Dedicated Herms Guide, Problems And Solution Thread

[Yob]

you can use nappisan in a pinch, Pure Perc is better, Perc/Metasillicate mix better yet, (Pump in both directions) and then flush with hot water and then Starsan (Both directions)... bright as brand new.

Look to your local chemical supplier for the above listed. (reputable home brew store for the Starsan)

Cheers

 

[Truman42]

Yob whats the advantage of using Starsan.? (Honest question)

If were going to clean and then store for a while, wont the sanitising action of the starsan be lost as bugs floating around in our brew sheds climb in to party over the next week/month until we brew again? Also as its on the preboil side is sanitising necassary?

Ive always just cleaned my herms coil, lines, pump etc with PBW recirculated from the HLT while doing my boil. Then I rinse and let dry. On brew day I pump a litre of water through to flush the lines.
i only sanitise my plate chiller, fermenter and other post boil utensils.

 

[Yob]

drop an old oxidised bit of copper into starsan for half an hour and see what happens to it A similar effect Im sure you have noticed with a manifold after the mash sometimes?

I prefer to give all my copper a bit of a soak (I do this while milling etc) so it comes up shiny before using it..

I thought you had a stainless HERMIT Truman?

 

[Truman42]

Yes i do have a stainless HERMIT.

Ok Im with you now, this is for copper coils. I did the same to clean my copper manifold when using my esky mashtun.

 

[tinnyhaha]

Vinegar works a treat. You'll need to wear sunnies





Cheers
Tinny

 

[searly333]

Hi Guys,

Was thinking about expanding my rig to a 2 or possibly 3V system based on the HERMS principle. I was considering using my plate chiller as the HX and using my existing RTD and PID controller setup in my mash tun to control the element in the HLT thereby varying the temperature in the HLT to control mash temp.

Any thoughts, ideas or problems that could be foreseen with a set up like this?

Cheers

Luke

 

[zanussi]

My HERMS flow can stall if some grain gets in the wrong place, it might be hard to stop the grains getting stuck in the HX plate and stopping the whole show.

Cheers Neil

 

[squirt in the turns]

Hi Guys,

Was thinking about expanding my rig to a 2 or possibly 3V system based on the HERMS principle. I was considering using my plate chiller as the HX and using my existing RTD and PID controller setup in my mash tun to control the element in the HLT thereby varying the temperature in the HLT to control mash temp.

Any thoughts, ideas or problems that could be foreseen with a set up like this?

Cheers

Luke

As zanussi says, your plate chiller could clog very easily. If you go with this idea, you'd want to manually recirculate before you add the plate chiller to the loop in order to set the grain bed.

Also, you'd need to run 2 pumps, one to pump wort through the plate chiller, and one to pump hot water through it. I would think that using the PID to control the element in the HLT would result in too much lag. A better bet might be to have the HLT set higher than the desired mash temp and use the PID to turn the water pump on and off.

Unless, of course, your idea is to submerge the plate chiller in the HLT, but I really don't think that would work - the heat exchange would be nowhere near as efficient as when used as intended.

 

[searly333]

Thanks for the posts guys.

WIth that in mind I might ditch the plate chiller as HX and pick up an immersion coil. The one on Gryphon looks pretty good. Has anyone come across any other good ones, either DIY or retail?

Cheers

 

[hsb]

Here's a US one. More of a HLT size though and much more exy than the hermit.
www.stainlessbrewing.com/Coiled-to-customers-request-035-304304L-Coiled-Tubing_p_30.html

 

[Camo6]

Hi all,

I'm planning my herms build and would like some advice on plumbing schematics. Wanted to keep it simple with minimal hose swapping as I'd like to hard plumb some of it once I get used to the system. I currently biab so this is all new to me. I figure with this setup I only need to swap hoses at the HEX inlet.
Can anyone see any major flaws in this setup?
Can I underlet to the kettle via bottom tap or should I add an inlet higher?
Appreciate any advice.
Thanks,
Cam.

