Keggle Mash Tun Questions

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lhd7osc

lhd7osc

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So I’ve stepped up my game and I have an insulated Keggle Mash Tun utilizing a March 809 pump to recalculate the liquid.
In the past I’ve used a cooler and Batch Sparged. So with this new keggle/pump/burner set-up I have a few questions:

1. Since the MT is being recirculated continuously do I still need to do a Batch Sparge?
(The reason I’m asking this, couldn’t I just put ALL the water needed into my MT keep it at 152ish THEN just raise the heat to 170 for the last 10 minutes….done?)

2. Because I’m continuously recirculating the liquid, do I still need to do a Vorlauf?

3. Do I use a paddle to stir the Mash since I now have heat under it to keep it at a constant temperature?

My upgrade will be the Blichmann Tower of Power in a few weeks to control the burner. But for now, it's eyes on with manual adjustments.
 
1. Sure you could, though the mash would be very thin, more along the lines of BIAB then a regular mash.
2. Since the grain bed would be set you could skip the vorlauf, but if you stirred or disturbed the bed in any way towards the end, you would need to vorlauf again.
3. You should stir at first in order to make sure all the grain is introduced to the strike water and to break up grain balls, after that stirring shouldn't be needed since the recirc will be regulating the temperature (hopefully).
 
Agree with answers 2 and 3 above.

For 1, even with recirculating and controlling for heat, your efficiency will be off if you don't sparge, Even if you put all the water in at once. That is partly because you are messing up the pH by altering the water to grist ratio and decreasing enzyme activity. The action of the water filtering down through the grainbed in fly sparging is really the only way to get the most out of your grain, keeps your grist ratio optimal, and dissolves more sugars as it goes. Highly recommend taking the extra time to fly sparge.
 
SteelString_Will said:
Agree with answers 2 and 3 above.

For 1, even with recirculating and controlling for heat, your efficiency will be off if you don't sparge, Even if you put all the water in at once. That is partly because you are messing up the pH by altering the water to grist ratio and decreasing enzyme activity. The action of the water filtering down through the grainbed in fly sparging is really the only way to get the most out of your grain, keeps your grist ratio optimal, and dissolves more sugars as it goes. Highly recommend taking the extra time to fly sparge.
Click to expand...

Okay....NOW it makes sense. I'm going to give it a shot this weekend....
 
Bobby_M said:
If you use the full volume then it's technically a no-sparge. The only problem with that is reduced efficiency.
Click to expand...

And ph could be high depending on you grain bill
 
I will be doing a similar thing with my all grain setup. Should you still use a 2 quart water to 1 pound grain (I believe this is somewhat standard) and then sparge to get your liquid volume to what you need?
 
Nosnum08 said:
I will be doing a similar thing with my all grain setup. Should you still use a 2 quart water to 1 pound grain (I believe this is somewhat standard) and then sparge to get your liquid volume to what you need?
Click to expand...

For me, I'm using Beersmith to calculate the water to grain ratio. As I said above the question I was curious about dealt with; why not just put ALL the water in there. But as wonderfully pointed out....it will lower my efficiency. Also the Ph is an issue...which I'm already dealing with. My water out here in the desert is Ph 8! So I'm usually purchasing Reverse Osmosis water and tweak that.

There are just so many things to adjust, think about....it makes my head almost explode :drunk:
 
lhd7osc said:
There are just so many things to adjust, think about....it makes my head almost explode :drunk:
Click to expand...

Try to focus on one or two elements at a time especially when tweaking a new system. It will allow you to determine which change is causing what outcome. This method also has an added benefit of allowing you to justify brewing more beer.
 

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