Recirculating system poll

[Blazinlow86]

I agree with this as well.
Curious though if your stated gap is on a 2 or 3 roll mill because that makes a huge difference in the grind. I mill closer to .050 as well on a 3 roll.

i use a cheap 2 roller at .050 slowly and condition every time fwiw

 

[schematix]

I also agree with this. i mill very course closer to .050 so im pretty sure i could get better efficiency but milling this way makes a super easy process. grain in the tun,quick stir, pumps on full, check ph and adjust, come back a hourish later. i prefer not to monitor flow etc and just live with the possibly lower efficiency. i can leave the house and not worry about it if need be. cheers

you'd probably get better efficiency from step mashing that just letting it ride at 1 temp for an hour.

I agree with this as well.
Curious though if your stated gap is on a 2 or 3 roll mill because that makes a huge difference in the grind. I mill closer to .050 as well on a 3 roll.

MM3-Pro

 

[Blazinlow86]

you'd probably get better efficiency from step mashing that just letting it ride at 1 temp for an hour.


MM3-Pro

Thanks for the advise I'll keep it in mind. I'm somewhat hesitate to try anything new as the system is so consist now . Cheers

 

[Ozarks Mountain Brewery]

fwiw...I run a 3V2P single tier with a trio of 20g G1s and a pair of March 815pls. The mlt has the (awesome) Blichmann FB and their autosparge valve, the hlt has a 50' 1/2" hex from Stainlessbrewing. I do a slow underlet mash-in, full recirculation after a 10 minute rest, then fly sparge. I crush barley at .030, wheat at .025, and only use rice hulls if the wheat is more than 15% of the grist. I never stir the mash.

I typically recirculate at 2-2.5 gpm as that rate usually keeps the entire mash thermally constant (I run the hlt 2~3°F above the target mash temperature) but ultimately I defer to the mlt sight gauge, keeping the level at least a couple of inches above the FB. If it drops below that I'll throttle down a bit more, but I rarely have to go below 2 gpm, even when doing a rather huge imperial stout.

2 gpm is a major throttling of the 815pl - it will easily triple that rate through the silicone tubing, hex and autosparge - when I'm running a cleaning cycle on the rig, at least. Add 25-45 pounds of grain and that ain't happening, but no matter - as long as the rate is high enough to keep the mash at the desired temperature there's no need for more speed...

Cheers!

how do you mash recirculate through your auto sparge, I can only get mine to flysparge slow, otherwise it bounces

 

[munkyhead8]

you'd probably get better efficiency from step mashing that just letting it ride at 1 temp for an hour.

So far I've only done single infusion, for 60 min on my eHERMS, and the last couple runs have been ~73% efficiency. Think an additional protein rest would give that a bump?

 

[day_trippr]

how do you mash recirculate through your auto sparge, I can only get mine to flysparge slow, otherwise it bounces

I've seen that, usually when I've opened the pump valve too rapidly, but it's easily cured. I calm everything down by throttling the pump back and let the fluid above the mash stop "waving", then slowly bring up the flow rate again. Works every time.

[edit] I should note I have never had that oscillation happen during the sparge, when my flow rate is just 1 quart per minute. When it happens it's always at much higher flow rates.

Cheers!

 

[brewbama]

..... a series of carefully chosen steps. i don't grind particularly fine.

Would those steps look something like this:

 

[schematix]

Would those steps look something like this:


View attachment 580676

That’s one way to do it. I recall that post you copied the notes from. Very good notes to hang onto. That’s a mash scheduled guaranteed to get full conversion of all but the hardest grain.

If you want to start with an abridged version do 146/40, 162/30 and 171/10. Be sure to not to overshoot 162.

 

[eric19312]

how do you mash recirculate through your auto sparge, I can only get mine to flysparge slow, otherwise it bounces

I unscrew the float ball during mash recirc then screw it back on during lauter.

 

[brewbama]

If you want to start with an abridged version do 146/40, 162/30 and 171/10. Be sure to not to overshoot 162.

This is my abridged version (Hochkurz):

 

[schematix]

This is my abridged version (Hochkurz):

View attachment 580709

Brewkaiser’s temps are off by a few degrees.

There’s no 160 degree rest. It’s 162.

 

[brewbama]

Brewkaiser’s temps are off by a few degrees.

There’s no 160 degree rest. It’s 162.

He said 158-162*F so I split the difference.