Dedicated Herms Guide, Problems And Solution Thread

[Acasta]

having just researched the cost of 3 way ball vales (~$98 each), i wont be going with the above design. will just use 1 pump and manually change hoses for the time being. so will next next brew day how the HX and controller go.

I've seen people using a T-piece and 2 ball valves of either end which may fit into what your after instead of a 3 way valve.

 

[brettprevans]

Process system in also gave me a price of $60 + gst for 4 of them and free postage. Still to rich for my blood atm so I will be using it inline, 1 pump for now until I reconfig my plan. But as Kev said configuring it so only one hose change isn't too bad.

 

[Yob]

Im a one pump man CM, change 1 hose from the HEX to the HLT for fly and thats it and as Im just using Barbs (with no problem thus far) its a simple pull push.

Different strokes for different folks though, systems are as varied as the people who build them.

When are you running it? I might pop over and drool for a while?

Yob

 

[QldKev]

... or use the brown pump to fly-sparge/circulate the water in the HLT ... etc.

Good idea. Now I've got to talk myself out of doing it B)

 

[brettprevans]

well after loads of mucking around and several people checking wiring I finally fixed the "orAL" error message on the sestos D1s-vr-220y pid. long story short the wiring diagrams all seems to be wired for probes not K type thermocouplers. so instead of wiring coupler into 4 & 5, you wire it into 3&4. and presto it works. red into 4 and blue into 3 otherwise if you have it reversed when you add heat the PID reads a temp drop. found that out when i wired it up and then had to reverse it so temp goes up when applying heat.

pic of what i mean.



hopefully this helps someone else if/when they encounter the problem.

now just to calibrate it on the next batch

 

[cat007]

So I'm building a new brew rig and going the HERMS route. I think I'm going to have to pre-heat the water in the boil kettle (gas fired) before transferring to the HLT - I can only use about 3500watts from the 15amp outlet in my garage (240volt over here in New Zealand).

A 3500 watt element will take me about an hour to get 35L of water up to about 75C from room/ground temp.

And that doesn't leave me any spare watts for my separate heat exchanger element.

What are others doing to combat this power problem?

 

[QldKev]

So I'm building a new brew rig and going the HERMS route. I think I'm going to have to pre-heat the water in the boil kettle (gas fired) before transferring to the HLT - I can only use about 3500watts from the 15amp outlet in my garage (240volt over here in New Zealand).

A 3500 watt element will take me about an hour to get 35L of water up to about 75C from room/ground temp.

And that doesn't leave me any spare watts for my separate heat exchanger element.

What are others doing to combat this power problem?

Can you run an extension cord to the house to get another power pickup? Even if it's just a normal 10amp GPO then that would be heaps to run a heat exchanger element (obviously element can't exceed 2400w).

QldKev

 

[cat007]

Can you run an extension cord to the house to get another power pickup? Even if it's just a normal 10amp GPO then that would be heaps to run a heat exchanger element (obviously element can't exceed 2400w).

QldKev

Yeah that might be my only option I think. I'll just run a second power cable.

Cheers

Hunt

 

[QldKev]

Yeah that might be my only option I think. I'll just run a second power cable.

Cheers

Hunt

When I built mine I did think about heating all the water in the kettle with a LPG burner. Then transfer the strike water to the mash tun and heat the remaining water to mash out temps prior to transferring it to the HLT for holding. Then we could use a small electric element to maintain the heat in the HLT. In your case this would allow say 2400w for the Heat exchanger and 1000w (allowing some power for pump etc) in the HLT to hold the temps.

Bit more moving water around but it would work.

QldKev

 

[fraser_john]

So I'm building a new brew rig and going the HERMS route. I think I'm going to have to pre-heat the water in the boil kettle (gas fired) before transferring to the HLT - I can only use about 3500watts from the 15amp outlet in my garage (240volt over here in New Zealand).

A 3500 watt element will take me about an hour to get 35L of water up to about 75C from room/ground temp.

And that doesn't leave me any spare watts for my separate heat exchanger element.

What are others doing to combat this power problem?

I have 2400W element in both HLT and HEX, two PID control the elements. I have a normally closed (NC) relay that prevents the HLT element SSR from being switched on whilst the HEX SSR is on. Means I can run from a single 10amp outlet. 2400W element heats up 38 litre of HLT water to 78c in the time it takes to do a mash.

