Recirculate Mash without any supplementary heat.

[W0rter]

I'm brewing an Imperial IPA today. I'm in the process of building a brew system, but it's not done yet. However I want to utilize my pump and recirculate my mash to set my grain bed and clarify my sweet wort. I don't think I can recirculate for the entire 60 minutes as the temp will fall too much. I'm using a 10 gallon beverage cooler with a spinning sparge arm through the lid so I can keep the mash tun closed to help retain my mash heat. I've never recirculated before, and my purpose is to clarify my wort. So could I wait until 15 minutes remain then start to recirculate or should I wait until the 60 min has passed then start to recirculate kinda like a vorlauf. How long should I recirculate to clarify my wort? I could also pump some hot sparge water in to help mash out or hold temps while I continue to recirculate.
Any thought from someone experienced in recirculating would be greatly appreciated

 

[Brewcycle69]

Couple of things to consider; recirculating is also good for stabilizing the mash temp evenly at the beginning of the mash, depending on your manifold if you recirculate with your pump set wide open its easy to get a stuck mash. I do BIAB now so its no longer an issue for me, but when I was doing three vessel I would circulate for 5 min at the beginning to get an even temp throughout the mash and 5 min at the end for a vorlauf, it doesn't take that much time to get the result you want when your recirculating. I have a march pump and a cpvc manifold with slits cut in it and had to limit the pump output to about 30% of max flow; that's really going to be different for every setup.

Good luck on finishing your system, its nice to recirculate with heating; not completely necessary but more fun stuff to play with.

Cheers

 

[afro_lou]

I just recently got a couple pumps, so on my last few brews I've been recirculating the mash during the last 15-20 minutes. So far its worked great, and the temperature has even held steady during the recirculation. I don't think I'd recirculate throughout the entire mash (until I get my RIMS set up), but my beers have been nice and clear going into the BK.

 

[DrinksWellWithOthers]

I currently use a pump and a cooler as a mash tun. I never thought about recirculating at the beginning of the mash to evenly distribute temperatures though I do recirc during the last 10-15 minutes of my mash to clarify my wort so its ready to run into my kettle once my mash time is complete.

 

[W0rter]

Thanks for all of your responses. I hit a wall yesterday when I took my wyeast 1056 out of the fridge. It was swelled tight so I stopped and made a starter to verify viability of the yeast prior to starting the (Pliney the Elder clone from Morebeer). I've since read that the 1056 is common to swell. They call it a gas off.
My mash tun is a 10 gal rubbermaid beverage cooler. I have a Norcal false bottom with a stand. I have about 1.1 gal deadspace. I don't have a thermometer in my MT. but I can monitor the temp with a 12" thermometer. Beersmith says to mash in with 18 qt's at 163.7 which will render a 152 degree mash for my grain bill. it says 75 min step. Does that mean I need to mash for 75 min? I like Brewcycle69's idea to recirc 5 min in beginning and 5/10 min vorlauf. should I increase my strike water temp a couple degrees to help with the initial recirc? I will set my drain valve on the MT around 20/25%. I'll monitor my recirc speed and keep low so I don't compact my grain bed.
After the Mash in BS says to mash out with 11.5 qt's at 196.6 degrees for 10 min. Isn't 10 min kinda fast? Theoretically I might have enough room in my MT for the mash in water and the mash out water. But I don't think that's desirable. I think I'm supposed to drain off into my BK while I fly sparge in the 11.5 qt's. And stop draining when I get my boil level of 5.95 gal. My conical fermenter can hold 7.5 gal so I may drain off a little more to help with deadspaces and hose losses. Depending on my OG of course.

 

[hottpeper13]

I know it's been 30 yrs since I was discharged from the Navy as a Machinist Mate, but I believe that centrifugal pumps still operate the same, which is , inlet (wort from mash tun) needs to be wide open and you slow it down with the outlet valve.

 

[W0rter]

Absolutely correct.

 

[CA_Mouse]

hotpepper is correct (btw ex-MM 31 years now). You want to control the output side of your pump. I run my recirculation through my 70-quart cooler for the last 15 minutes of my mash. I verify that I've gotten complete conversion first, then start to recirculate at about 1/3 open on the exit side of my pump. Once it is nice and clear, I start draining into my kettle and start sparging the mash, since I'm not using my pump to drain the mash, I can adjust it as wide open as needed and match my sparge to match it.

 

[stonebrewer]

Are you not able to heat your mash tun? I have one of the smaller Bayou burners under my mash tun location on my stand. Even with my RIMS, I find it necessary sometimes to be able to heat up the mash to get closer to my targeted mash temps when I am off more than 3-4 degrees. So I fire on the mash tun for about 5 minutes while I recirculate and then start up the RIMS. Not sure why, but Beersmith is always about 7 degrees under what it should be in the MLT for my setup and when I forget to add the additional temp delta, I choose to use the Bayou to get me there quicker.

On the subject of vorlauf, I do it BEFORE I run anything through my pumps! So in general, I dough in, let that sit for about 5-10 minutes, vorlauf 5-6 quarts until I get very little grain (some always sneaks under the false bottom!), and then start pumping. In general that eliminates a cup or more of grain from going into the pump, with the potential to clog.

Best of luck!

 

[jbb3]

...
My mash tun is a 10 gal rubbermaid beverage cooler. I have a Norcal false bottom with a stand. I have about 1.1 gal deadspace. I don't have a thermometer in my MT. but I can monitor the temp with a 12" thermometer. Beersmith says to mash in with 18 qt's at 163.7 which will render a 152 degree mash for my grain bill. it says 75 min step. Does that mean I need to mash for 75 min? ...

I too use a 10 gal beverage cooler for a MT and use BS as well to calculate the volumes and temps. 163.7 seems a bit low to end up with a 152 mash temp. Two things; First, make sure you set up your Equipment Profile according to the equipment and set-up you have. Second, go to the Mash tab. Toward the top of the tab, there is a long button you click to pick your Mash Profile. Right under that button there is a check box that says; "Adjust Temp for Equip". Make sure that check box is checked. When checked you should see your strike temp go up.

And if you're looking where it says "Step Time" and it says 75 min. Yes, it's calling for a 75 min mash.

Report back and let us know how the recirc goes.

 

[W0rter]

Oh My, Thank you jbb3. My mash "adjust temp for Equipment" wasn't checked. Also the grain and MT temps were not correct. Yes I'm a newbie to BS. I did have my equipment setup though. I included some snip its so you could point out any errors.
After changing items my temps look lower and there's an error on a step.
Edit: I didn't see that BIAB was selected I corrected but the mash out is wrong. What Mash profile do I need?

 

[jbb3]

Oh My, Thank you jbb3. My mash "adjust temp for Equipment" wasn't checked. Also the grain and MT temps were not correct. Yes I'm a newbie to BS. I did have my equipment setup though. I included some snip its so you could point out any errors.
After changing items my temps look lower and there's an error on a step.
Edit: I didn't see that BIAB was selected I corrected but the mash out is wrong. What Mash profile do I need?

I'm not familiar with fly sparging or setting up fly sparge profiles in BS. I just knew your mash temps didn't look right for the target mash temp you were shooting for. Maybe some other HBT'ers who do fly sparge and use BrewSmith can help??