Hey everyone, I am starting my herms build tonight and I figured I'd do a thread documenting my efforts. The rig is based almost entirely off of The Pol's original 10 gallon herms build with a few modification/upgrades to suit my needs. There won't be much (if any) new build material here as I have based the entire build off material on this forum, but I will be glad to answer any questions about the build if anyone asks. To view The Pol's threads where I got most of these ideas use the links below:
New 10 Gallon Herms! Pics!
BLING BLING Electric HERMS Conversion
Alright so picture time:
This is all of the materials I have so far. I have not received a few packages yet. I'll also have a 10g orange rubbermaid water cooler that I'll use as the mash tun, a stirring assembly from McMaster Carr, a SS false bottom and immersion chiller (for the herms coil), and a LG pump.
The heating element I am using is 5500W, I know most will consider this overkill but my thought process was that I'll be doing 10gallon batches and the faster I can get the water/wort up to mash and mashout temps the better. Also since I won't be using an insulated HLT like in The Pol's build I'll have to make up for the heat loss. So I just went with the largest heating element I could find.
The reason I have 4 three peice ball valves and a two peice is because I wanted all three peice valves because they are able to be broken down to clean if needed, but I was nervous about the weight of a ball valve + tri-clamp on the sidewall of the rubbermaid cooler, so I decided on the two peice since its lighter.
More to come later.
UPDATE 8/3/2010: Got my rubbermaid cooler and Mcmaster Carr shipment today:
Managed to drill a few more hole in the keg and install the weldless fittings on the cooler and kettle. Going pretty slow at this point. Hopefully it picks up soon.
More tomorrow!
New 10 Gallon Herms! Pics!
BLING BLING Electric HERMS Conversion
Alright so picture time:
This is all of the materials I have so far. I have not received a few packages yet. I'll also have a 10g orange rubbermaid water cooler that I'll use as the mash tun, a stirring assembly from McMaster Carr, a SS false bottom and immersion chiller (for the herms coil), and a LG pump.
The heating element I am using is 5500W, I know most will consider this overkill but my thought process was that I'll be doing 10gallon batches and the faster I can get the water/wort up to mash and mashout temps the better. Also since I won't be using an insulated HLT like in The Pol's build I'll have to make up for the heat loss. So I just went with the largest heating element I could find.
The reason I have 4 three peice ball valves and a two peice is because I wanted all three peice valves because they are able to be broken down to clean if needed, but I was nervous about the weight of a ball valve + tri-clamp on the sidewall of the rubbermaid cooler, so I decided on the two peice since its lighter.
More to come later.
UPDATE 8/3/2010: Got my rubbermaid cooler and Mcmaster Carr shipment today:
Managed to drill a few more hole in the keg and install the weldless fittings on the cooler and kettle. Going pretty slow at this point. Hopefully it picks up soon.
More tomorrow!