L_bomb's Herms Build

[beerbrewer76543]

Good day Squires,

I thought I would share some photos and details of the HERMS system I am currently building

This system is a result of wanting to brew all grain beers but introduce a high level of control and automate part of the process as well. I have been acquiring the parts slowly for the last 12 months or so and am finally getting around to putting it all together

Unlike a few brewers here, my build has very little bling bling as it is my first AG rig and want it to be more flexible than fashionable until I get the process sorted. Then I'm sure the bug will bite hard and my wallet will be lightened considerably!

Anyway, here is a pic of the rig to date. The frame is slotted angle which I scored for free and has proved invaluable in making changes to the deisgn quick and easy (with the use of a cordless drill and 12mm socket). From left to right we have the HLT, MLT and Kettle at 50L, 50L and 80L respectively. The HLT already has a 2kW element and mechanical thermostat installed. Below is the heat exchanger and March pump. If you look close you can see the 5 ball valves dummy fitted in position. Hopefully mopunting them inline will make it easy to operate and avoid brewday mishaps.



Below is the heat exchanger. It consists of a 7.6L stockpot, two 3m lengths of coiled annealed 1/2 inch copper tube and a $9 kettle element that is yet to be fitted


This last photo is of the base plate and hopper I quickly knocked up over the weekend for my new Crank and Stein mill (which I used my the partial I brewed on Sunday). It takes a fair bit of torque to turn when full but the drill is handling the job for now


Items to be procured:
1x Auberins PID with ramp/soak feature
1x PT100 temp probe
1x thermowell
1x assorted plumbing
2x false floors

Hopefully I can get this up and running in time to brew up an AG Altbier in time for Oktoberfest!

Feedback welcome! Cheers :beer:

 

[cdbrown]

Looks good mate. If you are getting th PT100 from auberins they have 1/4" NP thread on them so no need for thermowell (if that's what you are getting it for).

You could fit more pipe in that pot if you tried for the double coil like I've done. I have no idea if it is worth the effort though

 

[beerbrewer76543]

Looks good mate. If you are getting th PT100 from auberins they have 1/4" NP thread on them so no need for thermowell (if that's what you are getting it for).

You could fit more pipe in that pot if you tried for the double coil like I've done. I have no idea if it is worth the effort though

Thanks for the info on the thermo well, one less thing to buy off evilbay

I saw your double coil setup but I thought I'd give the single coil a go seeing I only had 6m of tube. From what I've read it seems the limiting factor in ramping the temperature is the flow rate through the heat exchanger which is somewhat limited if you want to avoid a compacted grain bed... Oh and I also wanted to have the whole system drain out via a valve just after the pump at the low point of the system, the double coil would have some dead space that would not gravity drain. Testing the system will show if my setup is suitable or not!

Cheers :beer:

 

[beerbrewer76543]

Hey all,

I haven't made any progress since the last post due to mototrials taking up my weekends

I did pick up 6x 3m coils of copper tube to make a whirlpool chiller after reading about Jamil's: http://www.mrmalty.com/chiller.php

I plan to use a hot water pump to pump water from a rain water tank through the chiller and back to the tank. I will be plumbing it up to run as two 9m chillers as I think the cooling water will probably reach wort temp after 9m of tubing so having one 18m long coil will provide no benefit over one 9m coil.

I'll start work on the rig in earnest in September once I get this crazy month of August over with

Cheers :beer:

 

[cdbrown]

Hey mate - doesn't the green shed have any of the 6m coils? I noticed the other day they charge more for 3m than they do for 6m.

Doing bits and pieces in the evenings is the only way I've made progress on the build, weekends always get chewed up with something.

 

[benno1973]

I did pick up 6x 3m coils of copper tube to make a whirlpool chiller after reading about Jamil's: http://www.mrmalty.com/chiller.php

I plan to use a hot water pump to pump water from a rain water tank through the chiller and back to the tank. I will be plumbing it up to run as two 9m chillers as I think the cooling water will probably reach wort temp after 9m of tubing so having one 18m long coil will provide no benefit over one 9m coil.

