Recirculate the Mash - Pump on the Mash Tun

[phendog]

I just saw a great video on Mash Out or no Mash Out, but ended up taking away something completely different from the video.

After conversion was complete the guy in the video connected a pump to his mash tun valve and pumped his wort back on top of the grain bed as a way to recirculate the wort and eliminate the "pour a pitcher at a time" vorlauf.

Does anyone have experience with this ? This seems like a great idea? I know these pumps are not high pressure, but a stuck mash when the pump kicks on sounds possible.

Brewing a 10gal IPA tomorrow and want to try this. Any advice?

 

[billl]

Pretty much everyone with a pump recirculates the mash. Many do it through the whole mash process.

But yes, you can get a stuck mash if you aren't carefully. You'll definitely want a valve on the out side of the pump to control flow rate.

 

[Bobb25]

But if you are doing this in an igloo mash tun, how do you maintain the temperature of the recirculated wort ?

 

[Yesfan]

I almost done this when I brewed today. Instead of the "pitcher vorlauf" the OP mentioned (which I do), I thought about just doing a small recirc for about 5 minutes, then drain to the boil kettle.


Bobb,

I mash in a cooler, but to be honest, I wasn't worried about maintaining temps. I figured I'd hit "mash out" temps when the wort is on its way to boiling.

So would recirculating for a few minutes after a 60 minute mash be a bad idea and/or just adding an unnecessary step before draining to the boil kettle?

 

[phendog]

I almost done this when I brewed today. Instead of the "pitcher vorlauf" the OP mentioned (which I do), I thought about just doing a small recirc for about 5 minutes, then drain to the boil kettle.


Bobb,

I mash in a cooler, but to be honest, I wasn't worried about maintaining temps. I figured I'd hit "mash out" temps when the wort is on its way to boiling.

So would recirculating for a few minutes after a 60 minute mash be a bad idea and/or just adding an unnecessary step before draining to the boil kettle?

yep, ... what I was thinking.

 

[Yesfan]

yep, ... what I was thinking.

Got a link to the video? I'd like to see it.

 

[imasickboy]

I have a tan solar pump, and will sometimes use it for vorlauf purposes. Not often, but yes, it does work, and does eliminate the "pour a pitcher at a time" vorlauf.

 

[Yesfan]

Well, I gave it a go earlier this morning. Brewed up amber ale (west coast radical red kit from NB). After the 60 minute mash, I drained the tun, filled it with my sparge water, then recirculated for a few minutes, before moving it to my boil kettle. I felt it was an unnecessary extra step. I probably should have recirculated the first runnings, but I did the vorlauf pitcher instead for some reason.


Next brew day I'm thinking....about 10 minutes left, could I just start recirculating the first runnings, then add in my sparge water while the mash is still recirculating? Then after about ten minutes, I can move the wort from the tun to the boil kettle. I know I'll have to watch the volume and make sure I don't put too much in the tun at one time.

I wouldn't dump it all in, just open the valve of the HLT and let it drain in through a colander.

 

[day_trippr]

fwiw, I always recirculate for the last few minutes of the mash. I use FB's on both my 10g and 20g MLTs and a gentle recirculation really sets the bed nicely and traps darned near every crumb of grain. I don't buy the "crystal clear" thing that you read hereabouts, but it's "debris free"....

...which eventually means less junk getting to my PC...definitely A Good Thing...

Cheers!

 

[Yesfan]

fwiw, I always recirculate for the last few minutes of the mash. I use FB's on both my 10g and 20g MLTs and a gentle recirculation really sets the bed nicely and traps darned near every crumb of grain. I don't buy the "crystal clear" thing that you read hereabouts, but it's "debris free"....

...which eventually means less junk getting to my PC...definitely A Good Thing...

Cheers!

I use a simple immersion chiller, so now I'm thinking more that the recirculating at the end of the mash may be an extra step for me. I agree about the crystal clear aspect. I use whirlfloc religiously and never did more than a simple pitcher style vorluaf and still got crystal clear beer.