Dedicated Herms Guide, Problems And Solution Thread

[mxd]

Does everyone recirculate for the full mash, or pause and restart throughout? I've been recirculating for 90 minutes but wondering if I really need to?

constant re-circ for me (only do 60 min mash), I've seen others only recirc when heating is required

 

[cdbrown]

Always make sure there is water in the HERMS before turning it on. Made the mistake last night when I attempted to pre-heat the HERMS before pumping my strike water. Anyway the element is cracked and doesn't work but thankfully it was just a cheapy from Big W and will easy to replace. Had to do a decoction on the mash to bring it up to mash temp.

 

[Crusty]

I think the theory is that out of the H/Ex is going to be the warmest part of the system, so measure here. Wort comes in at say 66C, it might drop slightly but by constantly recirculating, every part of the mash will be 66C. I found my dial thermo in the body of the mash quickly settling at 66C also. If liquid is regularly cycling through the H/Ex, you can be sure it is hitting 66C.

For my setup, 4:1 seems to be about perfect for the ratio, very loose by more traditional Cooler MLT standards but works for me. My return is just some coiled silicone tube sitting on top, no way is any grain missing out on a nice warm bath. my probe is at the MLT return in a T piece, as above.

Does everyone recirculate for the full mash, or pause and restart throughout? I've been recirculating for 90 minutes but wondering if I really need to?

Recirculate for the full mash time.
3.75l/kg is what I am aiming for with the Rims.
I want to ensure a loose mash & avoid a stuck sparge at all costs.
I will be recirculating for at least a few minutes through the Rims tube before firing the element.

 

[hsb]

Thanks crusty, I got some feedback via PM as well (thanks Mike)
Dead set on continuous recirculation, cheers.

With my comment above about my mash return being just coiled silicone tube.
I did a double run over the weekend and noticed there probably is some channeling happening where the tubing rests on the mash bed.
When the mash is drained, it's very indented under the tubing, probably need some tweaking.

Tried calculating brewhouse efficiency using an online calculator, came out at 5452265.62%!!! 8|
http://brew.messerschmidt.com.au/admin/tools/efficiency.php

witbier
5.2kg grain bill
38L pre-boil
1035 pre-boil

1042 post-boil

 

[prongs_386]

I had my first brew with my herms yesterday. Some things went well and some things didn't.

I started off by getting my mash water up to 50 degrees for a protein rest which went well. There ended up being a wide degree difference between the pid and mash tun so I set my pid a bit higher. I then added my grain and the temp leveled out at 50 after a few minutes which was good. After a few more minutes the flow out of my mash tun stopped so I figured it was a stuck mash and started stirring but even with stirring the flow didn't come straight back. Often I would have to stir and then let it settle before the flow would start again. I have a washing machine hose as my grain filter so thought maybe some grains got stuck inside but it just seemed to randomly correct itself. I felt like there was some plumbing mystery of pipe pressures which I don't understand.

We seemed to get through this problem by luck but ran into another one. I set my pid up to 70 degrees for the mash but the temp sat at 60 so I stirred the mash which then showed 64 but even after setting my pid higher it never got hotter than 65. Is it possible id reached some kind of limit with my hex?

Any insights would be much appreciated!

Thanks to everyone that helped me with my problems.

I did another brew yesterday and discovered that when I squeezed the metal braid in my mash tun that I use as the grain filter, it started bubbling so air was obviously getting trapped in there. So I guess the braid closes off too much and the water can't always flow through. I had a perfect flow yesterday up to the point where I started sparging and decided to give it a thorough stir. I think I might try and put together a copper manifold to stop this from happening. What is everyone else using in the bottom of their mash tun?

 

[scooter_59]

I use a copper manifold . Try inserting a coil of wire into your braid to stop it from collapsing . This maybe the quick fix .


Cheers
Leachim

 

[Tim F]

ya know one of the great things about a herms is you can use it to heat up bath water for the kids if the hot water runs out! Thereby proving to the missus it wasn't a total waste of time and money.

 

[kymba]

ok so i figured out my control box issues - i was putting the relay trigger wires into the wrong terminals on the PID. had one of those 'duh' moments when i looked a bit harder at the diagram on the side of the PID


and here is my updated wiring diagram View attachment BUZZ_BOX_v3.pdf

 

[stew.w]

ive finally got around to working on my RIMS set up on the weekend. so far all ive done is test runs with water, seems to raise the temp at a reasonable rate (havnt measured it though).
at the moment it is just using 2 carel controllers with contactors switching the load (one HLT and one MLT) the one on the HLT seems to be ok for its purpose but the one running the rims overshoots by a fair bit. are most people running a RIMS set up using a PID and SSR?
i havnt got around to putting any heat transfer paste in the thermowells which wouldnt be helping either.
would it be worth changing the carel controller for a PID? the carel controllers were something i already had.
the conrollers probe is in the outlet of the RIMS tube
still got a little bit of work to do on it, but its almost there.

heres a couple of pics:

Cheers,

Stewart

 

[stew.w]

never mind, just found ravens build thread which pretty much answered all my Q's.
PID and SSR it is.

 

[raven19]

That control panel and wiring is just so neat! Makes mine look terrible!

Great build so far.

Edit - glad the thread was helpful.

 

[stew.w]

yeah its getting there, have to change it again when i get the PID. most of it is actually silicone coated wire and its heaps easier to use than the normal stuff in regards to keeping it neat.
is your PID similar to this:
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/DIN-Digital-PID...a#ht_5234wt_952
if its is are you happy with it?
thanks in advance and for the great build thread.

Cheers,

Stewart

 

[raven19]

I am by no means an expert on PID's however that one looks fine as it supports "multi sensor input (K,S,Wre,T,E,J,B,N,CU50,PT100)".

I used a PT100 RTD probe with my RIMS. And I purchased a similar cheapish PID on evilbay too.

I am very happy with it yes. Did one auto tune batch and have hardly touched it since.[/font]

 

[stew.w]

did you end up having to get a heat sink for your SSR?

 

[Tim F]

I put a heatsink on mine, I ran it without but found it got quite hot. Be aware that pid only switches control current to your relay, it doesn't have control current output built in unless you hack it.

 

[stew.w]

yeah im using the SSR to switch the load, it'll just replace the contactor in my control box (above) and rewire it to the PID for DC control

 

[Tim F]

What i'm saying is that pid doesn't have dc out to switch the ssr - just a relay to switch an external dc source. You can get around it by using a phone charger or something to give you dc to be switched by the pid or you can modify the pid.

 

[stew.w]

from the pictures and the description it looks like it does though, in the middle of the page description on ebay where it has MODEL NUMBER LEGEND and then D1S-2R-220, to me that just looks like a general example of how the model numbers work whereas in the picture it says on the label D1S-VR-220 which would mean one alarm and one SSR output. i hope, will confirm

cheers,

Stewart

 

[Tim F]

Let us know what you find out, it would be good to know if that one does have dc out to run the SSR directly if I buy another at some point.

 

[raven19]

did you end up having to get a heat sink for your SSR?

Yes I did, but the SSR is about 40A rated compared to the 10A I am putting through it - so it does not seem to get that warm even in the middle of summer when brewing. I don't have any air circulation holes in my control panel either.