heat exchange question

[mattbeer]

I'm planning on using my Blichmann Therminator as a heat exchange/control. Im going to recirculate hot water through it as I also recirculate my mash, to insure a consistent temperature. Has anyone heard of this technique or used it?

 

[mredge73]

You are going to get a lot of crap in your plate chiller if you don't vorlauf the hell out of it.

 

[phendog]

Concur with mredge73. I pump my mash through an old copper coil chiller that sits in my HLT at 5-10degs above mash temp. I bump the temp with the burner if needed and only re-circ when mash temp begins to fall. I've found that a few short cycles throughout the mash produces very clear wort with great efficiency.

 

[IslandLizard]

If you use a voile bag in your mash tun to hold back all the grain, so nothing except wort and a little fine dust goes through the plate chiller, you may be able to get away with it.

 

[bajaedition]

That will be fun to clean

 

[ross_daly]

I also would be worried about clogging the therminator. I'm looking forward to hearing how it goes though! I've clogged pumps recircing in a similar manner. They have way bigger ID than a therminator.

Do let us know how it goes - experimental results beat a bunch of guesses any day!