OK, I'm new to grain brewing. Never have done it yet. Like to build this system. I have a dumb question but do you ever have clogging of hops in the lines and pump when pumping from the kettle through the chiller? Also, do you have to run your cooled wort from the brew pot through some kind of strainer into your fermenter? How long do you leave the cooled wort in the kettle to settle all the particulates prior to draining? Would be nice to see some recipes that have been used in this exact same design. I really don't understand a lot of the technical aspects of formulation, efficiancy and whatever, but I can easily follow a recipe and time table to make a brew. I have only done extracts on the stove and thought they all were good until I had a bottle of a home brewed all grain. Just a dumb retired fireman and haven't found a beer I didn't like.
I've never had a problem with March pumps passing pellet hops - even when brewing a Pliny clone.
Do you like black IPAs? Here's my recipe along with a time table. I've brewed this several times - it's my favorite recipe.
IPA Noir (4gal)
OG: 1.072, IBU: 85, SRM: 29
8lbs Maris Otter
2lbs Munich I
0.5lbs Carafa III
0.5lbs Carahell
1oz 14% Magnum (or other clean bittering hop) - first wort hop
1oz 5.5% Cascade - 30 mins
1oz 5.5% Cascade - 15 mins
2oz 5.5% Cascade - 5 day dry-hop
Safale S-04 or S-05 yeast
65F ferment for 7 days, 5 day dry-hop at 68F
1. Heat 5.75 gal of water to 162F in the kettle. As temp approaches, begin recirculation to pre-heat the mash tun.
2. Once the strike temp is reached, close mash tun valve and allow it to fill to 4 gal. Shut off pump. Dough in your grains and stir thoroughly. Mash temp should be 150-152F. Close up the mash tun and wait 75 min.
3. With about 10 min left in the mash, heat the remainder of the water to 170F.
4. Once mash is complete, pull the mash return hose off the kettle and run a couple quarts of wort out of the mash tun into a bowl to set the grain bed. Return this wort to the top of the mash tun.
5. Re-plumb the return hose and begin a slow system recirculation to bring the mash to mashout temp. You'll need to adjust the pump output and mash tun valves to reach a balance of flow. You're looking for no more than a quart or two of flow per minute. Recirculate for at least 30 minutes. Do not wander too far from the system at this point! If the mash tun stops flowing for any reason, the pump will draw off all the wort from the kettle, and the element will burn out (a bad brew day).
6. Shut off pump and allow all wort to flow to kettle. Add first wort hops to the kettle and set the PID to manual mode, 100% to begin the boil. Remove kettle lid, of course.
7. Once all the wort runs out of the mash tun, I give it a gentle tip to run off the dead space wort under my false bottom. Depends on your system's design. There should be about 4.5 gallons in the kettle pre-boil.
8. Continue the boil for 60 min, adding hops at the times specified. Throttle back the PID if necessary.
9. With 10 min left in the boil, drop the pump output hose into the kettle and fire up the pump to recirculate boiling wort through the pump & chiller to sanitize. Add any fining agents you may use at this time too. Plumb up the chilling water source.
10. After the boil is complete, kill the element power, put kettle lid back on and plumb pump output hose to it. My hose inside the kettle lid has a 90 deg brass nipple on it so the return wort whirlpools in the kettle.
11. Recirculate wort at full speed while running chiller water. Continue to recirculate until PID shows temp under 65F. Shut off pump and chiller water. Let wort rest covered in kettle for at least 30 minutes. Good time to clean mash tun, prep fermenter, etc.
12. To drive remaining wort out of the chiller / pump, you can blow into the pump output hose, pushing the wort back into the kettle, or you can carefully raise the pump / chiller bucket above the kettle and let gravity do the work. Close the kettle valve to keep the wort from flowing back. Should be about 4 gal of finished wort.
13. Remove input hose from pump / chiller bucket and run the wort into your fermenter. There should be at least 3.5 gal of finished wort in the fermenter after leaving behind the kettle trub.
Brewday time summary:
Heat strike water: 45 min
Mash: 75 min
Mashout: 30 min
Boil: 60 min
Chill: ~20 min (varies on water temp)
Rest: 30 min