Another Herms Is Born

[Henno]

So here is my herms so far, pathetic I know. The pump will be mounted properly and permanent wiring completed this week. The return back to the MT still has me puzzled. It is currently just my old braid manifold that will sit on the grain bed that just dangles over the top, this will no doubt lead to severe temp losses as the lid won't seal properly, derr! So another side entry point must be drilled. Problem is sometimes I do singles and sometimes double so I don't know what height the grain bed and overall wort depth will be so what height the new hole is gunna go is up in the air.



I managed to squeeze about 7m of copper into a 10L pot. The copper below the join is a Bunnings 3m length. The rest came off the back of my plumbers truck and out came the serious soldering gear and it was done in 10 minutes.

 

[glaab]

maybe one of these is what u need from BB

 

[Tony]

Hey mate.

Looking good!

to overcome the problem of varying mash heights i built this:

 

[Sully]

Nothing pathetic about it mate, it makes beer which is most important. Good work

If you make up a return manifold out of copper pipe and fix it with a bulkhead setup though a universal lid from kmart etc from that should solve your worries.

Here is a pic of mine if that helps - Linky

I don't think it really matters if it is submerged so a fixed length is ok - well from what I found and read anyways.

HTH

Cheers

PS: Gearguard is coming, been snowed under getting ready to move house etc.

 

[Tony]

Problem was it lost sooooo much temperature with no lid so i made one as shown.

It sits on top of the mash tun and the tube slides up and down through the center so you can adjust the return height of the mash liquor.

cheers

 

[Bizier]

If that is pathetic, I'd hate to hear your comments on my setup

 

[NickB]

Henno, might want to reconsider that length of threaded pipe where your temp probe is mounted. I've found out from my last 15 or so brews that temp probe placement should be directly in the stream of wort returning to the MLT. It seems yours is reliant on the wort filling up the threaded pipe on the return side, however this most likely won't happen due to air being trapped in that section.

My advice would be to move the probe to to the return outlet of the MLT when you have plumbed it. Should give you less variance in temp.

And mate, it looks great. My HERMS is STILL bolted to Milk Crates (legally obtained of course h34r! Will take some pics when I'm fully happy with it!

Cheers

 

[sqyre]

Looking Good Henno!!! :super:

Sqyre..

 

[Screwtop]

Henno, might want to reconsider that length of threaded pipe where your temp probe is mounted. I've found out from my last 15 or so brews that temp probe placement should be directly in the stream of wort returning to the MLT. It seems yours is reliant on the wort filling up the threaded pipe on the return side, however this most likely won't happen due to air being trapped in that section.

My advice would be to move the probe to to the return outlet of the MLT when you have plumbed it. Should give you less variance in temp.

And mate, it looks great. My HERMS is STILL bolted to Milk Crates (legally obtained of course h34r! Will take some pics when I'm fully happy with it!

Cheers

Looking schmic Henno, vewy poofesional


But needs to be as Nick points out....., a bit like in this shitty drawing.



Put a Female T on the outlet, screw the probe into one arm and the all thread into the other arm and a F elbow onto that, so that the probe is covered at all times.

Dumb pussers, grumble, grumble....

 

[bonj]

looking good henno. you're way more organised than my slack arse. I just checked my emails and it was right on a year ago that I was asking Screwy a bunch of HERMS related questions.... still haven't progressed, but thanks to my pot supplier (the stainless steel variety ) The_Scientist, I scored a 16L pot. Do you think that's too big? I also have an immersion chiller that I've never used that I could sacrifice to the HERMS gods. I have the kettle element. Just need a SSR so the microcontroller can switch it on/off.

Very old pic of my controller (it hasn't changed though):

 

[NickB]

Geez Bonj, kids or not, you're soooo lazy! C'mon man, even I've overtaken you on the HERMS front. Who's laughing now, eh, Mr Flanders

At least we know which ice cream to bring around when we visit..... h34r:


Cheers!

 

[bonj]

Shows how much you know, ya slacker! That's hot chocolate stuff that I persuaded swmbo to buy so I could have the tin for my projects

And maxibon is the icecream of choice in case you want to stop in and pick up your threaded inserts

 

[Henno]

If you make up a return manifold out of copper pipe and fix it with a bulkhead setup though a universal lid from kmart etc from that should solve your worries.

