Help Needed In Herms Setup

[Andyd]

Hi guys,

I've put together a new HERMS system and gave it a first run on the weekend that went well, except that I suspect that the ramp up of temp may be running too slow.

What temperature do other HERMS users set their HE water to to step up their temperature? I had mine at 72* to get from 48* to 69*, and that took an hour to get there. Is that unusual?

I'm also worried about using too high a temp in case I denature the enzymes in the wort as it passes through the HE coil.

My HE is a 20L urn (wrapped in foam), with 5m of 1/2" copper coil running through it.

Thanks for the help...

Andy

 

[Linz]

From memory the ramp should be around the degree per minute...

Where abouts have got the temp control probe mounted??

Ive got mine in the outlet of the coil in the Heat exchanger

I also dough in around the 45oC mark and set the controller for mash temp...(Pseudo step mash??)

 

[Sammus]

Yes, that is a very long time. This guy (HERMIT Brewery) reckons that for a HERMS heat exchange you should have a high wattage to water ratio in the HE. He uses 2000W or so in a 5qt (~4.7L) tub with 29' (~8.8m) of 3/8" copper tubing. He also mentions that agitating the water in the HE will greatly improve results.

I'm in the middle of building one and have a 2200W kettle element in a 5L pail with about 5m of 1/2" copper pipe. Don't know its performance yet thought I expect it'll be alright.

with only 5m of tubing in a 20L urn, from what I've read, I imagine it will be pretty difficult to get good temp ramping speed - considering how much more power is needed to heat the water enough, so that it transfers enough heat into the wort running through a short length of copper pipe.

Are you throttling your pump output? Try pumping the wort a bit slower so it has more time to absorb the heat of the water around the coils


Do you use any kind of temp controller? or just heat up the urn and run your pump till the temp looks right? A temp controller (PID preferable) would be an asset here too.

 

[browndog]

I don't want to hijack your thread here Andy, but I have a question about HERMS setups and that is how do you guys go running your pumps for the 60-90mins of the mash? I'm refering to strain on the pump caused by big mashes that don't drain so well or stuck sparges, compacted grain beds etc etc. Seems to me that you would need a very free flowing bed to be able pump your wort though.


cheers

Browndog

 

[ant]

I'm putting my faith in 10 minutes of mash stirring up front, a full surface area false bottom and rice hulls. I hope that's enough, cos I'm out of ideas after all that lot...

 

[AndrewQLD]

I don't want to hijack your thread here Andy, but I have a question about HERMS setups and that is how do you guys go running your pumps for the 60-90mins of the mash? I'm refering to strain on the pump caused by big mashes that don't drain so well or stuck sparges, compacted grain beds etc etc. Seems to me that you would need a very free flowing bed to be able pump your wort though.
cheers

Browndog

Hi Browndog,
If you keep your circulation down to about 2-3 lt per minute you should not experience any of the problems you mentioned above. I've done 3 brews so far and have not had a compacted grain bed (yet) and at that slow a flow rate regulated on the outlet side of the pump there is really no strain on it.

Cheers
Andrew

 

[AndrewQLD]

Hi guys,

I've put together a new HERMS system and gave it a first run on the weekend that went well, except that I suspect that the ramp up of temp may be running too slow.

What temperature do other HERMS users set their HE water to to step up their temperature? I had mine at 72* to get from 48* to 69*, and that took an hour to get there. Is that unusual?

I'm also worried about using too high a temp in case I denature the enzymes in the wort as it passes through the HE coil.

My HE is a 20L urn (wrapped in foam), with 5m of 1/2" copper coil running through it.

Thanks for the help...

Andy

I agree with Sammus, with that volume of water to heat in your HE the ramp times are going to be very slow, that's one of the reasons I opt'd for a small seperate HE vessel and since I have insulated it my ramp times are now fairly close to the 1 a minute.

Cheers
Andrew

 

[Andyd]

Sorry guys - work has kept me away from the site for a few days...

WRT continuous recirculation... I've had no problem running my march pump continuously for 5 or 6 hours. They're designed for commercial application, with duty cycles far in excess of anything we could throw at them in a home setting.

I've had a look at the website that Sammus pointed out. Lots of good information there. I ran a second trial and found that it does respond pretty much as suggested, so I'm going to try a smaller vessel sometime soon (the next batch will be using the slow ramp).

With regard to compacted grain beds... I had no trouble running a wheat beer with 60% wheat last week, without using any rice hulls (mind you, I did do a 30 minute acid rest to try to break up the B-glucanase and thus help stop it coagulating).

Regards,

Andy