Recirculation coil in htl or mash?

[irishjoe]

I am putting in a recirculating coil in. The question is, do put the coil in the hlt to circulate the wort through the htl or put the coil in the mash ? I want to put it in the hlt because I will not be able to put water and the grain and stir w/o the coil being in the way. I think it will be easier to raise the water temp and run it through the wort , then run the water through the grain. I am thinking running the water through will take longer and possibility of missing temps. _ know I can miss temp running wort through, but it will be easier to adjust._
My temps schedule I am thinking will be 125 -152-168. I am thinking re circulation will help.

[dannyboy58]

What you're referring to is essentially a HERMS type system, Heat Exchange Recirculating Mash System...I think that's what the acronym stands for...

Anyway the coil should go in your HLT where you'll heat water to the temperature at which you want to maintain the mash. WORT will be pumped from your MT and recirculated through that coil and back to the mash.

[sneezles61]

Malts are so well modified... The temp adjustments merely add more time...
I'd suggest you assemble yer gizmo... and do a practice run... see how fast/slow your temps respond..
Yup Danny, you have it correct..
Sneezles61

[irishjoe]

OH yes there will be practice runs. I thought what Danny was say was true but needed to check. My intent is to run sanitizer through it with 180-190 water. I have 3/8 copper with pressure fittings and weld less fitting and seals. One of the not sure of, is the outlet going back into the kettle? Is it like a sparge arm or something else. I have not seen anything on u tube or just missed it.

[hd4mark]

That's how mine works. The sparge arm is simply a copper ring with holes in the bottom .just above the mash bed. The HLT and MT have quick disconnects on the drain valve so you can feed to the coil then out back to the MT then for the sparge switch to a line directly from the HLT.

My system also has a float switch so you can turn on the sparge and it will shut off the pump when the MT gets too full and a temp switch so you can set the desired temp and it will shut off the pump there.

I'll be honest though, it's faster with my system to turn the MT burner back and either stir to prevent scorching and/or recirculate with the burner on. To raise the temp just recirculating through the coil seems to take for forever. One reason I almost never do step mashes.

[irishjoe]

Thank you. Even though I will be set up with a sparging system, I still doing batch sparge. Leveling doors open.

[dannyboy58]

For your purpose, you could just drop a hose back in the top of the MT. That's what I do. or if you want to be fancy you could create some kind of sparge arm.