HTH

Cheers

PS: Gearguard is coming, been snowed under getting ready to move house etc.

My return manifold with the braid actually has a copper slotted manifold inside it. Now regarding the 'universal lid from kmart' I will have a look in the Bundy kmart and I bet you a million gear guards they don't have one. Been looking for big lids at the second hand stores, our local tender centre and have come up with nothing so far. MY KINGDOM FOR A BIG LID, or three!

 

[bonj]

or 4.... I want one too :/

 

[Henno]

Problem was it lost sooooo much temperature with no lid so i made one as shown.

It sits on top of the mash tun and the tube slides up and down through the center so you can adjust the return height of the mash liquor.

cheers

That's awesome Tony, does the lid also slide up and down the copper pipe? What is the insulation material underneath the lid? I can't bloody find anything cheap that will be a good lid now I have cut off the shoulder of the MT. Having the insulation on the inside of the lid has always appealed to me for some reason.

 

[Henno]

Henno, might want to reconsider that length of threaded pipe where your temp probe is mounted. I've found out from my last 15 or so brews that temp probe placement should be directly in the stream of wort returning to the MLT. It seems yours is reliant on the wort filling up the threaded pipe on the return side, however this most likely won't happen due to air being trapped in that section.
Cheers

The long threaded pipe has already been canned as an idea. I think it was running fine for temp measuring as the tip of the probe went into the middle of the through part of the T right into the liquor flow. When I showed it to Andrew in Bundy last week though he bought up the very good point that cleaning the sticky wort from it will mean pulling it completely apart each time as it is so long you couldn't depend on PBW or anything getting all the way up there. So on Friday I went to Haymans and bought a little water proof replacement probe for a Dixel unit that should be ok on my tempmate controller. It will just go through some rubber at the end of an olive on the T piece and the threaded bar will go back into the spares box. The controller in the photo will not be used also. Photos will follow.

 

[Sully]

My return manifold with the braid actually has a copper slotted manifold inside it. Now regarding the 'universal lid from kmart' I will have a look in the Bundy kmart and I bet you a million gear guards they don't have one. Been looking for big lids at the second hand stores, our local tender centre and have come up with nothing so far. MY KINGDOM FOR A BIG LID, or three!

I will check the Morayfield store for you. I only picked one up a few weeks ago. About $15 IIRC.


Cheers

Sully

 

[Henno]

Cool. What section are they in though, the kitchen bit or the camping bit? How big, would they fit on a keg shaped vessel that has no shoulder on it?

Thanks Sull.

 

[NickB]

Shows how much you know, ya slacker! That's hot chocolate stuff that I persuaded swmbo to buy so I could have the tin for my projects

And maxibon is the icecream of choice in case you want to stop in and pick up your threaded inserts

Hmmm, though postage was included Ben.....

Really annoyed that I forgot to grab those inserts from you at Eagle Heights! Wasn't really with it to be honest!

Don't want to know WHERE you've inserted them, but will grab them off you at some stage....unless you feel like a drive to Kingaroy? Lots of good overtaking spots for the Focus on the way up......





Cheers

 

[reVoxAHB]

Hey mate, nice one and welcome to the world of herms B)

The return to tun was a hangup in my herms system, in that I tried a couple variations eventually settling on Screwtop's recommend:


Bit of a dirty inside shot:


In terms of a lid for my converted keg/tun, I found (and it was just luck) my circle whole is exactly the size of a 10" pizza tray. The tray is aluminium and sort of flexes (and can be bent) into position for snug fit. The 1/2 raised walls lip into the hole nicely, too. I used a piece of aeroflex sheeting for insulation on top/outside; plenty of options here. Downside to pizza tin is that it has no handle but not really an issue as far as I'm concerned.

I've always been impressed with Tony's adjustable solution to return. Tres cool. My return works ballpark to 3:1 on 46L batch.. Obviously, style/bill dictates changes where I'm not fussed moving 2.7/1 or 3.5/1, etc. In the case of really big bears.. imperial Ipa, etc. which moves my tun to max I reverse the large/central internal elbow so it points up, and reverse the 4 smaller return elbows as required. My system is not hard plumbed at the X, for lack of a better term, which allows for minor play and adjustment in this way.

reVox