I have a Brutus 10 stand with a March 809HS pump and want to plumb it for optimal performance. I was hoping to get some feedback from other brewers.
How do you have your pump installed and plumbed? What are the “DO’s and DON’Ts” for wort pumps?
I eventually want to set up a recirculating system with a second pump. What is the best way to install a two pump system?
Any advice or feedback will be greatly appreciated.
Pumps are heeled shoes with low cut fronts and usually no fastening, but can also be formal shoes for both genders. The type of women’s shoe referred to as a pump is somewhat similar in overall shape to the handles of old-fashioned manual well pumps, possibly accounting for the name.
Great info there hokerer. I didn’t know your other hobby was womens fashion. Very enlightening.
Any prior experience with pumps and brewing? I just did my first batch with one last weekend and the main issue was clogging from the hops and hop seeds.
I’d suggest nailing that down before actually trying to brew since it will become a nightmarish hassle if you don’t.
As it is when I get my stand built there will be two pumps as well.
Good luck- keep us (me) appraised since this is a primary interest at the moment!
Edit: " be become" is just plain bad English…
Name the pumps “Hans” and “Franz.” “Und ve just vant to pump… (clap) …YOU UP!” 
Whole hops (or bitter orange peel)+pump=bad brewing day
You can use a coarse hop bag, anything to keep the big crap out of the impellers. I use pellets and have no issues with clogging, although I have not tried to recirculate anything with more than 40IBUs worth of hops. When I do I’ll probably use a hop bag for the bittering addition.
Ok, I have 3 pumps, but one is a wimpy one just for the RIMS recirculation. What should I name him?
For me, once I started using a pump whole hops always go in a bag. I’ve used large amounts of pellets unbagged without a problem.
LMAO!
Ahnold.
Pump #1 = Hans
Pump #2 = Franz
Pump #3 = Girly Man!
"Pummella, Pummella, Pummella, Pummella!
Go against the grain…
PERISTALTIC
Good to know. I use both as well and will be using bags for the whole hops.
I bought two pumps but ended up only using one. I use whole hops exclusively in my blichmann boilmaker with hop screen without issue.
What material are you using for supply piping?
I have two pumps that I mounted in the middle of my brutus-10 like sculpture. I’ve never had a problem with them clogging from hops or grains, but I also use a false bottom in the boil kettle that probably keeps the bulk of the matter out of the pump. My system is basically a HERMs setup, if I need both, one is usually pumping wort through the CFC and the other is running hot or cold water to change the temp of the wort, or into the mash for fly sparging while the other pump is slowly draining the mash tun.
I currently have the in and out sides mounted vertically only because they’re too close to each other to mount horizontally - which I believe is the correct orientation for them ( you can unscrew the heads and mount them in 90 degree changes.) But I haven’t had too many issues with this, I make sure I keep the pumps flushed between brews to avoid stuff growing in the bottom of the u-joint I made out of copper adapters with the QD attached.
While I’ve considered plumbing up the sculpture and have written up some initial plans for it, I let it go as I have other things to do and running the ins and outs using silicone tubing and a bunch of QD’s (since I already have them) work just fine. I have probably 8 different length silicone tubes with QD of varying length depending on what’s going where. It’s not as snazzy as diverter valves going to a manifold kind of thing with copper running everywhere, but it works well enough for me.
where I mounted the pumps (basically two 1x2 rectangular SS tubing)
http://temporal.shutdown.com/album/beer/slides/img_0904.jpg
Pumps attached:
http://temporal.shutdown.com/album/beer/slides/img_0914.jpg
Bascetti:
http://temporal.shutdown.com/album/beer/slides/img_1269.jpg
(i’ve since switched to SS QD’s, the CPC ones were causing me issues)
Denny, I only need to put pellet hops in bags. The whole hops are held back by my false bottom.
Pretty much the opposite for me, but I don’t use a false bottom. I have a copper pickup tube that curves around to the bottom side of the kettle. Pellets go through the tube and pump into the fermenter. Obviously, how you deal with the hops is dependent on your equipment setup.