Another Herms Is Born

[Sully]

In the cooking section next to frypans etc, usually hanging up.

Photos say 1000 words....

The lid is 32cm diameter and stepped so it fits a range of pots.

:icon_cheers:

EDIT: Still have to insulate it yet.

 

[Thirsty Boy]

you could just cut out a big circle of styrofoam for a lid. Or two circles glued together to give you a "lip" - Easy to put holes in for hoses etc and a few coats of paint (the proper sort to not melt it of course) on the outside would make it look less rough and also stiffen it up a bit so little balls of foam dont fall off all the time.

Or even just wood with epoxy paint on it.

Its not contacting the wort after all and all it has to do really is hold in some heat and be able to stand a little steam and condensation.

Herms looking good

TB

PS - for the return. I just run a "naked" thermocouple bead taped to the outside of my copper return manifold, about 3-4 inches away from where it hits the mash tun liquid. Taped directly to the copper there is less between it and the liquid than there was when I had a shielded probe immersed. I made it naked by wrenching it out of its little metal probe. When my new BB mash tun arrives - I will simply be dunking a pt100 RTD directly in the return cup.

 

[QldKev]

That's why henno had to come into town for the doctors; henno's got herms!!

QldKev

 

[Screwtop]

Low tech lid Henno





Made from a Styrofoam Broccoli Box Lid. Cut out two circles, diameter to fit inside the top chime of the keg like vessel. Glued together with liquid nails, then cut a handle piece and glued that on. Covered the sucker with aluminium foil glued on with liquid nails spread all over.

I call it the bishops hat :lol:

For a wort return manifold Henno, have a look at these:


As you can see this was fine for single batches, still worked ok for doubles but I made this one next


Beware of using slots or holes if recircing they block up with chunkage, had the ends sealed but it blocked up so I cut the ends off, works fine, the wort just dribbles in when you throttle back the flow.

 

[Henno]

Hey Sully don't bother looking for stock of those lids for me down there mate. Just ran a tape over my mt and it is 36cm. The kmart ones would fall straight in!

Hey Screwy. I'll be grabbing some broccoli boxes from the supermarket by the looks of it. After looking at those lid photos I reckon you could have had a job on Dr Who in the props department. I did think about the chunkage problem with my manifold system even after I take the braid off. I will put a skin fitting on the keg with olives. How did you make the little copper foot on the single batch version? Is it carefully beaten flat pipe or did you solder a bit of flat copper to the back of the down pipe?

 

[Screwtop]

Hey Sully don't bother looking for stock of those lids for me down there mate. Just ran a tape over my mt and it is 36cm. The kmart ones would fall straight in!

Hey Screwy. I'll be grabbing some broccoli boxes from the supermarket by the looks of it. After looking at those lid photos I reckon you could have had a job on Dr Who in the props department. I did think about the chunkage problem with my manifold system even after I take the braid off. I will put a skin fitting on the keg with olives. How did you make the little copper foot on the single batch version? Is it carefully beaten flat pipe or did you solder a bit of flat copper to the back of the down pipe?

Pretty much as you describe roughly beaten flat :lol:

Cut up the centre of the copper pipe about 35mm, cut through and remove half. Hammer flat and then bend to 90. Simply disperses the liquid a little. While recircing the return is throttled right back to stop the grainbed packing down too tightly, so there is really no gain in having any sort of sprinkler or sparge arm. Have tried them all, even a rotating sparge arm, was a waste of time as the slow recirc rate would not even turn the arm. I like ReVox's method, problem is it sticks out into the tun. I would prefer something mounted at the side or even through the lid like Tony's for access to the tun for cleaning etc.

Fabrication went a bit like this:



Screwy

 

[QldKev]

Low tech lid Henno

View attachment 29204

View attachment 29205View attachment 29206

Made from a Styrofoam Broccoli Box Lid. Cut out two circles, diameter to fit inside the top chime of the keg like vessel. Glued together with liquid nails, then cut a handle piece and glued that on. Covered the sucker with aluminium foil glued on with liquid nails spread all over.

