What Type Of Sparge for Recirculation System

[davegrande]

I'm in the planning phase of building a simple (but getting more complex day by day) recirculation system (for 10 gallon batches). I'm going to use a hot plate with a gas burner combination to keep temps up and a march pump to recirculate wort. Using a CPVC manifold above (for fly sparging) and below grains in a cooler.....It will likely be a 3 tier system. Hot liquor tank on top, mash tun cooler in the middle, and boiling kettle on the bottom.

Anyway, here is my question:
(and I'm relatively new to all grains so forgive me if my terminology isn't exact)

Should I still "mash in" by adding my strike water to the grains, stirring, then letting it rest---or---do I just start the recirculation process and use only fly sparging throughout the mashing. Also, how long should the recircuation process take (with and without a "mash in" rest).

Thanks in advance.
Cheers,
davegrande

 

[Bobby_M]

If you're willing to have a pump, a 3-tier is a waste of cumbersome height. The only reason to recirculate out of a cooler mash tun is if you're using HERMS or RIMS temp control. Otherwise it's easier to let it ride in the cooler until you're ready to start sparging. Then you can pump vorlauf for 5 minutes.

 

[Chesterbelloc]

Re-circulate... I still can't bring myself to do this.

It sounds cool though... RIMS and HERMS.

 

[RTL]

In terms of terminology you mean "dough in" when you say "mash in," and you don't "sparge" throughout a mash because "sparging" means to rinse the sugar from the grains.

Having said that if you recirculate through your CPVC manifold without a lid on you will lose a hell of a lot of heat. If you do so with a lid on you will lose a lot of heat. The biggest thing affecting your heat lost in the mash is the surface area that will be in contact with ambient air. When you turn your wort into tiny droplets to recirculate you create a huge surface area to transfer heat over.

Personally I use a flexible tube from Bobby and get over 85% efficiency even on larger beers. Since we typically maintain about 2 inches of water above the grain bed during sparge, spraying the bed with some sprinkler like apparatus seems silly. Those droplets aren't helping to rinse more grain because they are dissipated by the 2" buffer of water.

You want to add water in a way that will not disturb the grain bed and will allow the water to precess around the top of the grain. The flexible arm allows height adjustment for different gravity beers and water/wort can be input perpendicular to the top of the grain bed, reducing disturbance and potential tunneling. The arm also allows you to position it so that the water circulates over the surface of the grain bed as it passes through it which should help increase efficiency.

Since you already have a CPVC manifold I would recommend just laying a piece of tubing on top of the grain bed like Kal does for recirculation (see his mashing video on theelectricbrewery.com). When you are ready to sparge you can connect to your manifold if you think that is necessary.

Good luck; all grain is scary at first but a lot of fun once you demystify it.