15l Stovetop Herms

[kymba]

yeah i have a charger in there and running the -ive through the PID View attachment BUZZ_BOX_v2.pdf
just asking about the initialising as the last time i plugged it and fiddled with the set point nothing happened, but that was ages ago so i might have a look at it again tonight

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.

 

[Tim F]

Yeah didn't have to do anything special to mine, let us know how you go!

 

[Tim F]

I've been thinking about the best way to recirculate with this system after having pretty slow runoff with a wheat the last brew. To be expected with wheat of course but I wanted to see how underletting the grain, braumeister/miser style works

The most ghetto 'malt pipe' I can think of is just a vessel with holes in the top and a lid that can be fixed down, and an inlet pipe leading down to the bottom of the vessel.

Here's the prototype version I made the other day just to see if it works. Obviously as someone else pointed out, compared to a malt pipe you can't just drain this out the bottom so I plan to just turn it upside down over the kettle at mashout. This should hold about 1.2kg of grain I reckon, if it works OK I plan to make a bigger version with a 5L stock pot. With a bigger version I might run the inlet pipe down the side of the pot rather than through the lid and use a little manifold to distribute the wort evenly? And I might consider bigger holes with a finer screen underneath to filter.

Anyway test brew today or tomorrow :icon_cheers:

 

[matho]

tim,

you could work out a way to pump your sparge water thru, work out how much sparge water you need and then add the volume of the vessel and then you should be able extract most of the sugars without having to tip it upside down

 

[Tim F]

Great idea! I'll give it a crack.

 

[Tim F]

Haven't tried the malt pipe out yet but I thought I'd put up a few pics of brew #3 as I go tonight (late night brewing = peace & quiet )

I'm just making an APA kinda thing with BB pale malt, bit of caramunich because I like it and Cascade to 40IBU with a fair few late additions.

Heating the strike water now, should be ready in 10.

 

[Tim F]

Definitely still got a few bugs to iron out I think. The tun can't drain as fast as the pump wants it to, even when I throttle right back. Must only be draining under 1L/m. Next time I might try letting it sit for 5 minutes after doughing in and then just turn on the pump for a few seconds at a time to see if it helps the grain bed set up more gently. I might also be a bit optimistic getting 3.25kg of grain into a 15L mash tun, maybe the grain bed is a bit deep?

Once the tun fills up too much it starts to drain out the return arm hole before it gets to overflowing but I'd rather it drained through the grain bed as planned.



Maybe I just need to go to the malt pipe idea instead.

 

[Tim F]

I ended up doing a quick decoction to mashout, couldn't be assed waiting for the trickle through the coil to do anything.
FWH, mmm.... how good does Cascade smell! You can just see how fast it isn't running off though.

 

[Tim F]

Well I'm calling that the start of the boil... hop additions at 3.20, 3.35 and flameout :blink:

Check out my new high tech burner stand btw, I made it last weekend

 

[Dazza88]

Jeez, when do you go to bed mate. Without reading the last page recently, have you trialled a 2 kg mash, a2.5 kg mash etc to find the sweet spot for this system. I am no expert on herms, stirring the mash help? I want to make one of these or a braumiser one day. Very cool.

 

[Tim F]

Yep I'm pretty buggered now, nothing some coffee won't fix though

My first batch was 1kg and it drained like a charm, but 3 was too much maybe - think you're right, I'll try 2kg next and see how that goes. I stirred the mash heaps but that didn't make a lot of difference.