I call it the bishops hat :lol:

For a wort return manifold Henno, have a look at these:
View attachment 29207View attachment 29208View attachment 29209

As you can see this was fine for single batches, still worked ok for doubles but I made this one next

View attachment 29210
Beware of using slots or holes if recircing they block up with chunkage, had the ends sealed but it blocked up so I cut the ends off, works fine, the wort just dribbles in when you throttle back the flow.

wow screwy I'm in love :icon_chickcheers:

QldKev

 

[Brad Sofield]

Man I like the frame- and winch assembly. I just finished my 1st totally independent AG today on a makeshift gravity set up. All worked great, but I ditched my wooden 3 tier frame before kick off as it was embarrassing. I could not stand there and work around this piece of crap of mine. My work bench and a couple of milk crates got me through today. Yours looks the goods- but I can't weld. I'll take more of a look for inspiration. Best of luck with the completion.

 

[Tony]

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.

Yeah mate the lid slides up and down the pipe. That way when the lid settles on the top of the tun, the return can be lowered to the desired height.

The lids insulation is fairly high tech stuff!!!!!!!

I just stuck some white foam under it with some silicon.

Remember..... the hammer and the silicon!

Im sure a lid could be fashoned from just about anything. Maybe a simple piece of SS sheet cut to cover what you have???

cheers

 

[Henno]

Man I like the frame- and winch assembly. I just finished my 1st totally independent AG today on a makeshift gravity set up. All worked great, but I ditched my wooden 3 tier frame before kick off as it was embarrassing. I could not stand there and work around this piece of crap of mine. My work bench and a couple of milk crates got me through today. Yours looks the goods- but I can't weld. I'll take more of a look for inspiration. Best of luck with the completion.

Thanks BradS. When I said my attempt so far was pathetic I was only referring to the herms and the piss weak plumbing etc. I did not make the stand and I can't weld as yet either. The winch will kind of become redundant now I have the pump but will still come in handy until I get a proper pump organised for the water tank on my shed tank. At the moment it is gravity only so when I lift a hose to any height the bloody water stops coming out so the HLT has to be down low to fill it if that makes sense.

Good luck now you have joined the dark side. Whatever the hell that means :unsure:

 

[Henno]

[attachment=2933
4:brewerygpo.jpg]

A bit more organised now. Will see how it works tomorrow.

 

[NickB]

Henno - What type of probe does that temp controller have, and how is it mounted - is it threaded, or in a thermowell??

I'm trying to determine the best way to mount my TempMate probe to give accurate readings. ATM it's just in a thermowell made of a piece of copper pipe blocked at one end, and a compression fitting to seal. Will post up a pic tomorrow.

Cheers

 

[Henno]

To be honest Nick that probe was not attached the the temp controller at the time. I had just finished bolting it all together so I took some snaps. Then I ran it up and have a major leak so will not be using that probe. It is a corker though as I got it from Haymans and it is encased in rubber.

I am now looking at using my new TempMate as well but really need an immersible probe for it to use in this set up. HINT HINT ROSS!!!! Where are they mate?

Be interested in ya pic Nick

 

[Thirsty Boy]

i dunno about in "hot" liquid ... but I have had a standard tempmate probe immersed in a bottle of water in my fermentation fridge for months - no issues.

Its all sealed up with (what looks like) epoxy resin and looks as well as seems to actually be, waterproof.

If you were unsure you could do a little work with silicon at the point where the cord goes into the metal sheath just to make sure -- or the metal part of the standard probe could be forced into a drilled stopper so only the tip stuck through... then the stopper jammed into a T piece in the return loop

lots of options

 

[NickB]

Thanks TB - lots to think about. Didn't think of the rubber stopper option!

Will grab a pic tomorrow - spent a lazy arvo on the couch today watching the footy!

Cheers

 

[Henno]

No good photos of it as yet but this cropped one from yesterday. I have turned the T piece around so the liquor runs out turns right, as you look at it from the front, through the all thread with the probe in it then hits the elbow at the end and goes vertical through an elbow and into the output hose. This way the all thread will be easy to blast PBW through to clean the inside of it and the probe. Probe enters the t piece from the left.

 

[Cocko]

No good photos of it as yet but this cropped one from yesterday. I have turned the T piece around so the liquor runs out turns right, as you look at it from the front, through the all thread with the probe in it then hits the elbow at the end and goes vertical through an elbow and into the output hose. This way the all thread will be easy to blast PBW through to clean the inside of it and the probe. Probe enters the t piece from the left.

View attachment 29387

Someone is a bit too excited about it!!

:lol:

 

[bonj]

Who's that on the left, with the thin copper coloured wang? And why does he have it out?

 

[Henno]

OH NO!!!! That's my wang thank you Bonj, and I'll have you know it is made from a 240V cable and I just like to air it.

 

[bonj]

High.... voltage....