Jamil's whirpool chiller is just a regular old immersion chiller, but the pump is set up to pump the wort out from the spigot and back up inside the coils of the immersion chiller, essentially whirlpooling the wort while the immersion chiller does its job. I assume that you know this, but reading the above post it seemed a bit unclear whether you were making Jamils whirlpool chiller or a standard immersion chiller that just utilised the rainwater tank. Either is good.

 

[mxd]

A bit of OT sorry.

What I like about http://www.mrmalty.com/chiller.php, it appears he is runninig a bucket of ice and water (lets assume 3 ltrs water and 10ltrs of ice) to chill his final wort. The greeny in me was waiting untill I got a rainwater tank till I chilled, the wort, but this maybe worth a shot. Has any one done this with just a bucket of ice water.

 

[beerbrewer76543]

Yeah I'm going to set mine up to pump the wort from the bottom pickup of the kettle to a side feed in the kettle to assist with whirlpooling. Then the immersion chiller will remove the heat from the whirlpooling wort with the aid of the secondary pump and rain water tank

I was originally going to no chill but saw 3m coils of copper tube for $7.50 per length at the big green shed so I couldn't resist. I didn't see any 6m coils at the Cannington store...

Plus the ice water would be good for getting temps down for pitching... Although, do I really need 3 heat exchangers?

 

[benno1973]

Cool, didn't realise that there were two pumps involved. That works fine.

Also, Bunnings in Morley had 18m copper coils for $30 a while back. Not sure if they still have any left though.

 

[beerbrewer76543]

Cool, didn't realise that there were two pumps involved. That works fine.

Also, Bunnings in Morley had 18m copper coils for $30 a while back. Not sure if they still have any left though.

Damn that is a good price!

 

[beerbrewer76543]

An update on the brewery...

I had a rethink about the whole setup and I have decided to go BIAB so I can brew in my small unit

Time is a scarce commodity for me at the moment so I have designed a new rig pretty similar to the braumeister kit

An Auberins PID with ramp/soak will control the mash temps for me while im at work and get the whole lot up to mash out for my arrival home. A march pump will keep the wort circulating the whole time

A 2kW element under the false bottom will provide heating power with a future extention to RIMS possible for quicker ramping of temps

The build is mostly complete, I just need to make a lid, finish the wiring and build an overhead crane for lifting the bag out of the tun

Here is a schematic... Pics to follow

Cheers

 

[lespaul]

Cool, didn't realise that there were two pumps involved. That works fine.

Also, Bunnings in Morley had 18m copper coils for $30 a while back. Not sure if they still have any left though.

went in the other day...18m for $99

 

[raven19]

Moving back to the bag! For shame! :lol:

I would be careful in protecting the sight tube from bumps, but I am sure you have a suitable mounting system planned for the sightglass.

 

[beerbrewer76543]

The sight tube is mounted in place with compression fittings at each end, with the top entering into a 90 degree elbow passing into the tank

It is fairly secure...

Hopefully the polycarbonate will stand up to the boiling wort pumping through it...

I'm not too sure of what settings to run on the Auberins unit. Here is what I've come up with... Can anyone scrutinise for me?
Cheer

 

[Acasta]

2kW for 75L? Will that work?

 

[beerbrewer76543]

I'm planning on doing 52L batches so that works out to be around 57L pre-boil

At best that will take about 63 minutes to ramp up to mash in at 55*C (53L) and 48 minutes to ramp from 76 to 100*C (57L)... Assuming I do a 10L sparge

Adding a second 2kW element in a RIMS style chamber will halve those times... Anyone want to build me a RIMS heater?

 

[Acasta]

haha, fair enough. Im looking into electrical atm. Not too sure what i'll end up doing.

Whats your false bottom made from?

 

[beerbrewer76543]

I bought a falsie from TWOC brewing in Bibra Lake and extended it by cutting a ring out of the keg lid and pop riveting the falsie to that

A mate of mine then spent half an hour drilling a crap load of holes in the keg-lid-ring to make it a super size falsie

It came out a nice domed shape that clears the element in the bottom of the kettle

 

[paulwin]

photos please