Recirculating mash and slow sparge

[KLITE]

Hi all

Ive brewed a few beers now and im extremely impressed with the results!!!

Im just using an old 40 liter pot and makeshift cooler mash tun and a self made cooling copper coil. Kinda recirculating with jugs and sparging with jugs as slowly as i can.

Now would it improve the quality and calrity of my beers if i get two pots with spigots and a sparge arm and with a pump constantly recirculate mash with sparge arm and then sparge with water from the other pot trhough the arm slowly?
Found a couple of pots and a pump for a reasonable price and im wondering wether itd be worth it.

Thanks

 

[eluterio]

Never done it would like to know the answer.

 

[FortMillBrew]

IMHO: You may see a slight efficiency increase and your pre boil wort will be clearer. However, clear pre boil wort has negligible impact on finished clarity and quality unless you are boiling grain husks. Cold side tweaks are proven to impact clarity and quality. Control temperatures during fermentation (if you are not) and cold crash your beers prior to packaging (bottle or keg) and you will have significant impact on quality and clarity.

Cheers!

 

[LandoLincoln]

I recirculate my mash constantly and then drain into my BK, while adding sparge water into the MLT to replace the draining wort during the sparge.

It does give you some crystal-clear wort going into the BK. So pretty! Until you add the hops and it all goes cloudy. Does that translate into clearer / better tasting beer? I have my doubts. I wouldn't bet on it.

Sparge times definitely have an impact on effectiveness of a mash, though. I shoot for 1 quart per minute draining into my BK.

 

[biertourist]

No. If you're this early into the hobby there are far, FAR more important things to address; this probably isn't going to result in making better beer.

Sparge arms are overly complicated and have very low satisfaction- you can just use a section of silicone tubing layed on top of the mash to accomplish the same goal- if you keep the liquid level above the mash level you're guaranteed to get "even distribution" and you're less likely to have the mash bed collapse and create a stuck sparge than if you fully drain the mashtun and start the sparge.


Focus on yeast health, pitching rate, and temperature control first.

Improving sparging methods can help increase efficiency and if you're doing it wrong, you can get decreased tannin extraction and associated astringency but there's at least 10 things you should probably address first.


Adam

 

[KLITE]

alright i thought itd improve beer quality loads if constantly circulating

I take keeping fermentation temp constant very serious and im patient and dont rush things. I made little pools with quarium heaters for the ales (very constant) and in winter i can make lager without a fridge same method but no heater, temps have stayed between 12 and 13c since the start. I also add a little bit of yeast nutrients to the wort to promote healthy yeast. As for the pitching rates, i admit i could do bbetter, im simplky weighing yeast for x many liters of wort....

I guess ill just get a pot with spigot and make a sparge arm out of copper to get a real nice slow sparge on the go.

I also thought cold crashing was done after bottling. Wont cold crashing before priming send yeast dorment and hence not produce (or do it very slowly) co2 in the bottle?

 

[Duke145]

You could also look into batch sparging, I have had excellent results using this method, it is less complicated and it shortens you brew day.

 

[CrimsonYeti]

BrewTV channel on YouTube has 2 videos with wil wheaton that go thru the recirculation mashing. Mostly to plug northern brewers gear. But video is very good.
https://youtu.be/C4YQqIMeS14

 

[RM-MN]

I personally think that recirculation adds complications without causing noticeable improvement. There are other things that are much more important.

 

[KLITE]

Can someone clarify when shud the beer be cold crashed? Before or after priming? thanks

 

[LandoLincoln]

Beer is cold crashed before carbonation.

 

[KLITE]

Beer is cold crashed before carbonation.

Why not in the bottle? IS it effective in bottle? Doesnt that make the yeast go dorment? After adding priming solution wont it take longer for the yeast to convert the simple sugar to co2? The temperature of priming table is it referring to the temperature the beer was fermented at OR the temperature you will have your bottles in?
Damn im confused

 

[LandoLincoln]

Why not in the bottle? IS it effective in bottle? Doesnt that make the yeast go dorment? After adding priming solution wont it take longer for the yeast to convert the simple sugar to co2? The temperature of priming table is it referring to the temperature the beer was fermented at OR the temperature you will have your bottles in?
Damn im confused

Pre-bottling, it does take out a lot of the yeast, but not so much that you can't naturally carbonate. It might take a bit longer to carbonate, but only by a few days. Once the beer gets back up to room temp they'll wake up and eat some priming sugar and carbonate the beer.

Post-bottling, yes, you can use cold to force the yeast to fall out of suspension, but the suspended yeast doesn't have anywhere to go except for the bottom of your bottle, so you'd have to take more care when pouring and transporting the beer to someone's house is...well...it's gonna be cloudy and taste yeasty if you do that.

The temperature of the priming table is referring to the temperature the beer was fermented at. During fermentation, a certain amount of CO2 does get absorbed into the beer. How much is dependent on the temperature it was fermented at.

All this crap is why I switched over to kegging and artificial carbonation. Well...that, and getting batches of bottles that had a severe mixture of hardly-carbed beer and beercanos, and the endless de-labeling and cleaning of bottles, begging your friends to return bottles when they're done with them and then they (sometimes) do but they didn't rinse the bottles out and there's mold in the bottom of them so you may as well just toss them and...ugh. What a pain. Kegging is pricey but so worth it.

 

[KLITE]

Pre-bottling, it does take out a lot of the yeast, but not so much that you can't naturally carbonate. It might take a bit longer to carbonate, but only by a few days. Once the beer gets back up to room temp they'll wake up and eat some priming sugar and carbonate the beer.

Post-bottling, yes, you can use cold to force the yeast to fall out of suspension, but the suspended yeast doesn't have anywhere to go except for the bottom of your bottle, so you'd have to take more care when pouring and transporting the beer to someone's house is...well...it's gonna be cloudy and taste yeasty if you do that.

The temperature of the priming table is referring to the temperature the beer was fermented at. During fermentation, a certain amount of CO2 does get absorbed into the beer. How much is dependent on the temperature it was fermented at.

All this crap is why I switched over to kegging and artificial carbonation. Well...that, and getting batches of bottles that had a severe mixture of hardly-carbed beer and beercanos, and the endless de-labeling and cleaning of bottles, begging your friends to return bottles when they're done with them and then they (sometimes) do but they didn't rinse the bottles out and there's mold in the bottom of them so you may as well just toss them and...ugh. What a pain. Kegging is pricey but so worth it.

Thanks a lot man much clearer now!! Ye indeed bottles are a bit of a pain!