I had a brainstorm to fix a potential problem for 10 gallon large mashes. Maybe someone has already solved this, so here goes. I want to expand from 5 plus gallons to 10 plus gallons and currently use a 3 tier system with half kegs. All gravity fed. I brew outside and especially when it’s cold, keeping steady mash temps is hard. I can put a low flame burner under the keg, but the last time I did this I charred the mash and it was a total bust. So here’s my plan:
1. Convert a copper coil immersion chiller I used to use into a heat exchanger that can be in the hot liquor tun.
2. Buy a small food grade circulation pump to move wart from the mash tun through the heat coil and back into the mash tun.
3. Use food grade plastic tubing for connections.
So in theory if I was looking at a 150 deg. mash temp and if the water in the hot liquor tun was about 155-160 degs. constantly circulating the wart should work. Downsides? Contamination from circulating wart out and back into mash tun? (Boil should take care of this) Possible clogging? Incomplete conversions? Gentlemen - thoughts please.
