blackwaterbrewer

Recipes 

nice set-up. seems overwhelming to me. i just moved to all grain. you have alot of tubes and pumps and electrical stuff. does it make it that much easier and does it make your beer taste better? thanks for posting that. i know that took some effort!

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Primary- stout
Lagering-
Primary-OKTOBERFEST
secondary-
secondary-
on tap-
on tap-
on tap-
bottle-sweet mead
bottle-bleuberry mead

The Pol

Recipes 

The nice thing about this system is that no matter what stage you are at... all you have to do is swap ONE hose to go from striking, to mashing, to sparging... it is really a simple machine.

All of the electrical stuff is simply because it is a HERMS, and you have to control the temps precisely to reap the benefit of a HERMS.

It really does make brewing pretty easy... I never miss a strike temp, mashout temp or anything of that sort. It does the temp monitoring and tweaking, so I can spend the day with my daughter, or posting brewing pics and vids for yall.

Is the beer better, not really, is it more consistent? Most definately... If I use the same recipe, I can repeat it over and over with little or no variaion since I am assured that my temps and times will be the same each time. My mash temp on this day varied from 154.8 - 155.1F

By the time I sparge, the wort is as clear as BMC... recirculation really does wonders for wort clarity and mash uniformity (temps).

I started brewing almost 4 years ago, I started with all grain... this has been an ongoing evolution into all electric brewing. I wanted to go all electric so that I could safely brew indoors in the cold months, also, so that I did not have to rely on propane to heat my water, or boil. Also, the resulting education that I have recieved just by engineering the Brew Beast v2.0 will be invaluable.

I like my toys... thus, the Brew Beast v2.0

slnies

Recipes 

Hey Pol, your eff. will get even better the next time around. I have a RIMS set up and my first brew was in the mid 80's for eff. percentage. The second time around went even smoother and the process was more refined. My eff. went up to 90+ percent. I am fairly certain that you will have the same experience. Enjoy your new system. It is a thing of beauty, now, can you brew with it? LOL. Enjoy. S.

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Nies

Primary: American Wheat
Secondary: Phils Pils Clone

The Pol

Recipes 

Well I have already done about 8 batches on my HERMS... the only change this time was the E-Keggle. Each of the previous brews was 70%... this one I did a 2qt/lb mash and I blew past 80%.

I cannot imagine it going up again, unless I change my process again.

slnies

Recipes 

HMM... That is interesting. I guess that surprises me a little. O' well, best of luck anyway. You will never go back, now that you have the control.

I have a question though. How fast does your temperature ramp with your HERMS set up? Just curious. S

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Nies

Primary: American Wheat
Secondary: Phils Pils Clone

The Pol

Recipes 

Depends on what you mean by ramp?

Ramping the HLT and MLT at the SAME time?

OR

Ramping the MLT up when the HLT is already heated (as in a step mash)

My mashout generally runs for 20 minutes (heating the HLT and MLT concurrently)

Step mashing occurs much quicker as the HLT is already at the STEP temp, all I have to do is bring up the MLT temp. The time is a function of the volume in the MLT... how many pounds of grain? how thick or thin is the mash?

planenut

Recipes 

Great thread!

Thanks for sharing.

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slnies

Recipes 

I guess I was looking for an average, I realize that the thermal mass in the MLT changes from batch to batch. To be more specific though, how fast does your set up ramp when the HLT is at step temp. for step mashing?
S.

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Nies

Primary: American Wheat
Secondary: Phils Pils Clone

The Pol

Recipes 

Never done it... but I will be doing it on my Hugh Heffe later this spring...

I mean all the fastest that I can, without overheating my mash water in the return line, is already having the HLT up to temp, which I can easily do. Then it will be a matter of how quickly I can exchage the heat. The limiting factor will not be the heating element, but how quickly I can exchange heat in the coil and MLT. Keeping the MLT volume to a minimum (thicker mash) will be key.

It will be an experiment that is for sure.

Granted, I almost never do step mashes... I think I have done two in 4 years of AG brewing.

slnies

Recipes 

I hear ya. I used to do a lot of step mashes, I have since stopped. I infusion mash, with a mash out, unless I am doing a wheat beer, or I'm testing new equipment. I have experienced no difference in taste between the two, so far. We will see when I get some of the results back from competition. The feed back is always good. It lets you know you are going in the right direction. S.

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Nies

Primary: American Wheat
Secondary: Phils Pils Clone