1BBL (120L) HERMS - anyone around this size

[Moad]

I have a separate build thread but just wanted to find out if anyone is running herms at this size brewery or close to.

What HEX are you using? Separate HEX vessel or coil in the HLT?

What ID coil if in the HLT?

What pumps?

Ramp rates?

Any info would be great while I am finalising my design

 

[bradsbrew]

I have a 130L mash tun that I am still fine tuning and have not done full volume on. I purchased a hermit coil set and have been running that in a small 8L urn with an extra over the side element. When i want to ramp up i just turn the OTS element on until it reaches temp,a little over a degree a minute. The urn element then keeps it at temp using the KK controller.
At the moment I am just using the one KK pump (original green one) But i will be getting another for tun to kettle.

Cheers

 

[Moad]

Thanks mate, what ramp do you get without the OTS for your volume? What size?

 

[QldKev]

I'm running a 100l mash tun for a 112l final vol brew. With a hermit coil and just a 1800w kettle element best i can get is 0.3c per min ramp. With an extra 2400w i can get 1c per min.

 

[Moad]

Cheers Kev thats what I was after.

Herm-IT maintains temp pretty tight?

 

[Zorco]

Real world measurements is where confidence comes from, so QldKev's data is gold.

I have a 117l boil kettle and 78l mash tun at the moment. (But that Purex pool filter I found a while ago is looking to be born again as a mash tun)

Anyway, I'm at around the 100l kit and I'm moving some heating to Electric this year.

My quick look at the approach others take with the calculations and this site is a helpful one:

http://www.caseysbeer.com.au/?p=687

 

[QldKev]

Cheers Kev thats what I was after.

Herm-IT maintains temp pretty tight?

I'm only using the HERMIT coil, not the controller. But any decent pid should keep it pretty tight.

The controller I'm using is the one in this thread.

Real world measurements is where confidence comes from, so QldKev's data is gold.

I have a 117l boil kettle and 78l mash tun at the moment. (But that Purex pool filter I found a while ago is looking to be born again as a mash tun)

Anyway, I'm at around the 100l kit and I'm moving some heating to Electric this year.

My quick look at the approach others take with the calculations and this site is a helpful one:

http://www.caseysbeer.com.au/?p=687

The calc is good, I've also got a calculator that does the maths for you on my website qldkev.net

 

[rockeye84]

I'm Running a 140L HLT w/herms coil, 80L tun, 120L kettle, good for 100L batches. with the latent heat in my sparge water sitting @ 76c plus 6000w worth of Elements I can easily raise a 50-70l mash 2deg c in less than 10 mins, smaller systems would benefit from a hex imo. My old 40L 2500w setup was slow as to get to the next temp step.

 

[Moad]

How long and what size coil? What pump?

I'm hoping for better than 2 degrees in 10 minutes. Why such a big HLT?

 

[Zorco]

Water won't undergo a phase change at 76C unless under really low air pressure. Is not latent heat.

Thermal inertia might be the property we exploit
https://youtu.be/Ndzc4sAv0qs

6kW of elements..! That is pre-commercial levels of power. Awesome

 

[MastersBrewery]

Water won't undergo a phase change at 76C unless under really low air pressure.

This is why commercials use steam, when condensing all of the energy is transferred. However as noted here in many threads steam boilers are bloody dangerous and should only be used by suitably qualified persons. The issue is being able to transfer heat(energy/power) into the mash quickly. On a small HB scale not too hard. The bigger you go the closer you get to needing the instant exchange that phase change brings. And by that I mean complication of the of the HX and cost. Think about stepping 2HL with HB methods.