German Brewing

I think Tech's and mine are pretty similar, although his return port is lower.

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I like that T for recirculation. Just wondering if I should do an elbow to get some sort of whirlpool-esque flow, straight in, or a tee like ancient abbey showed.

I tried that, but didn't like the results. I don't pump very fast (more turnover means more surface area of liquid being exposed to the air) and a single elbow wouldn't allow the wort to flow around the entire mash. It basically created a swirling area of liquid at about the midline of the kettle. Go too fast and it creates a cone, pulling husks away from the kettle wall and dragging it to the middle.

A couple other variations I tried. LocLine is good stuff.

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LocLine works a charm for setting the outflow just above the grain bed!

No

I love the simplicity of tech's MLT recirculating system. Closed (nearly), simple, minimalist, portable - very nice! This inspires me to move forward in a similar direction. I've been sitting on a brand new center-inlet chugger for over two years throwing around ideas in my head of how to implement it in a simple, yet efficient, fashion and this inspires me. I work in the kitchen from a stove (most times) because I don't have the space to dedicate a room to a brewery, nor do I want to take my hobby outside, and this setup really strikes true with me. The setup works for any kind of brewing (oxy-rich or oxy-deprived), but the exception of high gravity in my case due to MLT size limitations. Thanks for the inspiration.