Using A Herms

[Dazzling]

Finally constructed my HERMS having used a bucket to bucket fly sparge for the last 12 months and just wanting to confirm that my understanding of the process is correct, that is that I would follow the same as normal batch sparging procedures except for the obvious recirculation thru the heat exchanger. So i would in brief and not too much detail.....

1. Add 2-3L/kg to the mash tun (44L esky)
2. Mash for 60min with heat exchanger recirculations where necessary
3. Add remaining water from HLT to meet required pre-boil volume
4. Mix up and recirculate until running clear (Is it better to do this in 2 batches?)
5. Pump into kettle

Any feedback would be awesome

Cheerio

Dazzling

 

[Ash in Perth]

i have never used a herms setup but im almost finished building one.

ill have it recirculating constantly during the mash to make sure there is clear wort flowing constantly. this means when its finished mashing i can mix the sparge water with the top hal of the grain bed and do a single large batch(ish) sparge with clear runnings while still avoiding tannins.

 

[Justin]

Yep, that's pretty much it Dazzling. The fact you have a herms coil makes no difference from a sparging point of view.

Most people do two batch sparges and get pretty good efficiency. I've never done a single batch sparge myself before but suspect you will get pretty poor efficiency. Last time we had a combined brew day my mate did a no sparge method (ie. added the entire sparge amount to the Mash tun for one single drain like Ash is proposing but with a thorough stirring through) and got a whopping 50% efficiency.

You'll make beer no doubt, it just might cost you a bit more in grain. Or you may see better efficiency, but in my head it doesn't sound like the idea will give you great efficiency.

Cheers, Justin

 

[Asher]

I agree with Justin

Back to the basics...
If you rinse a bottle twice with 1/2 the water you'll get less of the original than if you had just filled it up and rinsed with the whole lot.... Surely this is true for batch sparging too. Rather than diluting the high OG wort from the first running with extra water and leaving this behind in the grain at the end wouldn't it be better for efficiency sake to drain off the high OG stuff and rinse the grains with a second batch of HL?

(Personal preference mode on): Batch spargind and HERMS don't really make sense to me. Why set up a recirculating system then go and destroy it with a batch sparge? You will already have a sparge arm setup for recirculating.... Why not just tap off the wort and add HL to the system till you have the required boil volume? unless your doing a low gravity beer forget about tannin extraction.

Asher - at the junctyard

 

[Dazzling]

Great stuff guys, you make a good point asher, might tinker with the setup to see if I can gravity feed from the mash tun to the kettle to avoid buying a second pump.

Cheers

Dazzling :beer: