Makeshift hand pump for recirculating wort.

My sparge system is a drilled out brew-bucket inside a bottle-bucket.
With all that dead space, recirculating is a must.
I usually reserve two and a half, three (of six) gallons sparge water for fly sparging, and the remaining goes in the lauter tun for recirculating. Kinda like a hybrid batch-fly system.  I recirculate it until it's clear, drain it to the surface of the grain, and then start the fly sparge.
But draining it out and pouring it back in over and over is a pain.

I was thinking of putting a hole in bottom of the drilled out bucket, near but not on the edge, that could fit an auto siphon like the ones used for racking.  Then cutting out most of the top of a lid, leaving enough to cut a matching hole for the auto siphon and another for the return tube.  I would have to be careful not to create too much suction and plug up the false bottom, but other than that it seems to me like a good idea. Better than pouring it back in over and over and over... 
Be like churning butter, only a lot slower.

Oh, and my spinning sparge arm won't be able to spin, but that's fine.

Does anyone see any flaws in my plan? Thought I might seek a second opinion before chopping things up.

Yep, manual recirculation is a pain. It also risks hot side aeration (which may or may not be a problem, depending on who you ask). I use a tiny, 1 liter per minute pump to recirculate. Use a BIAB bag inside the mash tun (5-gallon Igloo cooler) to prevent grain particles clogging the pump. The wort clears quickly and does not clog. I recommend the "High temperature(100C) 1L/Min mini DC Water Pump. FDA approval. Ideal for coffee maker or other food process application". It's $14.50 from Amazon at http://www.amazon.com/temperature-approval-coffee-process-application/dp/B004HHW0FU/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS?ie=UTF8&coliid=I1XD7BE02DYSFN&colid=2C4MFJMX1TPJA

My mash system pumps the wort through a heat exchanger (20 feet of 1/4 inch copper) inside an old 30-cup electric coffee maker containing the sparge water. Adding an electronic temperature controller to keep the sparge water 5 to 10 degrees F above my target temperature makes it very easy to hit my rest temps. Adding a thermometer in the mash outlet, immediately before the pump, lets me know when the entire mash column has reached the target temp. When I'm ready to sparge (either batch or fly), I disconnect the pump from the bottom of the mash tun and drop it into the sparge water (water proof the electrical connections between the pump and the power supply - an old 5-volt cell phone charger - with hot glue).

The pump can also move cold water through the heat exchanger used as an immersion chiller. Just drop it into a pot of tap water for the initial cooling, then add ice for the final chill. The pump does not operate as well below 50 degrees F as it does at it does at higher temps.

Dan

  This sounds very cool!  I would love to see a DIY Article on this!

I like the idea of the electric pump.
The idea of setting things up to recirculate and then walking away for a while is very appealing
That and I don't have to cut any holes in a major piece of equipment.
What do you use for a power source?

  I see from his post he uses a old 5 volt cell phone charger, I think we all have a few of those!!  I went to the link at Amazon and noticed a few people had issues.  It would be nice to see your set up and any pitfalls to avoid and tips to perfect the system.

I'm thinking I could cut a hole in the base of my drilled bucket the size of whatever I attach to the pump, run that up with the wire, and that's it.  Minimal surgery on the equipment. I like.

After reading the reviews it looks like I will build an elbow to put the pump's outlet horizontal and the intake pointed up through a notched hole into half of an S style airlock pointing down.

Powered by Motorola.

Pump arrived in the mail today. Got it working with an old charger. Sealed the electrical connection with heat shrink tube. Gonna try it out this weekend.

  Be sure to keep us up to date!!

PetenNewburg requested a description of my cheep-skate recirculation system. I'm attaching a PDF file with a drawing and description of the system. It's kinda-sorta a hybrid of traditional mashing and BIAB. It works for me. I'd be glad to get suggestions for improvements.

I forgot to mention that I drop two concentric circles of 1/4 inch copper in the bottom of the mash tun, under the bag, to increase the flow between the bag and the mash tun. A basket or other device should also work to improve flow through the bottom of the bag, although I've not had any problem before or after adding the copper.

I should also mention that the small pump does not seem to cause aeration of the wort, although my taste buds are not highly refined, so I may be causing all sorts of terrible things to happen. Ignorance is bliss, which may explain a lot about me.

Please help me out with suggestions. If the system doesn't work for you please remember I guarantee it: I will cheerfully consume any beer you produce with it that does not meet your standards.

Dan

  PetenNewburg requested a description of my cheep-skate recirculation system. I'm attaching a PDF file with a drawing and description of the system. It's kinda-sorta a hybrid of traditional mashing and BIAB. It works for me. I'd be glad to get suggestions for improvements.

  Thank You!  This is a very cool idea!  I think if I were to stick to 5 gallon batches I would dig out my old 30-cup coffee pot and rig this up.  I picked up a couple of Sanke kegs off Ebay and a box full of SS 1/2 pipe fittings from Plumbing Supply online.  I think I will try to put together a 10 gallon system .. maybe.  I've read many times that it is best to buy first, "the last pot you'll ever need".  I'm really thinking of building a 20 gallon system!

  Tom_Hampton is right in saying that being able to regulate fermentation temperatures is one of the most critical parts of brewing.  So before I start building a larger brewing system I need a fermentation room or closet or both!  I have a chest freezer to use for lagering and it also can work for small batches of lager for fermentation.  I saw a add for the "Chill Pad", a mattress pad that uses circulating liquid to cool OR heat, 41 - 100+ degrees, through a closed system, +/- 1 degree.  They are not cheap, but they are cheap to operate.  I think a well insulated box that would hold enough room to ferment 40 gallons of beer would work with the Chill Pad.  A wine closet in the basement would be great for my wife's wine storage and lager fermentaion.  I have seen several DIY basement wine cellars using a small room airconditioner.

All I have to do now is hit the lottery!

Dan,

A couple of words of caution.

Although this is FDA approved, the motor housing and in particular the flexible wires show may not be food safe.  To get the approval, only the food contact surfaces  - impeller and housing- need be safe; the rest is not intended to touch food.  My worry would be the lead content of the wires as lead is frequently used to make a more flexible plastic.

Secondly,  although this is a low power pump, it may still overheat if the motor housing cannot cool, as in your immersion part of the procedure.

That said,  have you considered using a second pump off a spigot at the bottom of the coffee urn (mounted outside) instead of dunking this one?  At their price they are probably affordable in pairs.

Another concern is cleaning the pump.  I a guessing from amazon that they are really intended for pumping boiling water, so no real sterilization needed, but at mashing temps, you do not sterilize the inside, and at the end of the boil, as it cools etc.  You probably have a cleaning regimen that works, but be careful.

I really like the gadget and need to find my own application for it.  What kind of head  are you raining the wort through in this app?  It look like it is coming up the height of whichever vessel is taller plus a bit?

Great find and thinking outside the box

- Roger

Oops! My system puts the housing and wires in contact with the sparge water and I hadn't thought about the possibility of toxins being present in the plastic housing and wire insulation. Your suggestion of connecting the pump to the spout of the coffee pot/HLT solves that problem and the 1/2 inch tubing does fit - not very tightly - onto the spout. I'll try that next time.

Yep, the motor could overheat, but it has survived through seveal batches and at $14.50 each, they're disposable. It survived running dry for two hours once, so it's pretty durable. Your suggestion to connect the pump input hose to the coffee pot spount solves the overheating problem - but not the running dry problem.

I haven't worried much about cleaning the pump because I use it to circulate the sparge water at about 168 degrees F after using it to pump the wort during mashing. Also, once the wort has been boiled, it doesn't pass through the pump. The heat exchanger coil gets sanitized in the boiling wort, then cold, non-sterile water passes through the inside of the heat exchanger coil during cooling. I drain the pump, copper coil and hoses after use and (usually remember to) blow compressed air through it after each use.

You're exactly correct about the height of the required lift. The pump hangs down to about the bottom of my mash tun, so it pushes wort up through the 25 feet of copper (inside the heat exchanger bath in the coffee pot) up to the top of the mash tun where the output hose is submerged in the recirculating wort. My coffee pot is shorter than the mash tun so only the taller vessel contributes to the lift requirement; although, the copper coil introduces a lot of friction. The specs for the pump say it will lift 1 L per minute to 1 m. I did a quick check and it performed as specified. the pump delivers enough water to let me drain off about one L per minute during fly a sparge while maintaing the water level in the mash tun. It takes a bit of adjustment to balance sparge water input with mash tun output. That's encouraged me to try batch sparging.

As I see it, the key concepts of the system are: using a mash filter (such as the BIAB bag), using a pump, and a temperature controller. I suspect there is a wide range of equipment that will accomplish each of these three functions, and an infinate number of ways to use them. I'm looking forward to learning better ways to do them.

Thanks for the heads-up about the toxicity issue, the overheating potential, the solution to the overheating, and the cleanliness warning - I'm not always the most conscientious about sanitation and need all the reminders I can get!

Dan

I made the thing and it worked well. Thanks again for the link to the pump.

Attached some pics.