to pump or not?

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Moog

BIAB-ER
Joined
20/11/13
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I've been brewing double batches BIAB for nearly a year now, in a converted solar hot water tank.
The beer has all been good, but, being a fix-it and make-it, type of guy, I'm always exploring the next stage of a good set-up.
I've been reading threads about recirculated BIAB set-ups and all sounds good.
My question is.......should i bother?
my pot is well insulated, and will only loose 1 degree over the hour of a mash, so why bother pumping the wort around (apart from clarification through the grain bed)
I'm happy enough with the clarity so far, and prefer to keep it as simple as possible.
What do you think?
 
I've recently "upgraded" to a 1V reticulation set up (but with a ss malt pipe) from BIAB. Some of the reasons I made the switch were, in no particular order:
  • needed/wanted a pump for my counter flow chiller anyway
  • wanted to make whirlpooling easier
  • had a big w pot already for a malt pipe
  • pot/malt pipe looked easier to clean than a BIAB bag
  • bling
  • to see if clarity improved
  • maintain mash temp better
  • make step mashing easier
 
How much grain can you fit in your bigW malt pipe Crowmanz?

I am thinking of doing the exact same thing.... what do you use to control mash temp? I am hoping to just use my stc-1000 as is connected to a 2200W element.

What pump do you use for recirculation? I have a little brown pump equivalent, and just wondering if I will need to control the flowrate somehow to stop the wort spilling over the top of the malt pipe?

Cheers, Matt
 
Matplat said:
How much grain can you fit in your bigW malt pipe Crowmanz? I had 5.75kg on my first run last week, could probably go more as there was space but I don't usually do big beers (I haven't yet)

I am thinking of doing the exact same thing.... what do you use to control mash temp? I am hoping to just use my stc-1000 as is connected to a 2200W element. At the moment just running a keg king temp controller on my urn, temp probe is in the urns thermowell near the element

What pump do you use for recirculation? I got a keg king MKII but I have seen the LBP used I have a little brown pump equivalent, and just wondering if I will need to control the flowrate somehow to stop the wort spilling over the top of the malt pipe? My set up goes ball valve > pump > tee piece > ball valve > top of malt pipe
V
bottom of urn


I hope that works out, all connections are silicone hose. Ball valves help put the right amount over the mash. I didn't want to drill any holes until I got the set up the right way hence the tee piece.

Cheers, Matt
Reminds me I should do up a thread or add to the brew rigs thread with some photo
 
Yeah that would be sweet.

Do you run in BIAB style with no sparge adding full volume at the beginning? how would you sparge otherwise?

Lift the malt pipe above the wort level and pump sparge water on top?

Once sparged (or not) do you recirculate while bringing to the boil to prevent burning on your element?
 
Matplat said:
Yeah that would be sweet.

Do you run in BIAB style with no sparge adding full volume at the beginning? how would you sparge otherwise? The height of my malt pipe means I need to sparge. On my first run i filled up the urn (to full volume) hit strike temp and put the malt pipe in then ran off the water into a handy pail until i got the right level. Then sparged that and i think an extra 3-4L

Lift the malt pipe above the wort level and pump sparge water on top? i need to finalise my lifting of the malt pipe, first run was lift malt pipe put oven rack down and malt pipe over then sparge on top.

Once sparged (or not) do you recirculate while bringing to the boil to prevent burning on your element? I did recirculate when getting to strike temp, mash and coming up to boil (with a few manual rests here and there. I found it evened out the temp and seemed to help raise the temp. But even when i BIABed (no recirc) i didnt get much scorching on my element
 
I added a pump to my 80L BIAB rig two brews ago. I use a 4 ring burner for heat. Both of those I used a pizza tray to keep the bag off the bottom.
I recirculate through the lid and have a temp probe where the wort goes back in and I generally add heat half way through the mash.
I used to mash in and be too scared to open it because I didn't want to lose any heat.
I have found mash out and any temp adjustment to be ten times easier. And also there is a lot less trub at the end of the boil.
Just scored a 40L stainless wire basket for free that I have made legs for and will put the bag in so planning test it out on Sunday with a sparge after I lift it up.
 
Matplat I found a picture of my return set up. Went this way to avoid drilling holes if I didn't like the set up.

1439010988094.jpg
 
And do you like the setup?

I've got all the welded fittings and pot ready to go to add the double return, just waiting on taps and my heating element!
 
Yeah, only thing I have troubles with is lifting the malt pipe and putting the oven rack under for sparge (I have plans to add some kind of pulley) and I need to get cam locks/quick disconnects for some of the pump connections, I just have barbs atm and are hard to quickly get off when attaching to my chiller.
 
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