Recirculating mash in cooler

I currently have a Gott 40qt cooler with a SS false bottom. Up to this point I have been doing single infusion mashs, hitting my temp and walking away. I always hear of people who recirculate their mash get a much clearer wort going into the kettle, not to mention the increase in efficiency. So my question is this, I have a Marsh pump that I use to pump my boiled wort though the CFC. Could I recirculate my mash during the rest, or would I lose way to much heat? OR.. could I just hook up my pump, at the end of the mash, recirculate it for about 5-10 minutes, then pump into the kettle. I would like to one day make a HERMS system, but I do not have the electrical know how. I do have an extra coil of copper hose, and an extra pot, so I could do a manual fired HERMS system, but this seems a little extreme, and a pain in the sea bass to keep the temps stead without some type of control unit.

What would you guys suggest, I am leaning more towards recirculating at the end of the mash with the pump, and also during my batch sparge. Comments very much welcomed!

If you circulate the wort during the mash, you will lose heat for sure. But, if you want to use the pump for a more thorough vorlauf after the mash, this should work just fine. Pump it around for about 5 minutes and it'll clear up.

One other comment: I noticed absolutely zero increase in efficiency when I started brewing with a HERMS system. I did it to have better control on temps and get the clearer wort.

So what about pumping wort out of MLT, though coil of copper that is sitting in another pot of hot water, which is heated by my burner. Basically a manually run direct fired HERMs system.

Edit: I don't mind not recirculating in the mash, just running though my options, I will most likely recirculate at the end of the mash to clear up run off.

I'm in the same boat about recirculating and losing mash temp. Decided to go with a RIMS. Seemed alot easier to do and seems like less cost than a HERMS. Ordered the parts for a x-mas present for myself. If you have a pump already you can build the RIMS for well under 200 bucks.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/rims-dummies-114997/

Hammy71 said:

I'm in the same boat about recirculating and losing mash temp. Decided to go with a RIMS. Seemed alot easier to do and seems like less cost than a HERMS. Ordered the parts for a x-mas present for myself. If you have a pump already you can build the RIMS for well under 200 bucks.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/rims-dummies-114997/

Click to expand...

HERMS is cheaper. if you already have a pump, and you ptobably already have a copper coil, a HERMS can be built less than a RIMS system. plus, you end up with an electric kettle as a byproduct of building the heater, whereas the RIMS heater cant be used to boil wort.

both systems are good, but HERMS can be done for less.

How can the HERMS be done for less? Is that because all I would have to do is install a heating element in my extra pot with the copper coil? I'm pretty stupid when it comes to temperature control units I see all you guys using with your RIMS and HERMS system.

Walker - my list of equipment as of now is a 10g MLT (cooler), 10g pot, 15g pot, 20 ft of copper coil, pump, propane burner. So basically all I would need to add is what? a heating element for the kettle with the coil in it, and some type of temp control, which is regulated by the thermometer in the MLT?

yeah, that's pretty much it. you sit the coil in a hot water bath and pump wort from MLT through the coil and back into the MLT.

probe placement is important. most people put it in one of two places.
- directly in the vessel that contains the hot water
- at the point where wort comes out of the coil and back into MLT

the PID monitors the probe temp and heats the water bath when necessary.

i have an electric element in only one kettle. i use it to hold the water bath during the mash, then i also boil in it later.

related question... if you do recirculate the mash, do you need to have a dispersing mechanism as to not disturb the grain bed or can you just hang the recirculating hose in the top of the mash tun? i've been thinking about recirculating for a long time and have never tried it.

i think it's best to not blast the pump output straight down out of a hose, but you dont need anything fancy for this. i use deep fryer scooper (basically, a gigantic spoon wth a lot of holes in it).

it's just a cheap aluminum thing that came with my el-cheapo turkey fryer set several years ago

you could poke holes in a piepan and it would probably work fine.

Deuce,
I have essentially the same equipment for my single tier (at the moment...HERMS as soon as cash allows)...I recirculate to vourlaf using my pump without any sort of sparge arm...just crank the ball valve on the output of the march way down so the wort comes out really slow and assuming a decent sized grain bill the grain bed will be fine...I do it every batch and get nice clear wort within a few minutes.

Walker said:

i think it's best to not blast the pump output straight down out of a hose, but you dont need anything fancy for this. i use deep fryer scooper (basically, a gigantic spoon wth a lot of holes in it).

it's just a cheap aluminum thing that came with my el-cheapo turkey fryer set several years ago

you could poke holes in a piepan and it would probably work fine.

Click to expand...

do you just set the fryer spoon in the mash or are you suspending it above the liquid somehow?