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You are here: Home --> Forum Home --> Brewing Forum --> Gear/Equipment --> Wort Pumps

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Diamondfish
NZ
1 Posts


Hi guys,
I Am currently in the process of building my first 3 keg all grain set up. I am looking to future proof by installing a HERMS into the HLT. I am building everything myself with the help of my dad, who was an engineer before he retired. 
When we started looking at pumps for the system I was a little unsure what I needed. Is there a minimum flow rate needed to recirculate the mash (looking at 7 - 10 gallon batches)? Does the flow rate matter when moving from the HLT to the mash tun or into the kettle? Sparging? 
He said a slower flow rate would provide more contact time for the wort inside the HERMS.
Thanks in advance for any tips, guys.




Posted 34 days ago.
Edited 34 days ago by Diamondfish

ingoogni
nl
314 Posts


There's two points to look at,

1. the speed (mm/min) of wort through your grain bed, that should be low enough to not compact the grain bed.
2. the efficiency of the heat transfer/ heatexchanger.

Peristaltic pumps are the closest to ideal as the throughput can be regulated very exact. Also, you only have to clean the silicone tubes. Alternative are pumps with an built in by-pass, so you can run the pump at it's optimum speed and still control throughput.

There's a nice trick to get a very good heat transfer, use a plate chiller and a second, immersible, pump. Dump the pump and chiller in the HLT and recirculate the hot water through it, run the wort through the other channel of the chiller.





Posted 34 days ago.
Edited 34 days ago by ingoogni

uberg33k
Charter Member
The Internet
314 Posts


It would be really nice to find a reasonably priced peristaltic pump, but I've never seen one.  All the lab grade pumps are in the thousands of dollars.



Posted 34 days ago.

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