Kingys herms Build Thread

[Kingy]

Cement board, never heard of it, I'll look into it,thanks.

 

[Dan Pratt]

I think I have a peice of cement board at home that I will try and find.

its a 400mm x 400mm from memory that is about 1/2 inch thick

 

[Dan Pratt]

I found that cement board. It's 430 x 650 x 10

I work in newcastle so pm me for details etc etc.

 

[Kingy]

so ive been using cement board and it keeps cracking think im just gunna have to go stainless bench route.

On the herms side ive been a little slack lately as ive spending a lot of time in the garden and building an over engineered chicken coop.

im about to buy a 100litre stainless boiler. My current 80litre pot will retire to a mash tun. And ill use my 50 litre as hlt.
My thinking is to fill the mash tun with water (allowing enough room for all the grains and a bit of head room and run it throught the herms to heat up to needed temp and add the grains. Then when mash time is up run it into the kettle and use the remaining water required from the hlt to the mash tun and recirculate agin to mash out temps then drain.
or do 2 equal measures of water but same routine as above.
any ideas and or opinions on this?

 

[spog]

Kingy reading through this thread the cement board being refered to and the type you need is called " thick sheet" it's a cement cellulose composition sheet usually used under wet areas over wooden floor frames. As well as external cladding.
You might be lucky and score a piece from a building site.
It has good thermal properties as it is usually around 16 mm thick,( flooring )mind you a full sheet is very pricey,it would work well on a wooden topped bench,especially if chocked up to allow air flow underneath.
Metal of ant type will absorb heat and lead to serious scorching even fire.
A perfect material is a piece of Hebel panel,this is an aerated concrete building panel,ring a few builders to find out if they can help
I have a Hebel panel shroud around my pot belly stove in the shed and when the fire is roaring the reverse side is a cool as a cucumber.
Cheers....spog...

Hebel is 75 mm thick.

 

[Kingy]

Thanks spog. Ill try hunt some of that down sounds like the right stuff i should be using.

 

[Kingy]

It also seems that 12inch false bottums are ok for 100litre pots. Cant wait to stop messing around with a bag. Was good for aingle batches but my 80 litre with double biab brews is gettin a pita. Edpecially when thw wort climbs the bag and dribbles down the sides.

 

[Kingy]

So finally got my coil made up 6metres total. It sits 260mm high. (40mm above the top of the element) the current height of the extinguisher is 400 so im gunna cut that down to 300mm high or a tad higher. so its basically 6mts copper in 6litres of water. I think 50-80mm water clearance of the element would be ok? Cant imagine to much evaporation happening in there.
Is this the right way to set a pump up. If so ill probz get a t piece to come off the inlet with a ball valve so i csn drain it from there.

 

[searly333]

Hey Kingy,

Build's looking good mate, coming together nicely.

I'm doing some mods to my system at the moment and was just wondering where you got your element housings from?

Cheers,

Luke

 

[Kingy]

Hey mate i got them from here http://5stardistilling.com.au he has some beautiful gear.

 

[fraser_john]

So finally got my coil made up 6metres total. It sits 260mm high. (40mm above the top of the element) the current height of the extinguisher is 400 so im gunna cut that down to 300mm high or a tad higher. so its basically 6mts copper in 6litres of water. I think 50-80mm water clearance of the element would be ok? Cant imagine to much evaporation happening in there.
Is this the right way to set a pump up. If so ill probz get a t piece to come off the inlet with a ball valve so i csn drain it from there.

There was a thread discussing this recently and a bloke from March Pumps(on another forum) indicated one of the best ways is to orient it vertically per his pictures in the post.

 

[Kingy]

So ive nearly got my herms ready just waiting on a few fittings.
For the time being i want to use it for double batch biab untill i get my 3rd vessel (100litre bk)
my mash in water volume is around 65litres and I'm not sure if the herms will ramp that much efficently.
So i was thinking of mashing in with lower volume say 45 litres. And have the other 20 in my hlt at 90degrees and add that to help ramp to mash out through a t piece at tge inlet of the pump at the same time as recirculating.
am i on the right track?

 

[Kingy]

Another question that could change my last thoughts.
if i had 65 litres in one pot with a 2400 watt element installed and another pot with 65 litres but running through a herms with 2400watts.
Which pot would heat quicker?

 

[TheWiggman]

If they were both identical, the non-HERMS. There will be additional heat losses through the HERMS cylinder and associated pipework. Wouldn't be by much mind you.

 

[Camo6]

Another question that could change my last thoughts.
if i had 65 litres in one pot with a 2400 watt element installed and another pot with 65 litres but running through a herms with 2400watts.
Which pot would heat quicker?

Another factor to consider is whether the pot with element is being stirred/agitated and the placement of the element. Otherwise I would have thought you'd have thermal stratification which would reduce thermal efficiency. Above the element will get hotter than below.

 

[Kingy]

Got my fittings today and got my herms up and running. Managed to get the inlet at the bottum. Great difficulty but it worked out in the end after some swear words. Glad i went that way for drainage reasons abd cleaning etc.
My soft solder skills impressed myself but had a small leak from a compression fitting but fixed her after tightening her right up.
Just need to wire the element up and shes ready to roll.

 

[Kingy]

Got the element wired up, filled her up with 60 litres to see how well she works. things are coming together, slowly but as long as there is progress thats the main thing .

 

[Kingy]

Got the element wired up, filled her up with 60 litres to see how well she works. things are coming together, slowly but as long as there is progress thats the main thing .
Defo got the ghetto look i was after lol.

 

[spog]

Got the element wired up, filled her up with 60 litres to see how well she works. things are coming together, slowly but as long as there is progress thats the main thing .
Defo got the ghetto look i was after lol.

There was a thread discussing this recently and a bloke from March Pumps(on another forum) indicated one of the best ways is to orient it vertically per his pictures in the post.

A bit late,buy found this yesterday
.

 

[Kingy]

Hey spog ive been looking at pump head orientation lately as i do get an airlock in the head at startup. So its something im going to have to sort out.

On another note, got meself a 100litre kettle.
Im Currently mashing (double batch) in my 80litre pot with my bag and running through the herms. Jeez its great watching it do its thing. On off on off lol. Looking forward to draining the pot and into the kettle. No bag lifting required for me today. Woohoo. Things are coming along.
Need some more fittings and another pump and false bottum then i can get a triple batch out of her.