l3asturd

Recipes 

OK, this may be lame, but I made this animation attempting to understand where I would need 2-way and 3-way valves, or just check valves. It ended up not really solving that, but since I spent a few hours I thought the least I could do is post it up.

Please critique or comment.

cmj141

Recipes 

Looks line your HLT HEX Lines are wrong.

I think you want to run one line from bottom fitting of MT to the bottom HEX fitting and you then want a line from the top HEX fitting to the top MLT fitting.

Edit : the low fitting on your mt will have a T there one line running to the HEX coil and one to the top fitting in your boiler.

So basically it's thus - main water line runs and splits Into two lines with a T . One running to your water filter and the other to your chiller. From the water filter you run a line to your top Fitting on your HLT (not hex coil top fitting) since your mash and wart water come from here. Then run a line from your lower fitting on your HLT (not hex coil bottom fitting) to the top fitting on the MT where there will be a T. Then a line from low Fitting on MT , where there will also be a T..., to the low fitting on The HEX. Next a line from the top fitting on the HEX back to the vacant opening on the T going to the top fitting of the MT. There's your HERM process. Next you run a line from the vacant opening in the T of the low fitting of the mash tun to the top fitting of your boiler ( not the chiller) to pour in the wort. And then another Line from the Bk low fitting to a hop strainer if you use one before sending it to your fermenter.

What I'm going to do is put a T on my boiler low fitting one line runs to the fermenter and the other runs to my HEX low fitting where there will be a T and have a T on the top fitting of my hex running a line back to the tip fitting if my boiler. So when u go to chill my wort. The main line will run thru the chiller cooling the wort as that same Wort gets recirculated thru my HEX which will be full of ice water, back to the top of my BK.

T - three way

I think with my way you won't really need two way valves except for the water line to the chiller.

l3asturd

Recipes 

I wasn't sure about what direction to send the wort through the herms coil. I'm doing water tests today to measure volume differences, if any. I'll also do a temp control test to see how the direction of HERMS flow effects temperatures.

I thought about using one coil for heating and chilling, but I already had two SS coils, so there we have it.

I have the T you are referring to at the top of the left pump. One side goes to HEX and the other goes to BK. I'm trying to follow your process but without me drawing it out I'm struggling. I'll try to do that later. But basically, you're saying something isn't right. Thanks for the input.

l3asturd

Recipes 

Another factor for the layout I chose was the pumps (Green Circles). One pump only has water running through it, instead of both wort and water. Just means a little less pump cleaning for me. The entire clean process will be using all three vessels recirculating hot PBW anyway, then bottom draining and rinsing.

cmj141

Recipes 

The first thing I noticed unless I looked at it wrong was that you didn't have a line from your mt to your heat exchange and then back into your mt for when you recirc. Your mash.

I read it's easier to control the flow if you run the mash up in the exchange not down. It's easier to control against gravity than to go with gravity. Which then requires a vacuum.

l3asturd

Recipes 

MT bottom drain down to left pump inlet then up right to top of HEX. Bottom of HEX back to Autosparge input on MT. I will probably end up going up through HEX instead of down. Thanks for advice.

cmj141

Recipes 

Here's what I drew up for my system. I figured it's the easiest way to run the pipes. Just a lot of valves. I need to simplify it somehow even more tho if possible. I like how I have control over the directions by closing one valve and opening another.

I apologize for the amateur drawing. My ASUS Slate decided to not want to turn on four days ago thus no access to my art studio program.

The mt is sitting on the one line so just pretend that it's drawn a bit s lower on the paper.








Edit
Also with this setup one pump will only have water in it whereas the other will be wort and beer.

l3asturd

Recipes 

You don't happen to have a larger version do you? I'd like to check it out but it's so small my eyes hurt.

cmj141

Recipes 

I'll try. I hope the mods dont get pissed if it takes me a couple tries lol. Using a iPhone to photo edit...