Recirculating tool

Roadie · Joined: 13 Oct 2013 Posts: 127 Location: Charleston, SC

Ok I have a circular metal sparge ring that connects to a hose barb via a port inside the mash tun. The metal has little holes all the way around it. It looks great and seems like instead of a hose returning the wort in one spot that this would return it across the mash bed. However I have had nothing but trouble with this thing. Evidently my pump is not strong enough to actually push the wort out of it. Then the mash pump ball valve is fully open I get some (minimal) flow. What does everyone else use inside the mash tun for wort return while recirculating during the mash?

Today I thought I had a stuck mash while brewing an imperial pumpkin ale but the minute I removed that ring wort shot out without any flow problems. I spent an hour trying to unstick a mash that wasn’t stuck! My mash temps went from 156 to 143 so this will probably turn out drier than I wanted it to be.

**kal** · Posted: Sun Sep 27, 2020 5:05 pm Post subject:

You're probably getting little bits stuck in the holes. Normal if using something like that because the filter is the grain bed and at the start some small bits will recirculate until they're caught. That's why your sweet wort starts out cloudy but over time becomes clear. The grain bed is the filter.

See here for what I use: http://www.theelectricbrewery.com/mash-lauter-tun?page=3

I recommend this method as it's:

(1) Cheap (no extra parts to buy)
(2) Easy to clean (no extra parts to clean)
(3) Can't clog
(4) Still results in very high mash efficiency

The reasons above are why many small scale commercial setups do the same.

Some people will argue that it only returns wort to a single spot on top of the grain bed. True. They argue that it will hurt your mash efficiency. Not true. It still gives me very high 95% mash efficiency.

My recommendation is to go simpler and not try and solve an issue that probably wasn't an issue in the first place.

Good luck!

Kal