Small Urn At Woolies For Herms

[Mister Wilson]

I think I have a problem!

Walking through Woolies yesterday and noticed an 8.8L urn for $40. Need to go back without SWMBO and review the specs but would this be a good start for a herms pot?

Any help appreciated as I have no idea on the ideal specs despite trawling through the loads of herms stuff on the net.

Cheers

Mr W

 

[adryargument]

Would like to know this to, was about to go purchase me a pot.

 

[Crusty]

I think I have a problem!

Walking through Woolies yesterday and noticed an 8.8L urn for $40. Need to go back without SWMBO and review the specs but would this be a good start for a herms pot?

Any help appreciated as I have no idea on the ideal specs despite trawling through the loads of herms stuff on the net.

Cheers

Mr W

I got a 7.6lt stainless stockpot that I was going to use for a herms. I will say this though, it's an absolute pain in the arse trying to coil enough copper coil in there, it's far too tight. I am looking at a bigger pot, 20lt now. More space, easier to work with & you can cram shitloads more coil in there. As far as slower ramping times, not an issue really. I know another member on here ramps at 1.6deg min in a 20lt with 11m copper coil in there. That's good enough for me.

 

[BeerSwiller]

I'm actually currently building an all electric HERMS brewery and since reading this post, what is a good urn/vessel to use that obviously gives reasonable ramp times?
Have seen the birko urns but they are a little pricey

 

[Jeff Margrie]

I got a 7.6lt stainless stockpot that I was going to use for a herms. I will say this though, it's an absolute pain in the arse trying to coil enough copper coil in there, it's far too tight. I am looking at a bigger pot, 20lt now. More space, easier to work with & you can cram shitloads more coil in there. As far as slower ramping times, not an issue really. I know another member on here ramps at 1.6deg min in a 20lt with 11m copper coil in there. That's good enough for me.

I have a urn that holds 20 litres to the brim for sale here if any one interested.

Cheers WoolBrew :icon_cheers:

 

[Bizier]

I think I have a problem!

Walking through Woolies yesterday and noticed an 8.8L urn for $40. Need to go back without SWMBO and review the specs but would this be a good start for a herms pot?

Any help appreciated as I have no idea on the ideal specs despite trawling through the loads of herms stuff on the net.

Cheers

Mr W

I (and at least one other here) use the 7.6L Kmart pot with a double coil of 1/2" cooper. It gives a good rise time, though I've not measured it. The urn sounds like a decent and safe off the shelf option for a herms vessel. Do you know what the rating of the element is?

 

[peaky]

I've managed to coil 6 metres of 1/2 inch copper into a 6 litre pot. It hasn't been used yet but should get good ramp times with this?

 

[Mister Wilson]

So this bad boy has a 950W element to heat the 8.8l urn.

So would this be big enough? Is seems like a few others with larger pots/urns have elements only marginally bigger.

Cheers

Mr W

 

[dent]

Not to take a stab at the OP, but it set me off.

I'm of the opinion that people at AHB are going way over the top with the coils used in herms heat exchangers. I see people trying to wind 9 metres of copper tubing in some 10 or 20 litre container for some reason. You're chasing diminishing returns since the heat transfer is proportional to the temperature difference between the water in the heat exchanger and your wort flowing through the tube. And the large heat exchanger vessel reduces the responsiveness of the system and is wasteful and inconvenient.

Simplify - you just need enough copper to wind five or fix turns inside an ordinary 1.7 litre $16 2200W kettle. This is only a couple of metres if that. If the kettle runs a bit warmer than the wort temp, all is well. Unless you're boiling over, which you won't unless your pump is not flowing, you're good to go. I've been meaning to give it a go sometime with only 3 or 4 turns, but six fills up the kettle nicely.

 

[shmick]

So this bad boy has a 950W element to heat the 8.8l urn.

So would this be big enough? Is seems like a few others with larger pots/urns have elements only marginally bigger.

Cheers

Mr W

950W would be a bit on the tentative side.

Might be ok for maintaining mash temp but will be struggling for step temps.

1850W in my system will get 1 deg/min ramp (when needed)