Recirculation Return Line help please.

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Reelale

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I need to design a recirculation return for my Sanke MLT. I really don't need anything as elaborate as a sparge arm, and I'm leaning heavily towards just laying the silicone hose on top of the grain bed. I did this with a rectangular cooler, and turned-up the end in the corner. Since the keg has no corners, I'm not sure how I can keep the output from tunneling into the grain bed. The blichman sparge-arm has a little foam collar that keeps the end floating at the right level. Where can I get one of these collars?
autosparge__09064_zoom.jpg
 
I bet you could make a float like that out of some Styrofaom without much trouble. A cork maybe? Heck, an empty yeast vile might even work as a float or possibly a short section of cpvc capped at both ends. Use some wire ties to attach the float to the tubing.
 
I like the cork idea, or styrofoam cups....something not likely to leach nasties into my mash.
 
I read somewhere that Blichman uses a short piece of Pipe Insulation for the float. The kind you get for waterlines from the big box stores. That brought up the question of whether the stuff is "Food Grade"

I have a coupling near the top of my MT and a piece of silicone tubing for a return. I'm also looking for a float (still not 100% about the pipe insulation). I've though of a couple short pieces of 3/4" copper with caps on each end to act a pontoons.

Ed
 
I use a single tube return into my keggle mash tun, and it has not needed any kind of float. My technique is just to use a long piece of thermoplastic tubing (it is stiffer than silicone or vinyl even when hot), making sure it is long enough to come into the MT, and then circle around the inside almost one full revolution. The stiffness of the tubing holds it steady against the wall of the MT, wherever I chose to put it. I submerge the end by about 1", and recirculate almost wide open.
It stays put against the side, and I can then use it to determine water level consistency during fly sparging.

Floats are just not necessary and don't allow the functionality I have now grown accustomed to.
You can kind of see the thermoplastic tubing in these pics, and the flow is visible atop the mash while the recirc tube is partially submerged but stable.

continuous_recirculating_mash.JPG

mash_closeup.JPG
 
3/4 x 1/2 silcone tubing for me and it just sits on top of the mash, nothing to engineer at all.
 
Another float un-necessary here.

I find it better to keep the wort out end under the water level as it also keeps the foaming down to a minimal or non existant.

I have never experienced any channeling so long as the outflow doesn;t creat a HUGE vortex. Even then, the channeling is kept to the filter bed surface.
 
Thanks for the replies. I just tried the hose in the keg, and it looks like it will work sans float.
 
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