Hey everybody, I’m Brad from Northern Brewer.
This is a question we get asked a quite often – about pumps.
So, we’re going to put together a bit of a video today talking about pumps, what they
do, how they work, how to use them properly, how not to use them, and what you can expect
out of using a pump.
Here’s an example of two pumps that we do sell on our website.
This is The Chugger pump and this is our Northern Brewer Wort Pump.
They both work in the same manner as they have an impeller on the inside of the pump
head housing.
The wort will go in from the center input and will be pumped out through the out.
Often times what really confuses people about this style of pumps is that they are NOT self-priming.
You must fill the pump head and the tubing coming in with your wort before you turn the
pump on, otherwise nothing is going to happen.
Here we’ve taken apart both of these pumps for you so you can kind of get a look under
the hood and see exactly what’s going on.
These parts may look a little bit different between the two pumps but the underlying principle
of how they work is exactly the same.
These are both magnetically couple pumps, which means the motor unit spins a large magnet
on both – they both work the same way.
Then the impellers are also magnetized, so when they are fully assembled in their housings
the impellers are magnetically coupled to the motor so there is no actual physical connection
between the drive and the impeller.
Depending on how your brewhouse is set up pumps have any number of operations.
You can use it transfer sparge water into your mash, you can use it to recirculate you
mash, you can use it to pump your finished mash into your boil kettle, you can use one
for pumping through a counterflow wort chiller to cool down your and go into your fermenter.
[malt poured into water]
As you can see here we are brewing a gose.
And, in this particular brew, what we’re going to do here is recirculate the mash.
As you can see, the pump is mounted well below the mash tun, so that allows for very easy
priming.
All you have to do is make sure that all your connections are made in the proper configuration.
Then, open your ball valve on the mash tun.
Open the ball valve on the output of the pump; this will allow wort to flow through the tubing
and fill the pump head.
And then close the ball valve on the output of the pump.
Turn the power on.
And slowly open the ballvalve on the pump to start flow.
It is best practice to have your pump mounted below the liquid level – so basically below
your mash tun or below your boil kettle.
This make is easier to prime the whole pump, to get the pump head and tubing full, so that
way you can turn the pump on and wort will start to flow.
One mistake often made by people using a pump for the first time is a set up like this:
where the hose is draped in over the edge of the kettle and into into the pump.
This can be almost impossible to do because there is almost no way to get this effectively
primed, and the pump will also have a very difficult time getting the liquid up and out
of the kettle to be pump off elsewhere.
Instead, this is the way you should do it.
Make sure you kettle has a ball valve on the very bottom; that makes it very easy to prime
the whole tube and the pump head.
That way you can turn the pump on push liquid to wherever going.
One important thing to note about these impeller type pumps is you never want to restrict the
wort coming in.
You only restrict – so you can meter your flow – on the output.
So, a ball valve on the output is your best bet.
That way you can meter your flow; you can go faster, you can go slower, just depending
on what you need in your brewhouse.
Something else to take into consideration is the actual orientation of the pump head
when fastened to the motor.
You are always going to want your output to be facing either directly up or make sure
that the output is on the top of the pump head.
That way no air bubbles can form here and cause cavitation of the impeller.
If you were to mount it with the output going down or on the bottom you are going to end
up with air bubble in this part of the pump head, which will then cause the pump not to
function properly.
Same goes with The Chugger pump.
Either have the output going directly up or off to the side, still ensuring the output
is on the top side of the pump housing.
Once again, if you go down or you have the output on the bottom you are going to form
an air bubble is this space right here, and that will again cause the pump not to function.
Another cause of confusion is attempting to pump boiling wort.
This is generally not recommended at all.
The reason being the steam pockets in the boiling wort can be sucked into the pump,
and if you get a steam pocket in the pump head it will cause the impeller to lose prime
and the flow will cease.
We do recommend letting your boil rest for a minute after you turn the heat off to let
any sort of residual heat get through the wort.
When no more steam bubbles are produced, then you can prime your pump, turn it on, and get
your wort flowing.
Well, I hope this video helped to clear up any questions you might have had about pumps,
their uses, how to use them.
And if you do have anything else more specific you would like to ask or anything else you’d
like to know about pumps, drop that in the comments below.
Otherwise, you can always hit us up at brewmasters@northernbrewer.com.
Until next time, cheers!