Hefeweisen question

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bencdeck

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I am about to brew my first all grain hefe, and I am wondering whether I should recirculate the wort over the grains when splarging. My mash tun has a false bottom and spigot, and my process would be to use a wort pump and tubing to pull wort from under the false bottom and run it through the tubing to the top of the mash tun. I'll be using rice hulls to avoid a stuck splarge.

Is this needed/advisable? And if so, for how long? Also, is there something I should be watching for in the appearance of the wort while recirculating?
 
The purpose of a sparge is to recover the sugars that were left in the grains when you drained the tun. If you recirculate the wort, you are using liquid that is full of sugar to try to extract more. Forget recirculating except the first bit if it contains too many bits of grain to set the grain bed. After that you want just water.
 
You can recirculate during the mash at a slow to very slightly moderate rate only if you have a way to keep wort heated like in a HERMS, RIMS, or all in one system. You don't want it to flow too fast and compress the grain bed, which can create channeling. You'll have to keep an eye to see what type of flow rate works best for the grain bill and system you are using. Doing this can help maintain a consistent mash temp throughout the grain bed/length of mash, as well as help with mash efficiency. While it is not necessary to recirculate during the mash, it can benefit if you have the equipment to do it.

Whether you recirculate during the entire mash, or just before sparging/lauter (vorlauf), you'll want to make sure your runnings are clear and free of any grain debris before you start the sparge/lauter. You don't want to sparge with your wort. You need to use water (Hot liquor) for the sparge so that it will help to rinse the grains and extract more of the sugars out of them.

However, sparging is also not necessary if you don't have the means to do it, or are doing brew in a bag. You will just want to make sure and do a full volume mash instead. You will take a hit on efficiency without sparging (Probably 50s - 60s without vs 70s - 80s with). You would just need to adjust the recipe for next time after you figure out your efficiency without sparging.
 
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