BeerBorg

I have been thinking about adding a pump to my cooling process so I can circulate the wort around my immersion chiller. The price is right on this one. It caught my eye real quick. I wouldn't have to stand over the kettle for 20 mins stirring by hand here and there while the wort it chilling.

Doesn't seem to shabby. http://www.williamsbrewing.com/MARK-II- ... P4028.aspx

That sounds interesting. How would that pump work to stir the wort? Would you have a tube from it to the wort?

Yeah, I have a ball valve on my kettle so I would have the pump set up under my kettle to feed it from the ball valve with high temp tubing. I would need a valve on the output of the pump to throttle and control it and run a return hose up to the top of the kettle. The wort would circulate out from the bottom of the kettle and back in the top. I could make something with fittings to return the wort in a way that it actually makes a whirlpool. It would be enough that I wouldn't have to stir the wort. On summer days, my tap water isn't very cold, stirring is the only way to help the cooling efficiency.

I use my tap water to cool it below 100F then switch to a pond pump in a cooler of ice water to take it on down below 70. But I do have to stand there and stir the whole time which is a pain

Do you have a link to that pump?

I usually do stovetop boils and just chill with an ice slurry, but when I do a larger boil, I use an immersion chiller and use a swamp cooler pump to recirculate ice water (at least it starts as ice water). I live in the desert ad view water as a limited resource and try to conserve where I can (even though I rarely go over the minimum for usage in a month). One of these days, I'll probably look into the Aussie no-chill method. I've already tried an overnight mash (which doesn't save water, but does push the envelope a bit by doing something overnight).

Here BP, I should have added the link in the original post. Price is right at $69.

http://www.williamsbrewing.com/MARK-II- ... P4028.aspx

That's the pump I'm purchasing for my herms! Not too many reviews on it. Hoping it performs well.

That's overkill for me. I'm just pumping cold water so I can recirculate it. That looks like it's designed to pump hot wort.

RayF wrote:That's the pump I'm purchasing for my herms! Not too many reviews on it. Hoping it performs well.

Williams Brewing seems to carry quality products and they always have something new. For the price, it hope it works well for ya. I will be getting one myself.

bpgreen wrote:That's overkill for me. I'm just pumping cold water so I can recirculate it. That looks like it's designed to pump hot wort.

Yeah, it's a wort pump. This one is about half the cost of even the lowest cost brand I have seen.

This might tell you a bit more info:

Well I just made an order for the pump, some tubing and fittings. Ill wait out the next brew day until I can get it set up. I can easily take it one step further and set up a basic HERMS system. I still have my old copper wort chiller that can now become a heat exchanger as it sits in the HLT full of sparge water. I could dip my thermowell into the mash with my temp controller hooked up to cycle the pump on and off to circulate the mash through the heat exchanger where I could keep a low flame to keep the pot full of sparge water hot.

Something I have been thinking about for a while...nothing too fancy but it should help out.

MadBrewer wrote:Well I just made an order for the pump, some tubing and fittings. Ill wait out the next brew day until I can get it set up. I can easily take it one step further and set up a basic HERMS system. I still have my old copper wort chiller that can now become a heat exchanger as it sits in the HLT full of sparge water. I could dip my thermowell into the mash with my temp controller hooked up to cycle the pump on and off to circulate the mash through the heat exchanger where I could keep a low flame to keep the pot full of sparge water hot.

Something I have been thinking about for a while...nothing too fancy but it should help out.

Awesome Kenny! I'll be keeping my eye on this Thread to see what you think of the pump. Although I love building things, I cant wait to get finished and start learning about and brewing again.

Sorry to get a little off of subject, but has anyone heard from Jon? I miss this cat! As difficult as I can be at time when learning something new, Jon was great at sinking things into my thick head. Last I heard from him he just received the grainfather and was learning to use it.

RayF wrote:Sorry to get a little off of subject, but has anyone heard from Jon? I miss this cat! As difficult as I can be at time when learning something new, Jon was great at sinking things into my thick head. Last I heard from him he just received the grainfather and was learning to use it.

That's about the last I heard. I see him on Facebook from time to time. He said he is still brewing when he can. Seems he's busy making a life with the new wife.