Something For The Biab'ers

[seamad]

Same temp at probe and wort overflow here, only significant heatloss would be through the pump and thick walled silicone tube, pretty minimal considering flow rate. If you want to step mash unsupervised go flow up, im lazy, dough in,get pump running and return at mashout. Only get 75% eff into fermenter, but thats fine for me, i dont faff about with sparging, just a two litre jug with some cold and boiling water and pour over grain whilst its draining..

 

[Jay Cee]

The main reason was so that I can walk away from the mash while in it's rests to do other things. On the plus side I went from average 78% efficiency to the low to mid 90%. I have only done 2 brews with the recirculation system and they were 90.3% and 94.2%.

Fair enough, but the increased efficiency represents very little, approx. 10cents a longneck $$ savings in grain on an average beer.

If you are going to do step mashing you really need to stir the mash all the time during rises (4 min).

Are you suggesting that the heat will burn the grist if you don't stir, despite recirculation ? I'm really thinking about a 'set & forget' automation.

Back to your temp. mystery, take a look at Pratty's rig (or whoever owns it now), he has build a copper wort return, in order to evenly redistribute the liquid back to the tun, instead of it returning via a single hose. There's a ghetto 3V tek in which you place a tupperware lid on the top of the mash bed, and dribble the returned wort over that, maybe you could give that a go.

Overall though, for a single vessel system with no plans to automate the process, I reckon a metre of insulation, no heat being applied (in the case of single infusion) would have you maintaining uniform temps. for an hour with less than 1c drop.

 

[Dan Pratt]

The single vessel rig I just sold I was running recirculating with step mashes effectively with biab. The wort below the bag would get to temp quick and the wort return would be at that temp, it generally took about 5 or so mins for the grain bed to get to the same temp. I would run a glass thermometer in the grain bed to check temps during the mash.
Last and final brew before I sold it just this week I ran 52, 66,72,78 for a lager and the wort was crystal clear about 15 mins after the mashin and required no lagging' probably the benefit of recirculating is the no lag process.

 

[geneabovill]

And a 5:1 liquor to grist ratio, no?

 

[nathan_madness]

Fair enough, but the increased efficiency represents very little, approx. 10cents a longneck $$ savings in grain on an average beer.



Are you suggesting that the heat will burn the grist if you don't stir, despite recirculation ? I'm really thinking about a 'set & forget' automation.

Back to your temp. mystery, take a look at Pratty's rig (or whoever owns it now), he has build a copper wort return, in order to evenly redistribute the liquid back to the tun, instead of it returning via a single hose. There's a ghetto 3V tek in which you place a tupperware lid on the top of the mash bed, and dribble the returned wort over that, maybe you could give that a go.

Overall though, for a single vessel system with no plans to automate the process, I reckon a metre of insulation, no heat being applied (in the case of single infusion) would have you maintaining uniform temps. for an hour with less than 1c drop.

No, I don't think that it will burn it as the temp rises slowly through the whole system. It is just to displace the heated wort evenly over the grain bed. I have a sprinkler head over the top of my grist that sprinkles the heated wort over it. I might dry "Pratty's" dip tube method next brew and see what happens.

From what "Pratty" says above that is what I'm trying to say when the probe in the wort return line says 64c the grain is actually 60c. So what you have to do with the gas burner is turn it down let the temp settle by stirring the mash and it will drop to about 61 - 62 deg then fire it up and bring the wort up to 64 deg then turn the flame down then settle it again and it should be around 63c then fire it up again to 64c then it should stay there for as long as you want as long as you keep your flame on really low.

So what I am trying to say is if you only have your probe in the wort return line your mash will always be lower unless you are stirring it. The best place for a single probe to run your "PID" or "STC-1000" is in the middle of the wort.

 

[Dan Pratt]

if i was to redo my system, however i sold it. and yes 5:1 ratio i would include a temp probe that would be able to be inside the grain bed like on Big Naths single vessel.

the wort around the element always seems higher but once the system has re-circulated for long enough eg 5mins and the whole volume of wort has been through the pump a few times the whole vessel & grain bed maintain the same temp.

AS for gas fired thats something i havent tried and it would be somewhat different to the electric that can switch on and off with the PID SSR setup.

another 2c worth.

 

[geneabovill]

Having used manually-operated (gas and electric) systems since I started in AG, I'm looking forward to a more 'set-and-forget' system.

One can make good beer with either but the more automation the better, IMO.

 

[nathan_madness]

Having used manually-operated (gas and electric) systems since I started in AG, I'm looking forward to a more 'set-and-forget' system.

One can make good beer with either but the more automation the better, IMO.

Yeah I can totally agree with you. I don't mind spending 10 min stirring and checking the brew for every step. That is why I quite like the way my system is brewing at the moment. Saying that I am a firm believer that agitation helps the mashing process.