15l Stovetop Herms

[scooter_59]

Make the hole big enough for the probe thread to pass through , place the silicone washer on , then the washer and nut . Works a treat easy as . If you have a thermometer check the temp coming out of the hose . My issue was the PID set temp was reading 4* higher than the wort was .

 

[Tim F]

Cheers, I'll give it a go.

 

[Tim F]

I'm plannin to make a whirlpool immersion chiller for this - should I look at a hop screen or angled pickup to avoid getting hops in the pump or won't it happen/matter?

 

[Tim F]

OK more action today. The pump rocked up just in time for my day off so I plumbed it in and hooked up a spare 9V adapter I had lying around. The pump works nicely, seems to give a good stream and put about 6L/minute through the coil :beerbang: Next step is to do a dry run with the controller attached and see how quickly I can ramp up temp.

The only thing stopping me from brewing tonight is the false bottom setup which I'm waiting for my dad to drill for me. Might head round tonight to prod things along a bit h34r: I wonder if I could whip up a BIAB bag today and use that to test it out....







I also picked up the bits to make a wort return - plan to have a copper T with 2 more T's on that for a total of 4 wort exit points, and maybe a few holes drilled along the lengths of copper pipe. I'll grab a switch for the pump power supply today too and also need to pick up some hose insulation - anyone know if Bunnings have that?

 

[matho]

If it wasn't for that though I guess you could just cut slots in the bottom with an angle grinder?

like this

edit: forgot the add the photo

 

[booargy]

View attachment 48334
like this

edit: forgot the add the photo

the 200L braumeister has a screen with slots cut in the same way as mine. only thing is my slots are full length.
I couldn't find the photo the braumeister.

 

[Tim F]

Those look awesome, do they work well?

 

[booargy]

Those look awesome, do they work well?

I get clear wort into the kettle from under it at bit over 75%. Just mark it before you cut it! I know cos I f#@$*d up the first.

 

[Tim F]

I get clear wort into the kettle from under it at bit over 75%. Just mark it before you cut it! I know cos I f#@$*d up the first.

Nice one. If I don't get plan A to drill the holes happening soon I might be giving that a crack

I just hooked up the whole system albeit only full of water. 10L water went from 20 to 63C in 10 minutes measured at the coil out, and by the time the outlet was 63 the tun temp was only a couple of degrees behind, catching up 1-2 mins later. The system held 63 spot on once it got there. Very keen now to see how it performs with grain.

 

[Tim F]

More progress today... the 2mm perforated stainless sheet rocked up from RS.



It is 0.55mm thick, which turned out to be a tiny bit more flexible than I was hoping but pretty rigid when it is sitting in the bottom of the pot.



I also cut a disc out to make a false bottom for the kettle. This will hold the malt pot above the kettle ball valve and also act as a hop screen when I remove the malt pot to start the boil. I cut 4 strips of 1mmm stainless as a frame to support the false bottom, and have some stainless bolts to go through the strips + screen and act as legs.



Next step is to get some smaller stainless bolts to hold the mesh to the bottom of the malt pot. I'm going to cut some little legs out of a chopping board to go on the bottom of the malt pot to hold it above the kettle false bottom. Bunnings tomorrow :icon_cheers:

 

[ramu_gupta]

Great work Tim.

I use a cheapy 8L urn as my HEX, the coil just sits in it with the tubing coming out of the top.
Got the same pump - it works an absolute treat.
Would like to get a PID for temp control instead of my temp mate.

Looking forward to the next instalment.

 

[Tim F]

Definitely give a PID a go, I've been heaps impressed with how well it works without needing tuning or anything and they are very cheap! Got a pic of your setup?

I got a little closer tonight. I bolted the kettle FB to its frame with stainless bolts, it works well but would be even better if the frame was more solid. I will go past my local steel shop when I can and see if they have some 2mm stainless strap. I also ordered some thicker stainless bolts off ebay last night, but it will work like it is now for a few test brews The bolt heads hold the malt pot above the FB perfectly so I won't need to put legs under the pot. Bunnings again tomorrow for some stainless rivets, I'm just going to pop rivet the FB to the pot.





I also put together the wort return. The joints are mostly loose for now, I'll center punch them once I see if it needs adjusting. Might drill a few holes in the pipes too if they need it. Not sure if the mash will be solid enough for this to sit on top, if not I was thinking of using the hole in the pot lid to drop a wire through and hang the return at the right height.



Here's how the malt pot sits on top of the kettle FB.



