E-HERMS: Compensating for fluid volume in plumbing

SO the E HERMS build is finally complete. This weekend I'll be dialing in my Temp controllers, Graduating my sight guages, and doing a wet run through with plain water to see how everything flows.

I usually mash at 1.25lb/qt, but im thinking that may be too thick for the reason that the wort mus make it all the way through the system before returning tothe tun, my original plan was to mash in at the original thickness, then at sparge use the sparge water to flush the last of the wort through the HERMS into the MT.

should i try this on my first brewday and se how it comes out? im a stickler about wanting to hit all my numbers right and dialing in the system for maximum brewhouse efficiency.
As far as adding this (possible) extra water into beer smith, should i just up my MT deadspace or try increasing my overall boil volume??

.

How long are you hoses and coils? I think mine is around 1/2 to 1/4 gallon. What I do is fill mt htl and mlt with water. Turn on pumps and heater. So I use the herms to heat my strike water. If you do this, you will see how much deadspace you have. I use a calibrate diptube to see the diff. Also, I use 1.5 as a ration and keep things more fluid.

Id guess my plumbing holds about a half gallon. My herms is 1/2ID x 20 ft and about 6 feet total of silicone tube(1/2"). I was thinking that mashing a little thinner would help. I guess my real first concern is keeping enough water on the grain for the entire mash to acheice the best efficiency. I cant wait to get my equipment dialed in to beersmith to get a baseline efficiency number that i can live with.

I have an E-Herms and all I do is I have marks in my mash tun for water levels, I fill it up a bit over that, then turn the pump on and instead of having it recirc and flow back into my mash tun I have the last hose go into a pot. This cleans out my lines a bit, just in case, and it fills my hoses, so that when I hit the right level, I stop my pump, and I have the correct water amount, and my hoses are full. Then I just start it heating for mash in. Hope that helped... if it made any sense haha.

It does. I think until i master my setup im gonna thin the mash down to 1.5qt/lb. Which should fill my lines if im brewing a mid OG beer.

i use a twisted counterflow copper heat exchanger and I have mashed at 1.25qt/lb. In my case I fill up my mash tun and prime my pump and get it running then I top off at my desired volume. I'm sure I'm a bit thinner on my mash liquor. I find that raising the mash temp in total to a strikeout temp of 168 and then fly sparging for my desired pre boil volume has been stellar.

Good luck, Herms brewing rocks!

flananuts said:

i use a twisted counterflow copper heat exchanger and I have mashed at 1.25qt/lb. In my case I fill up my mash tun and prime my pump and get it running then I top off at my desired volume. I'm sure I'm a bit thinner on my mash liquor. I find that raising the mash temp in total to a strikeout temp of 168 and then fly sparging for my desired pre boil volume has been stellar.

Good luck, Herms brewing rocks!

Click to expand...

Threadjacking here, but do you use a chillzilla to herms? Do you cycle you hlt through the outer part and wort the inner? I have a chillzilla and never thought about using it that way.

Althoigh a counter flow herms sounds like a great and space saving idea i think youd need alot more insulation to keep all the lines/copper from sinking heat into the air. My systems simple 20ft 5/8 copper coil in my hlt. Its never seen water till tonight actually!

Yep, i use a chillzilla as a heat exchanger for heating and cooling exactly as you indicated. I just rigged up valves to switch between my HLT and my house water supply. I don't insulate the coil but my keggles are wrapped in water heater insulation and do work well. I'm very pleased with my eHERMS brewery and the consistency I get.

flananuts said:

Yep, i use a chillzilla as a heat exchanger for heating and cooling exactly as you indicated. I just rigged up valves to switch between my HLT and my house water supply. I don't insulate the coil but my keggles are wrapped in water heater insulation and do work well. I'm very pleased with my eHERMS brewery and the consistency I get.

Click to expand...

Thats a pretty cool setup! Ive gotta upgrade my home made CF chiller from 3/8 to 1/2 as soon as i can!

flananuts said:

Yep, i use a chillzilla as a heat exchanger for heating and cooling exactly as you indicated. I just rigged up valves to switch between my HLT and my house water supply. I don't insulate the coil but my keggles are wrapped in water heater insulation and do work well. I'm very pleased with my eHERMS brewery and the consistency I get.

Click to expand...

Many things for posting this picture!

There's not many of us using counterflow chillers for both HERMS and chilling and I'm AWFUL at figuring out plumbing. I just did my first test brew on the new setup and I was swapping a dizzying array of fittings (I'm also recirculation chilling through the CFC back into the boil kettle so insane complexity in the plumbing.).

-This image REALLY helped me figure this one aspect of the plumbing out at least. (Easy way to switch between HLT input and cold water input into the water layer of the CFC -except I think I'll go with a single 3 way valve on the chiller input rather 2, 2-way valves and a T fitting.


Adam