 

[cat007]

Thanks for that.

Just a question regarding a HERMS setup. If you want your mash to be at, say, 65C - do you set your HEX to 65C and continuously run the HERMS pump? Or do you run the HEX up to about 70C and have the pump turn on/off when it needs to heat the mash up a little?

 

[Frag_Dog]

Thanks for that.

Just a question regarding a HERMS setup. If you want your mash to be at, say, 65C - do you set your HEX to 65C and continuously run the HERMS pump? Or do you run the HEX up to about 70C and have the pump turn on/off when it needs to heat the mash up a little?

I run my pump thru ther HEX for the whole mash. I think this aids clarification of the wort. I think getting the whole thing to only recirc when temp presets are reached would be a bit of a stuff around, and you wouldn't get a consistant mash temp.

 

[cat007]

Do you set the water in your HEX to be what your mash temp is? Or do you set it so the HEX element is on only when the liquid returning to the mash tun isn't quite hot enough?

 

[Yob]

Do you set the water in your HEX to be what your mash temp is? Or do you set it so the HEX element is on only when the liquid returning to the mash tun isn't quite hot enough?

if you have the temp probe situated at the pump outlet the water in the HEX will be whatever it needs to be to give you your set temp. The important thing is to be reading the wort at the outlet.

Read back through this tread a bit.. I was unclear on this point myself and after following the advice in this thread have it set as mentioned.

Good luck.

 

[Frag_Dog]

Do you set the water in your HEX to be what your mash temp is? Or do you set it so the HEX element is on only when the liquid returning to the mash tun isn't quite hot enough?

After my HLT comes up to temp, I fill the HEX with water from the HLT. I then add the water to the Mash Tun, add the grain. Give it a stir and let it sit for ~2mins to settle. I then start my recirc and temp steps. I usually set my HLT to about 60C. Once the grain and Mash Tun absorb some of the heat, the mash is down around 50C. I then ramp up to my mash temp (62-68) over 20 mins.

I've plumbed my system as:

MLT output -> March Pump -> HEX -> HERMS Temp Probe -> Mash Return.

 

[cat007]

Thanks for your replies.

 

[Crazydrum]

Hello, I'm an Italian homebrewer. I found here a fantastic community and a lot of know how, so that I'm reading here and there.
I want to go into the recirculating thing. Since I've not much space (and I'm on the budget too) I need a compact solution, the two posible setup are RIMS or the Hermit like.
I'm looking for the materials but I have problems fimding the SS pipe. The most similar is a 12mmx11mm (internal) but it's AISI304 and NOT 316. As far as I know this is not good for this use.
The alternatice could be copper but I was told that it's not as good as SS since is more difficoult to clean (I can't use caustic soda) and can get oxidized.

Can you give me some tip?

Additionally what is the tecnique to curve it into a spiral?

Thanks a lot

CD

 

[dent]

Can you give me some tip?

This is one of the popular options for stainless. You would have a hard time bending these yourself, as I understand an industrial machine is used to bend these. It is possible to bend the copper ones.

 

[Crazydrum]

This is one of the popular options for stainless. You would have a hard time bending these yourself, as I understand an industrial machine is used to bend these. It is possible to bend the copper ones.

That it's where I started It's a nice coil but I'd have hard time for the shipment (and cost too).
As far I can see it's 304 SS. Is it ok for brewing?
How should be cleaned?

Thanks

CD

 

[Fat Bastard]

I'm looking at one of those Gryphon HX coils too. As for cleaning, you can run sodium percarbonate or napisan through it with no worries. I suppose you could use caustic, but it's probably not necessary.

I'm looking at running this in a 20 litre 2400w urn I use as a HLT for sparging as I don't want to be running elements simultaneously. I understand that this will reduce my ramp speeds but swings and roundabouts style, my sparge water will be ready (or close enough) to go immediately following the mash out step. I plan to suspend it dead centre over the element in the HLT, 10mm or so from the bottom. Does anyone have any good reasons why this is a bad idea?

I also have a 8 litre 2000w urn I can use at a pinch, but of course I'd prefer not to have to run the two elements simultaneously as I only have access to 10amp circuits at present and it will be a while before I can set up my cut-down 44 gallon drum brewery.

Cheers,

FB