If I can get the rivets and escape from the family long enough I might even be cracking out a test brew tomorrow h34r:

 

[ramu_gupta]

Definitely give a PID a go, I've been heaps impressed with how well it works without needing tuning or anything and they are very cheap! Got a pic of your setup?

No can do at the moment but will look into the PID.
"Brewery" - (esky MT, keggle boiler, urn - HEX and pump) - has been dismantled and stored under the house whilst my new brewshed is being built - Yay! Will post pics of the brewshed and setup when completed.

 

[Tim F]

I fired her up last night for a small test batch, 6L of whatever was lying around the house ale.
95% ale malt
5% choc malt
styrian goldings at 60, 10, 0 to 30IBU
S04

I did it no sparge just to test how well that worked, mashed with the full volume of water. I got 84% efficiency into the fermenter which was pretty decent I thought.

Did have some problems with the wort return temp being consistently 2-4C under the measured temp at the HEX outlet, I need to figure out how to deal with that but having said that I haven't calibrated my kitchen thermometer against the thermocouple so that could be part of the issue. Also haven't insulated the kettle.

I also had some problems with wort clarity into the kettle but I think that is due to the wort return not being set up properly so it disturbed the mash a bit and also such a small batch giving me a pretty thin grain bed.

Still, mostly fine tuning from here I reckon B)

 

[Tanga]

Hell yes. That is truly awesome. I am following this closely. It looks like it would work really well with my 20L urn at some point down the track. Until then it is at least giving me a good basic idea about how HERMS works.

 

[Tim F]

After i've done a few more batches I should be able to give more of an idea of what works and what could be improved, no doubt I've made some mistakes along the way

 

[Tanga]

Looking forward to it. Would love to see it in action one of these days.

 

[Tim F]

I gave Hermes a proper christening on the weekend with Les' Weiss. This time I boiled in a separate kettle so I could get a bigger batch, ended up with about 18L at 85% efficiency into the fermenter again. It did struggle a bit with so much wheat in there, I had to throttle the pump way back to a trickle while it recirculated. I'll be using rice gulls for any sticky mash from now on.

My design has some weaknesses compared to just using a false bottom as the pump never sucks on the grain bed, once the liquid is drained from the outer pot the pump starts to run dry if you don't throttle it back. On the plus side the grain bed doesn't compact I guess.

Having the inner grain pot meant that I could do steps more easily - after a rest, I just lifted the whole pot out, increased the set temp to my next step + some degrees, then when I hit that I changed the set temp back to the actual rest temp and dropped the pot back in and stirred it well. I hit every rest within 1C, which is more than I've managed with direct heat or infusions in the past although I wouldn't say it was easier. I did an acid rest @ 35, protein rest at 55, mash at 65 then mashout and a double batch sparge to get volume.

The weiss already looks like it's going to rock too :beerbang:

 

[kymba]

hey tim, love your work

just a quick question - did you have to initialise that PID before it would start triggering the relay?

i have the same model and i think i'm missing something

I gave Hermes a proper christening on the weekend with Les' Weiss. This time I boiled in a separate kettle so I could get a bigger batch, ended up with about 18L at 85% efficiency into the fermenter again. It did struggle a bit with so much wheat in there, I had to throttle the pump way back to a trickle while it recirculated. I'll be using rice gulls for any sticky mash from now on.

My design has some weaknesses compared to just using a false bottom as the pump never sucks on the grain bed, once the liquid is drained from the outer pot the pump starts to run dry if you don't throttle it back. On the plus side the grain bed doesn't compact I guess.

Having the inner grain pot meant that I could do steps more easily - after a rest, I just lifted the whole pot out, increased the set temp to my next step + some degrees, then when I hit that I changed the set temp back to the actual rest temp and dropped the pot back in and stirred it well. I hit every rest within 1C, which is more than I've managed with direct heat or infusions in the past although I wouldn't say it was easier. I did an acid rest @ 35, protein rest at 55, mash at 65 then mashout and a double batch sparge to get volume.

The weiss already looks like it's going to rock too :beerbang:

 

[Tim F]

the problem I had with the pid is that it doesn't actually put out any voltage to control the relay off the bat, although you have to read the manual pretty closely to figure that out
all it does is switch another current to control the relay that way so you have 3 options:
switch the mains directly through the pid if you're game, it does say it is rated for that.
Get a phone charger or something and use the pid to switch that to control your ssr(maybe safest?).
hack the pid so that it does have a control current output - i posted pics a page or 2 back.