Why did YOU choose to recirculate wort?

[Tutsbrew]

I'm in the process of "building" a plate chiller capability and I have a question, please.

---For those of you who recirculate/recirculated wort through a plate chiller rather than using gravity---

Why did you opt to pump the wort (recirculate) rather than gravity feed? What benefit(s) were you looking for? Were those benefits realized? What should a noob in the process of investigating recirculation vs. gravity consider?

I did ask this, sort of, in responses to other threads to no avail, thought I'd try here. I'd appreciate your input. Thanx!

 

[TommyTbar]

If i understand your question correctly, your basically asking if a pump is necessary with a plate chiller. I use one and would say it is necessary, my buddy used one for a while with gravity and couldnt really get the flow rate correct and had to have his kettle a lot higher then the chiller to work correctly. As for the recirculating question some recirc from the plate chiller back into the kettle if there output temp is too high because of there cold water temp or other issues like not having the most efficient plate chiller ie a cheap one. Also some recirc back through some sort of filter to pick up more trub before going into the fermenter. Hope this helps

 

[kenmcchord]

I just built a system with a pump, therminator and back to a whirlpool fitting in the BK. What I was shooting for was the ability to cool the wort to approximately 180° then whirlpool hop additions for a significant period of time. I'm using a blichmann 15 gal brew kettle with a hop blocker, and I also use a hop spider with a coarse bag to keep as much of the hop particles out of the chiller and fermentation vessel.

Without the pump I wouldn't be able to whirlpool, which was really my original goal. The chiller is fantastic, it chills my wort so much quicker than with the immersion chiller. As with anything there are pluses and minuses with any addition equipment, but my brews have improved with the pump, chiller and whirlpool. It's worth the hassle of the extra work during cleanup.

 

[BreezyBrew]

I just built a system with a pump, therminator and back to a whirlpool fitting in the BK. What I was shooting for was the ability to cool the wort to approximately 180° then whirlpool hop additions for a significant period of time. I'm using a blichmann 15 gal brew kettle with a hop blocker, and I also use a hop spider with a coarse bag to keep as much of the hop particles out of the chiller and fermentation vessel.

Without the pump I wouldn't be able to whirlpool, which was really my original goal. The chiller is fantastic, it chills my wort so much quicker than with the immersion chiller. As with anything there are pluses and minuses with any addition equipment, but my brews have improved with the pump, chiller and whirlpool. It's worth the hassle of the extra work during cleanup.

I definitely agree with this.

 

[Tutsbrew]

Thanx. So far I haven't read anywhere any regrets about pumping the wort (recirculating). BTW, I do plan on pumping chilled water via a Superior pump, model 91205 for those who are number nuts, to help drop temps quicker. I'm sure I could run the wort through the chiller as such and get a good temp drop. I do have the above pump and am looking over chillers. Duda Diesel seems to have my best interest yet. Anyway, thanx for the input guys. I'll keep reading here and everywhere.

 

[laughingboysbrew]

Apologies - don't mean to hijack...but having an issue recirculating. At whatever point I start recirculating, my temp will drop an initial 3-4 degrees and it will never come back. During a boil, it kills the boil and I can never recover without stopping the pump. As a test, I tried recirculating my HLT... the temp basically stalls out when the pump is turned on.

I'm using a banjo burner on LP, 20 gallon Blichmann kettle, 10 gallons of water, march pump with about 6' total 1/2" silicone tubing. I'm moving to an e-HERMS system. While I think I can recover on the HLT recirculation...I'm concerned with the boil (whirlpool and sanitizing CFC).

Thoughts?

 

[Yooper]

Apologies - don't mean to hijack...but having an issue recirculating. At whatever point I start recirculating, my temp will drop an initial 3-4 degrees and it will never come back. During a boil, it kills the boil and I can never recover without stopping the pump. As a test, I tried recirculating my HLT... the temp basically stalls out when the pump is turned on.

I'm using a banjo burner on LP, 20 gallon Blichmann kettle, 10 gallons of water, march pump with about 6' total 1/2" silicone tubing. I'm moving to an e-HERMS system. While I think I can recover on the HLT recirculation...I'm concerned with the boil (whirlpool and sanitizing CFC).

Thoughts?

Hmmm- that does't seem right. Sure, the temp will drop initially, and stop the boil briefly, but once it equalizes, it should go back to a boil. Is there something chilling down the pump? Or does it go right from the BK to the pump, back to the BK?

 

[laughingboysbrew]

Hmmm- that does't seem right. Sure, the temp will drop initially, and stop the boil briefly, but once it equalizes, it should go back to a boil. Is there something chilling down the pump? Or does it go right from the BK to the pump, back to the BK?

I do have a CFC hooked up after the pump, but no cold water running. Also, wide open as to not give it as much exposure outside the BK... I get the initial drop, but stalling while heating strike water (at about 160F) seemed odd.

How do others recirculate boil, whirlpool, sanitize CFC without this happening?

 

[kevink]

Apologies - don't mean to hijack...but having an issue recirculating. At whatever point I start recirculating, my temp will drop an initial 3-4 degrees and it will never come back. During a boil, it kills the boil and I can never recover without stopping the pump. As a test, I tried recirculating my HLT... the temp basically stalls out when the pump is turned on.

I'm using a banjo burner on LP, 20 gallon Blichmann kettle, 10 gallons of water, march pump with about 6' total 1/2" silicone tubing. I'm moving to an e-HERMS system. While I think I can recover on the HLT recirculation...I'm concerned with the boil (whirlpool and sanitizing CFC).

Thoughts?

I have an electric brew kettle, but I always adjust the power to 100% 30 seconds or so before I start recircing. This way I don't kill the boil. Can you turn up your burner before you begin recircing or is it already maxed out?

 

[m1k3]

I use my March pump to recirculate Star San through my Therminator plate chiller before and after brewing.
(I back flush with water before sanitizing.)

I bought the pump and chiller at the same time so I never tried gravity feeding. Blichmann says it will work but I feel better about sanitation using a pump to recirculate Star San.

 

[Tutsbrew]

Good info guys. Funny, I wasn't clear in my OP as I meant to ask "why did you recirculate wort through a chiller as opposed to gravity feeding it through while pumping chilled water through it" but as it turned out I learned a lot about wort recirculation! ...That's why I appreciate this forum.

 

[m1k3]

Yeh, the question was a bit vague and then was hijacked.

so, I do not recirculate my wort through the chiller and then back into the kettle....

I go one pass through the Blichmann Therminator and into the fermenter.

Again, I do use a pump but it is not theoretically necessary.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[ChrisL_]

I got a plate chiller from a friend and before using it I heard Jamil Zainasheff say that he prefers an immersion chiller due to the fact that a plate chiller gets the part of the wort passing thru the chiller cool every quickly, but the rest of the wort still in the pot stays hot which affects how long the hops are at/near boiling temp. So given that fact, plus the fact that while brewing at a friends I saw how much fast the wort cooled when circulated back into the kettle add up to me now setting up a pump to recirc when chilling.

 

[m1k3]

Another + with recirculating is the cold break winds up in the kettle not the fermenter.

 

[H22W]

I recirculate boiling wort to sanitize the chiller and output line.