Dedicated Herms Guide, Problems And Solution Thread

[tinnyhaha]

Hi all,

I,m getting ready to coil my herms out of 1/2" stainless for installation in my HLT.
I was wondering is there any detrimental affect from using 90 deg. compression fittings for the connections through the side walls.
I read somewhere that the herms should be of open curves so as not to cause oxigenation the hot wort.

 

[Wolfy]

I was wondering is there any detrimental affect from using 90 deg. compression fittings for the connections through the side walls.
I read somewhere that the herms should be of open curves so as not to cause oxigenation the hot wort.

If the tube/pipe/fittings are all water/air tight (which they have to be to work properly without leaking) then I can't imagine how oxygenation will occur.
However, sharp fittings do/can/could more resistance, requiring more pressure for the pump to pump the wort through - however on a home-brew scale, I doubt it's much of a concern.

 

[Yob]

I just thought I'd post a photo of the latest build of my HEX unit, designed as CIP it's 3m of copper in a BigW pot that is used with an OTS element.

I cannot complain with the ramp times that seem to be almost on PAR with the HERMIT but I can see that I would use a little extra power.

In the base you will notice a length of copper, this has holes drilled in the bottom and in fact has another elbow on the end,upward facing. I use this when the recirc is over by adding some Perc/Met (home made ~PBW solution) to the pot, change the hose from the MT to a tap on the pot and recirc through the coil and back into a return barb while the water is still 70 odd 'c, its a pretty simple process and means that the water I use to heat the HEX is the same as I use to clean it.

It's kinda hard to explain but simple to use. All I really need for it now is a PID controller... eventually

To clean further I recirc STARSAN through the coil both ways. Damn but it comes up shiny!!



:icon_cheers:

 

[NDH]

First wet run of the rig after near on 18 months of R&D. 3 way L-port valves worked a treat and only a couple of threads to re tape.

What would I have done differently?

-a valve on the inlet of the pump, I'm learning how to best prime the pump to get bubbles etc out but I can't help but think a valve nice and close to the pump would help.
-bigger kettle to allow for full volume double batches rather than what will likely be slightly concentrated double batches topped up in the fermenter.
-temp probe in the hex itself rather than just the hex outlet, not only for automation but also manual control as a reference when pre heating.
-camlocks or similar to the hex to allow quick removal. As the in and out are top mounted the ability to remove the hex and turn it upside down to drain would be nice.

I don't think we will ever be finished 'building' it. The above mentioned will likely be addressed eventually, there are already plans to timber clad the MLT!

Still haven't got the brewtroller sorted but I'm under the impression the next firmware release from brewtroller will fully support 3V + Hex so I'm holding off.

Also like to thank everyone who has shared their knowledge on this thread and the AHB community in general, the motivation and knowledge I have drawn from here made this build a reality.




Cheers

NDH

 

[Yob]

damn thats purdy

:icon_drool2: :icon_drool2:

 

[Truman42]

I am very impressed with how much clearer my beer is since going from BIAB to a 3v herms system.

herms rocks... :icon_cheers:

 

[mikec]

Going from BIAB to HERMS, definitely clearer wort here...

I'm having a bit of fun getting my flow rate happening properly. Essentially after a while the grain is so compacted that it gets stuck. I have to get in there with the mash spoon and mix it up again, scraping the grain off the false bottom to get things flowing again.
I did a double-header on the weekend, brewed a batch Saturday evening, and another Sunday morning. First batch seemed to go OK, second one got stuck twice.

The details:

Equipment:
57L cylindrical cooler, 11" false bottom, brown pump, HERMS coil in a 1.7L kettle.

Batch 1
85% pilsner, 10% wheat malt, 5% crystal.
Gap on the mill set to 1.2mm. (increased from 1.1mm the previous batch).
20L batch, about 4.2kg of grain, 14L of water. 1 hour mash at 66C, then ramp to 76C for 10 min, then fly sparge.
This one went OK.

Batch 2
71% pilsner, 15% munich, 7% caraamber, 7% wheat malt.
Gap on mill 1.2mm.
20L batch, 5.5kg grain, 18L water. 10 mins at 54C, 60 mins at 64C, 10 mins at 76C, fly sparge.
This is the one that kept getting stuck.

So the main differences between the two batches:
- 20% more grain (with corresponding increase in water)
- Lower temperature step, and ramp from 54 to 64C. The first time it stuck was during this ramp, at around 57C (and of course the system, reading temp from the coil, figured it had reached 66 and powered into the sacc rest step).
- Munich & Caraamber

Bit worried if the limit of the system is 5kg of grain... I set it up to do double batches!

The crush at 1.2mm looked pretty good to my mind. everything cracked open, plenty of intact husks (with no innards) some white chunks and some powder.
I would have taken a photo of the crush, but by the time there was a problem, it was part-way through mashing.
Does anyone here go larger than 1.2mm?

 

[hsb]

My crush and grist to water ratios are around the same and I have had stuck mash problems in the past.
I find that letting the mash sit after stirring before starting the pump really helps. It lets everything settle naturally into a bed, rather than sucking it down and compacting. Also throttling the flow back as much as practical.

 

[mikec]

My crush and grist to water ratios are around the same and I have had stuck mash problems in the past.
I find that letting the mash sit after stirring before starting the pump really helps. It lets everything settle naturally into a bed, rather than sucking it down and compacting. Also throttling the flow back as much as practical.

Cheers, I'll give that a try.

 

[hsb]

No worries, good luck, totally frustrating getting a stuck mash when pumping. I fiddled with crush, false bottom, manifold, return, pump speed etc. but concluded it has more to do with pulling on the grain bed before it has settled naturally, sucking it down into a plug. Then once flow is reduced the tendency is to bump the pump up a bit, just making it worse. I inverted a domed false bottom twice (ended up back as it started!) by doing exactly that.

I also drain off the first litre or so using gravity into a jug before beginning recirculation and just dump that back on top, just to check everything's clear/shift any stray grain husks etc.

I go up to around 4:1 grain to water ratio but I batch sparge and am lazy in only wanting to do 2 lots of runnings in total, so 2 equal additions of water (minus grain absorption)
Despite capacity to do more, I always do single batches, just don't drink enough to need to do more.

It definitely shouldn't be your crush, mine is 1mm in a keggle/false bottom set-up.

 

[hsb]

Here's the last crush/grainbed I took a picture of..

 

[mikec]

Makes sense. As does draining off the first litre to get rid of chunks. These always end up stuck in the wort return...

 

[mikec]

Here's the last crush/grainbed I took a picture of..

My grain is definitely more "broken up" than that. Are you hand-winding or using a drill/motor?
I don't know what speed my drill runs at but it's on about 3 or 4 out of 10, and the max speed is 550rpm. Basically as slow as it will go without jamming.

 

[hsb]

Same as you - using a variable speed drill on lowest setting, still way too fast, my crush can come out more broken up. Gap is set to 1mm.
I also wet condition the malt when I can be bothered.
Here's another slightly more broken up one

 

[browndog]

I am very impressed with how much clearer my beer is since going from BIAB to a 3v herms system.

herms rocks... :icon_cheers:

View attachment 59721

Them's fighting words Truman, careful Lad.

 

[Ironhorse]

For anyone who decides to use a Birko 5lt urn with Nev's Herm coil (saw a question about it in one of these pages somewhere...) - be careful to check the height of the coil when you attach it to the lid... I had to go through several iterations, including cutting down the length of the inlet and outlet side to stop it contacting the Urns heating coil. Might be a newbie thing of course, but something I noticed nevertheless. For those going "why did you spend so much on a f$&@ing urn to use for a HERMs"......I didn't - got it at a irresistible price on a friendly auction site....very handy piece of kit, just set the temp on the Urns temp control, and it gets the HX there very quickly...now to actually brew using it! Ghetto brewery with bling now..of course, I had to use an old pizza tray as a lid so as to not wreck the Birko lid...

 

[tinnyhaha]

OK here it is! After jerking around with the pros & cons of building a HLT (with internal HERMS coil) for 3 months, its finally finished.
I did, however overlook 1 very important issue. Check out the pics and see if you can see the problem that I only discovered during my first test drive.

 

[RobW]

OK here it is! After jerking around with the pros & cons of building a HLT (with internal HERMS coil) for 3 months, its finally finished.
I did, however overlook 1 very important issue. Check out the pics and see if you can see the problem that I only discovered during my first test drive.

You left the ball valve open?

Nice rig btw.

 

[tinnyhaha]

Oh s**t I did too. Wrong answer though.
The bottom rim of a keg has 4 holes in it for what ever reason and when I fire up my spiral burner it produces so much
heat each of the holes becomes a full on blow torch.
I have to shield my ball valve and thermo with several layers of foil so as not to melt them

 

[Crazydrum]

Hi all,
For my HERMS I ended up using a copper coil as the ones that I've seen here.
What can I use to clean it ?
Is Napisan ok with copper?
Please suggest products components or international available brands since I'm in Italy.

Thanks for your help

Al