Ball Valve on recirculation ports

[JMathie77]

What would be the reason for a ball valve on the recirculation port of your mash tun? Im building my system and just got chugger pump, i put a ball valve on the discharge of the pump but always see pics of others systems with a ball valve connected to the top recirculation port of the kettle as well. Why would you ever need this?

 

[bobeer]

I'd assume to give the brewer more flow control. The part that gives me the hardest time with brewing on a recirculating system is dialing-in the flow rate so you have X amount of water in the mash at all times while keeping everything moving. Without that top valve you can only control the flow coming out of the mash and the flow coming out of the HLT. The system I brew on sometimes has a ball valve right after the pump instead of at the MLT which is pretty much the same thing as putting one right on the MLT. The pump always gets mad at me for not keeping enough flow in it so opening up the other valves and keeping the top recirculation valve where the sweet spot is usually works for me to keep the flow and mash water level where I want it to be.

 

[ImNoExpert]

I control flow with the ball valve on the outflow of my pump. In my MLT, I use the "length of silicone tubing" method for delivery, not a sparge arm. I have noticed that sometimes if I don't shut the flow off at the pump, and then shut down the pump, if the end of the hose is below the water line, it will siphon and start to take the mash down towards the pump.

I solve this by shutting the pump valve first, and then shutting down the pump. It would probably be slightly easier to have a valve on the inflow of the MLT (at eye level) and shut it off there, instead of reaching down to the pump.

 

[therealrsr]

while I have the ball valve on the out port of the pump, I fine tune with the valve on the mash in. Just convenience so I don't have to adjust look to see if right, and repeat until happy. This way I crank it until happy and go have a beer.