 3 deg/min temp increase with my direct fired RIMS. The burner is controlled with a Johnson A419. I have the controller probe mounted on the output side of the pump. I also monitor the mash temp using a thermowell in the mash and a digital thermocouple type thermometer. I let the mash temp govern and adjust the controller as needed. It's basically a semi-automatic configuration as I still must adjust the flame intensity and the flow rate manually. This is very easy to master with a little experience. I've learned that higher flow rates allow more heat to be applied for faster temp ramp ups. It's somewhat of a balancing act as pumping too fast can cause the grain bed to compact which will slow the flow and sometimes result in a stuck mash.
 
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