Recirc questions

[MTinOR]

Is recirculation of wort: is this necessary? Or is this just another step to improve your beer? Is it just to help remove as much hop material as possible before racking into a fermenter? How exactly does it work? Is it cooling of wort in several passes through a CFC/plate chiller? I guess if someone can help explain it a little more to me maybe it would actually click in my head. Thanks
Andrew


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[rgauthier20420]

There are a number of reason why people will recirc. A few would be for continued chilling if you 1 pass chilling isn't possible through a CFC or plate chiller, hops stands, improved chilling when using an IC, or creating a whirlpool to help with dropping trub at the center and using a side pickup so you don't get a fermenter full of trub.

However, no it's not necessary and it's really how it's used if it improves your beer. There are different views on it. Personally I do it for chilling because I can't do 1 pass chilling with my ground water anymore.

 

[MTinOR]

So instead of slowly letting wort through the chiller and trying to cool it down on a first pass you can let it flow faster and recirc with the added bonus of having less grub in your fermenter.



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[rgauthier20420]

So instead of slowly letting wort through the chiller and trying to cool it down on a first pass you can let it flow faster and recirc with the added bonus of having less grub in your fermenter.



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By recirc while chilling, I'm getting the mass of the wort chilled faster than if I slowly trickled wort through the chiller trying to get it down in 1 pass. This help with hop additions and stuff so that your flavor and aroma additions aren't sitting in your hot wort longer that you planned.

If your recirc/whirlpooling to help with trub, you'd whilrlpool for 5-10 minutes (you could be chilling at the same time too), and then you'd kill the pump and let it come to a rest for 15 minutes or so. After the whirlpool has stopped, you "should" have a nice trub cone in the center. Then you'd use a side pick up tube that's close to the edge of your pot to do a final run through the chiller and into the fermenter.