HERMS question re: sparging

On my way to a HERMS unit with 3 keggles and trying to figure out how to do it with one pump.

Question: if you're recirculating your mash the entire 60-90 minutes why would you go through the extra step of sparging (again, because aren't you effectively sparging the entire mash cycle?).
Could you start with all the water you'll need to hit 6.5 after mashing (for a 5 gallon batch), mash for 60 minutes, raise temp to lautering temp (170-180), and then swap your hose from the recirc to your boil kettle and start mash out from MT straight to Kettle?

 

Sparging rinses the sugars from the grain husks. If you mashed with enough water to not sparge any then your efficiency would go down because there would be sugars left behind on the grain husks. Nothing wrong with doing it that way but you may want to add to the grain bill to make up for the loss in efficiency, or add some extract.

 

If you only have one pump you will need a stirrer in the hlt.

 

I only use 1 pump with me herms and it works just fine. The key is to have multiple shutoff valves so you can move hoses when needed. I used quick disconnects everywhere to make that process easy.

 

I have a 5500 watt element in my hlt with no pumps and have never had a problem.

 

Quote: "I have a 5500 watt element in my hlt with no pumps and have never had a problem."

So evidently it's not a RIMS or HERMS system and you are gravity feeding your Sparge. He could do the same,(as for Sparging sans Pump) if he just elevated his HLT and Burner (if not electric)high enough to gravity Sparge while dumping his Wort to the Boil Kettle. I am new to pumps and have relied on gravity till going to an Rims/Herms system upgrade just now and found 2 used March AC3 Pumps used to convert to modern food grade spec. I ran out of heighth in my Brewing area and will recirculate and see how much more efficient it is.

 

Ha ha. I was responding to JRems post about silicone getting too hot in an electric hlt without a pump or "stirrer". He has deleted his post so mine sounds kindof off.