Brewzilla

[venkman100]

Is that only for Porters and Stouts though?

I use it in any beer.....

 

[Hop_it]

@Hop_it
Regarding the temp and " choked " flow needed on the pump, I certainly find at first I throttle the flow but usually towards the end it's settled down to full pace.
However this David Heath homebrew video suggests that you should run at full speed during the mash and use the overflow aspect. I've tried this once but didn't collect any data about it. I do put a tea strainer over the top of the overflow pipe to prevent any small floating bits going round and round or cause a blockage.
I tend to set the temp to about 0.5 degrees on full power for 2 minutes just below my mash temp, then set the mash temp at lower wattage and correct temp for the planned duration. Why this way? I dough in during the minute or so leading up to that 2 minutes and during it. This way I seem to get the grain going into the right temp water and less oscillation on the mash temp.
I also agree with you knowing how long to take ramping from one temp to another is difficult with a step mash. I've started to try and make it take a bit longer as I find it overshoots a bit with high watts and quick ramps and if I looked I expect inconsistent malt temps throughout the stratification.

DH's methods may well have some merit. I'm pretty sure that keeping the wort moving around the system as fast as possible improves the heat transfer to the grain bed.
I've not tried the step mashing very often, so I haven't had much opportunity to test out different ideas yet. But your technique looks worth trying. I would certainly be happy to use a blast of full heat as long as I could be sure of good circulation.
I also used a tea strainer at first, but I made this little modification out of some SS wire mesh to fit onto the top of the recirculation pipe (see: page 6 #110 of this thread - Brewzilla) which seems to work quite well.

 

[RoomWithABrew]

@Hop_it
The filter things that go on the outflows of some brewsystems mesh with a thread on them also slide over the overflow well.