Have a question about some Ss Brew tech items.
They sell both a recirculation kit and a sparge arm. Looking through the faq it says not to use the sparge arm for recirculating wort during mash.
If that is the case wouldn’t you be able to use the recirculating kit for the whole mash process and not need the sparge arm?
Correct. The manifold is the only piece of equipment in the two approaches that I use; I run a HERMS set up with a 20 gallon Infussion Mash Tun, using an external pump. The Vorlauf assembly is completely unnecessary as I see it, but it could be used, if you want to pump through it until the wort clears; as to the sparge arm, it is designed to just have water flow through it - used in the case of a fly sparge (again, I find it unnecessary).
YMMV, however. Find what works best for you and your system - Cheers!
You might want to look into a simple batch sparge arrangement or a Brew in a Bag set up as a filter. Then you wouldn’t even need the manifold…
Good luck with your brewing - this forum should help you out a lot. Ask questions and you will get answers from the knowledgeable group of homebrewers on this forum.