I'm Building A Herms Too!

[Doogiechap]

Sammus I'm a bit in the dark like Tony but FWIW I have a separate Herms Heat exchanger (20L 6m copper 1800 watt dishwasher element). I have a fair amount of tube between my vessels and pump and find that my Herms Vessel temp needs to be 2 higher than my MT (Cylindrical Rubbermaid) to maintain the Mash Temp. 1 per min is about what I get in ramping up.
Cheers
Doug

 

[Sammus]

OK first run with an actual mash and with the lid off the mash tun (so I can position my dodgy knocked up manifold properly) it holds 1C below the setpoint of controller.

And to everyone who mentions that silicone hose has good insulation, it actually sucks - I'm using it for my new return hose and its the hottest of the lot by a significant amount (easily distinguish by feel)

The other hose I use is woven reinforced drinking water hose (the clear stuff, not the blue stuff) - its thinner walled gets nowhere near as hot, but kinks more easily...

And also for those who say silicone hose is good because you can see the colour of whats running through it, well my old $2/m clear drinking water hose wins there as well. Dunno what its rated to but ive never noticed any off flavours or anything...

anyway, herms does its job so far... will have to report once I try and ramp to mash out (in 20mins)

I also plan to run the sparge water through there to clear out any wort (woot for zero loss) - itll hopefully also kinda 'regulate' my sparge water temp (not that it really matters). It'll be a first fly sparge for me too! hears to hopefully >70% efficiency!

S

PS for anyone whos interested in the recipe - I cant remember exactly , mhb threw it together for me when i asked about his lcpa clone. I think its 90% pale 5% cara 5% crystal. bittered to ~30IBU (got perle for this) and flavour addition at 10min with whatevers in the bag he gave me, then the same addition dry in secondary. US-05 yeast.

 

[Sammus]

heh... 22L @1.050 = 63% efficiency... I guess my fly sparge only lasted 10min :unsure: Think it should be a little closer to an hour yea? I guess that had something to do with it...

 

[AndrewQLD]

heh... 22L @1.050 = 63% efficiency... I guess my fly sparge only lasted 10min :unsure: Think it should be a little closer to an hour yea? I guess that had something to do with it...

Glad you worked out the temperature problems, sorry to hear about the poor eff. Fly sparge would need a good 60 minutes for best eff or you could batch sparge.

Cheers
Andrew

 

[Sammus]

Glad you worked out the temperature problems, sorry to hear about the poor eff. Fly sparge would need a good 60 minutes for best eff or you could batch sparge.

Cheers
Andrew

yeah I usually batch. Is it known if a batch sparge works better than a short fly sparge (10-20min)?

 

[AndrewQLD]

yeah I usually batch. Is it known if a batch sparge works better than a short fly sparge (10-20min)?

I think in a short fly sparge you would be really only extracting form the top layer of the mash and the bottom would still be pretty saturated ( in comparison to the top) in sugars. A 10-20 minute fly sparge is essentially the same as a batch sparge without the benefit of stirring the mash to distribute the sugars evenly through the sparge water.

Cheers
Andrew

 

[The King of Spain]

Hi, was in two minds about starting a new thread with this question, but I think the people best able to answer are already reading this so here goes.

Building a HERMS looks like a lot of fun and very tempting, but...

(1) If I were mashing in a 55L boiler, could I not just use my immersion cooler with hot water to raise mash temps, and

(2) Has anyone considered a mash boiler contained within a larger boiler where heat is applied to jacket of water surrounding the mash. Would certainly help keep temps within uniform as well.

Cheers
KOS

 

[Sammus]

Hi, was in two minds about starting a new thread with this question, but I think the people best able to answer are already reading this so here goes.

Building a HERMS looks like a lot of fun and very tempting, but...

(1) If I were mashing in a 55L boiler, could I not just use my immersion cooler with hot water to raise mash temps, and

(2) Has anyone considered a mash boiler contained within a larger boiler where heat is applied to jacket of water surrounding the mash. Would certainly help keep temps within uniform as well.

Cheers
KOS

1) Yes you could - but you would get uneven mash heating without constant stirring - whereas with the constant recirculation keeps the mash liquor in motion and helps to eliminate hot and cold spots (I imagine there would still be a slight temperature gradient down through the mash though). Also with the recirculation you set the grainbed well and get super clear run off when it comes time to sparge.

2) I think pro breweries do this except with steam, not sure of the details sounds interesting though it would certainly keep a nice even temp. Though if you wanted to step you would need a mash stirring system too.

NB this is just one mans reckoning, and im no expert - just thought id point it out incase someone shoots down my theory in flames