Upgrading my AG Rig

[jonnir]

Hey fellas,

So i've now sold my 50L keggles and going to 80L pots! Exciting times!!

Plan is to have

80L HLT powered 2200watt element
Herms with 3000 watts
40L Techni Ice Mash Tun, 100L Techni Ice Mash tun
80L Boil Kettle with 4400 watts

First question I have on this new build. Pros and cons for a single pump or double pump system?
Second question is, stainless or copper Herms coil?

I'm sure to have more to come!

Cheers fellas!

 

[Adr_0]

Is there a particular reason you are going HERMS over RIMS?

 

[jonnir]

I think it's because the only thing I've got to add for herms is the coil? Rims I'd need a smaller housing? Suitable element?

 

[Adr_0]

Do you have a photo or link to your HERMS exchanger? Where are you getting the 3000W and temp control from?

 

[jonnir]

3kw element in a 4" copper housing

 

[jonnir]

Temp control from a 15a stc

 

[Adr_0]

What sort of liquid are you planning on putting in the housing, to conduct with the element? Have you thought about air pockets, or the fluid boiling?

Where are you putting your STC probe, and have you thought about overshoot?

 

[jonnir]

Water in the housing, temp probes will be on output side of herms coil as is standard no?

 

[Adr_0]

Water in the housing, temp probes will be on output side of herms coil as is standard no?

Sounds good. Sorry, some HERMS I have seen the coils in the HLT and the temp in the HLT as well; some I have seen like your setup with temp in the HERMS housing instead.

Are you planning on regularly cleaning the housing as well? If not then stainless is probably the best bet. If you are going to clean regularly then the extra conductivity of copper will help out a bit.

On the layout, what is your strike volume likely to be? 2200W seems like it would take a while to get up to temp... say 60 odd minutes to heat 40L of strike water (25 to 70°C).

But if you used that 2200W on the kettle instead it would take that sort of time (50min?) to get from mash out temp to boiling, and then you'd only boil off 3.5kg/hr (5% per hour) which isn't really enough. You could 'boost' the ramp from mash out to boiling with the HERMS and take it down to 15-20min.

Anyway, you can probably see where I'm going with this... is 2200W going to be enough for your HLT? You can always put a controller on that one too and just start it up as early as possible to keep it to whatever your strike water temp is, as long as you're happy with that sort of ramp time. It might be just as painful for sparing, but I guess again you potentially have time to let it get up to sparge temp if you start early enough.

 

[jonnir]

Plan was to recirculate strike water through herms coil aswell so it's heating with 5200 watts?

Hoping that's possible lol

 

[Adr_0]

Definitely, and many ways to skin that cat: either have a common suction header with different valves (one for HLT, one for MT) and the same on the discharge side, or multiples pumps. If you need the HLT, MT and kettle feeding into the pump, that's fine too... just make sure you avoid high points and keep some sections going down to the header sloped. Silicone tubing to pumps is not good IMO as you get air pockets that need to be bled out (normally through the pump - not good) but if you (hard) plumb everything properly beforehand you don't need to ever disconnect things or bleed air through pumps. Have a look at my 2V RIMS build if you want to see an example of suction header with multiple valves coming into it.

You would still probably benefit from another STC on your HLT just so that you can set and forget.

And you probably still need to think about water in your HERMS housing, as there are probably a few scenarios where (with a 3kW element in maybe 0.5-1.5L of water) you will boil the water and over-pressurise your housing. So have a place for the water to go... a vent/fill line to atmosphere that you top up occasionally?

 

[Camo6]

Hey jonnir, I'm running a 50l keggle mt and a 70l kettle at the moment and find the MT almost too small for decent strength beers. I'd be looking into another bigger pot to allow you to punch out big beers comfortably. An insulated MT isn't critical with HERMS as your constantly recircing and adjusting temps anyway. Something to consider anyhow.
Two pumps is awesome as you can whirlpool the hlt to prevent temp stratification while your recircing the mash. Makes fly sparging easy too. It also means you have a backup if one fails.
I'd go a stainless coil as it is easier to clean (and stays shinier!).
You won't be disappointed with a herms setup. Easy to maintain and no chance of a scorched element. An stc will work well for controlling temps.
Agree with Adro that a 2200W element is a bit underpowered. I use one for 50 litres and while it takes a while I also heat with the hex and by the time the mash is done the hlt is at mashout temps.

Good luck with the build!

 

[bjbear77]

Agree with Camo, I'm currently running a 50L MT with 80L Kettle and HLT, but I will be upgrading to 80L MT as 50L is not sufficient for bigger beers.