Continuous vorlauf, recirculated mash, maybe. What is the benefit of doing this in your opinion? Clear wort? That only takes 10 minutes of recirculation. I just think holding the mash in the cooler the whole time would keep the temp more consistent.
Clear wort is just one of the benefits. As noted in the original post, you don't have to worry about the ph of the sparge water, or need another piece of equipment (HLT). Other benefits are the time savings of not having to sparge, and the fact that with the water constantly re-circulating you don't have to worry about the top of your mash bed being hotter than the bottom.
Here's how easy my brew day is: Add full water volume to brew kettle, and heat to strike temp. Pump about 4 gal water to MLT - dough in and stir. Start recirculating and watch temp on my MLT thermometer - turn on burner 2 or 3 times on low during mash to maintain temp. Have a home brew. When starches are converted, turn burner on high while recirculating until MLT thermometer hits 166-168. Turn off pump, drain MLT to kettle and boil.
It's not like heat is pouring out of this process. I keep a lid on the kettle and MLT and my hoses short as possible. I could run the whole hour mash without the burner and probably only lose a few degrees.
There are probably more benefits that I am missing that Saccharomyces explains pretty well in his thread, along with a lot of others who use this method:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f36/i-love-no-sparge-brewing-140972/
I'm not saying there's anything wrong with the sparge method, I just like this one better, whatever you want to call it.
