HERMS question

I've been thinking of adding HERMS to my process. I currently brew in a 10 gallon kettle and use two 10 gallon Rubbermaid coolers for my HLT and MLT...and use a March pump to transfer my liquids/wort.

I think I could add a thermometer to my MLT and recirculate my wort from the MLT to the pump. Then pump to my boil kettle that is has water at my desired temperature through a SS immersion coil with the output back to the MLT.

I think this would work OK and I'd only need the use of my one pump. I like the idea of recirculating through SS rather than copper. There is no copper on my current sytem except my Therminator.

Any input would be appreciated

bump

I would really appreciate some input from HERMS brewers if you get the chance to respond or offer any tips.

That would work. My first HERMS was two 10 gallon coolers, with a copper coil (an old immersion wort chiller) for the HEX. I still only have one pump, so it's a two tiered system. The HLT and MLT are on one level, with gravity draining to the BK.

Thanks Yooper !

If I move forward with this change, am I on the right initial path to manually be able to control my mash temp by recirculating thru my imersion chiller that's sitting in my BK and be able step mash by heating the BK water temp?

Also, when I'm done with he mash, I'd remove the IC from the BK and pump the existing water to my HLT to use for batch sparging....

Any extra info on PID's or other gizmos to move towards a more automated system would be awesome.

You Rock !

Please disregard my previous question about step mashing with a HERMS systems...it's not really a method I'd want to use for that purpose after all.

I'm very interested in the major benefits of HERMS brewing

wort clarity.....temperature control.....and repeatability

I'm gonna go for it to see how beneficial it can be for my future brews

Thanks again!

In order to step mash with the HERMS, you need to have a big enough element to do it. My old system could not- even to bring the wort to mash out temps took way too long. But, with the proper sized element, yes, step mashing is ok. I use it all the time to mash out. Going for 153 to 168 takes like 10 minutes or less with my 5500 w element.

As far as pros, greater wort clarity is one, and so is holding temperatures well. The thing is, my cooler already holds temps fine so I find that the HERMS really doesn't "do" anything special for me. If I was using kettles for mashing, I think this would be a huge plus.

The main thing I love about the HERMS is being able to reach mash out temps, to do the "set it and forget" for temperature control, and I love, love, love, my all-electric brewery.

Sometimes, though, I just skip the HERMS and do a single infusion (no HERMS) with a batch sparge. HERMS is great for my bigger batches or fly sparging, but for a plain old single infusion batch sparge, I really don't see much benefit. My wort is still clear, my beer is still clear, and I have fewer water chemistry issues with a batch sparge.

All things being equal, a HERMS is only as useful as you want it to be. It's cool, no doubt. But if you're not using it to ramp temps, it may have limited usefulness.

With my HERMS i dont like that if i really want to use the coil to heat my mash i gota bring 10 gallons of water to strike temp instead of just 5 for a 10 gallon batch. It adds a bit of extra time to my brew day. Like Yooper said its good for holding temps, but its cumbersome for step mashing. Im eventually going to build a RIMS tube.

I am also trying to work out a way of heating the mash without pumping it. My MT suffers greatly from grain compaction, solved by stirring but its labor intensive and annoying. But thats probably a topic for the DIY forums.