 

[Camo1234]

Hi all,

I'm planning my herms build and would like some advice on plumbing schematics. Wanted to keep it simple with minimal hose swapping as I'd like to hard plumb some of it once I get used to the system. I currently biab so this is all new to me. I figure with this setup I only need to swap hoses at the HEX inlet.
Can anyone see any major flaws in this setup?
Can I underlet to the kettle via bottom tap or should I add an inlet higher?
Appreciate any advice.
Thanks,
Cam.

HERMS REDUCED.JPG

Hi Camo, I am in the middle of building my own Hex system and am in the middle of sorting out the hosework this week.... I have two x pumps and also two x 3 way ball valves that will mean I won't have to swap any hoses during my brew session, rather I will just switch the ball valve when say I want pump two to switch between sending wort to the HX or sending it to the boiler.... the other ball valve will allow me to send my water from my HLT through my HX and into the MT and will also double as a fly sparge route when the other pump is diverted to the boiler.

Pretty shitty drawing below but I am putting it all together this week and will post pictures and any comments from my brew day on sunday.... Going to punch out 70 ltrs of LCPA!

 

[Camo6]

Thanks Camo, that setup looks pretty handy. How pricey were the 3 ways (ss?). Now you've given me more reason to spend cash! Good luck with the brew day.

 

[Camo1234]

$50 each from Gryphon Brewing... This whole setup just seems to be more cash each day I look at it but I am just about finished so should be close to the end of the spending!.... For now anyway!

 

[hsb]

It can be handy to recirc from HLT to pump back to HLT to get your strike temp and get the HEX in sync before you dough in.
I just rest the HEX to MLT hose over the edge of the HLT but worth considering if you're hard plumbing that bit.

Looks good, two pumps is handy.

 

[Fat Bastard]

I'd like to carry this discussion on from Truman's "Brew day fail" thread in the All Grain forum.

I've just completed the 3rd brew on my 3V HERMS system, and noticed that there was a disturbance in the grain bed within seconds of switching the pump off to switch the hoses around for fly sparging, which is pump to kettle, gravity fed sparge. This seemed to allow a small amount of grain matter through to the kettle, which is probably not problematic, but I'd rather that it didn't go there. The disturbance seemed to be very fine air bubbles rising with some grains coming to the wort surface.

I've seen this before when I was Recirulating BIAB brewing, right on mash out, but didn't notice it in the last 2 brews I did with the HERMS. The last 2 were quite high gravity beers with L:G ratios below 3. This one was around 3.4:1, which is the best I could get given that my HLT will only hold 18 litres. The second change was that this was the first brew I have done using my mill, which was set to 1.6mm gap. I got incredibly good efficiency (discounting loss to trub etc) of 91%.

I can probably afford to increase the mill gap slightly, but do you think that this will alleviate the problem, or is it more of a function of the L:G ratio?

 

[hsb]

Bit of trapped wind? Maybe more related to your plumbing than crush?
Just a thought, haven't experienced the same issue.

 

[Fat Bastard]

Was thinking that, it used to happen with the recirculating BIAB system right at mash out too. A stir halfway through used to help, but the L:G was less than ideal with BIAB. Maybe it's air trapped 'twixt grain and husk causing the issue?

 

[mikec]

What kind of efficiency are you guys getting with HERMS?
I was getting 80-ish% with BIAB but now more like 67% with HERMS.
Talking efficiency into the fermenter, after losing only 1-2L to kettle dead space.

I did a dunkelweissen on the weekend and had a good flow rate, didn't appear to be much in the way of channeling (although I did give it a stir at beginning of mash-out, let it settle, then switched the pump back on).
I was quite chuffed as i seemed to have sorted my flow issues, but efficiency was unchanged.

 

[Yob]

How are you running off? Batch or fly? My eff picked up when I got my flow rates better sorted with fly sparge..