biertourist
Well-Known Member
I've been using my 3 tier system for a year now; I always knew that I wanted to upgrade eventually to HERMS so I have planned ahead slightly.
I'm looking for best (and worst) practices when designing/using a HERMS system; what have you learned from using your system that you would do differently or that you really like about it? What trade-offs should people be aware of and thinking about?
My system:
My plan is to take my current copper immersion cooler and install it into the HLT and use it as the HERMS coil.
Specific Items I'm Looking for Feedback On
Other considerations: On the boil side I really want to be able to chill rapidly outside of the kettle and return the cooled wort back to the kettle to drop the total volume below 140F as quickly as possible. I'm afraid that my kettle will pass too much crud (trub and hop) to continuously chill through my plate chiller so I'm considering pickup up a CFC anyway. I'm also afraid that a plate chiller would reduce flow way too much to be able to whirlpool and chill with a single pump. -I think a good CFC and whirlpool setup would enable me to whirlpool and continuously chill in the kettle and leave the break behind but I'm imagining that a good trub filter would help this whole workflow out...
-I've also evaluated putting the HERMS coil in a separate smaller insulated vessel that has it's own electric element and I see some of the significant advantages but I'm simply not interested in this option.
Help! There's SOOO many moving parts and trade-offs to consider. Unfortunately I'm thinking that the best solution for my system is probably going to be the uber expensive one. (CFC + trub filter + extra PID controller and use CFC both for HERMS heat exchange and chilling.)
Adam
I'm looking for best (and worst) practices when designing/using a HERMS system; what have you learned from using your system that you would do differently or that you really like about it? What trade-offs should people be aware of and thinking about?
My system:
- 20 Gallon electric HLT (giant kitchen pot style). The HLT has a sight glass, a dip tube, and a second ballvalve with a whirlpool fitting so that I can recirculate the water to keep the temp even and to heat slightly faster. I also put this recirculation fitting in knowing that it would aid heat transfer if I put my HERMS coil into the HLT. This vessel is currently uninsulated and my auber PID maintains temperature for me. My temp probe is installed into the bottom site glass fitting and is basically at the bottom of the vessel. (This certainly impacted it's accuracy fairly dramatically until I started whirlpooling while heating the HLT.)
- 13 gallon double-walled, insulated stainless mashtun. Mashtun has a perforated false bottom with a high % open area; the width to height of the mash is 1:1 on a normal gravity 10 gallon batch and 2:1 on a normal gravity 5 gallon batch. The mashtun works GREAT for constantly recirculated mashing and holds a consistent temperature but it is NOT possible to apply any direct heat. My mashtun currently only has an analog temp gauge; it doesn't have a temp probe.
- 15 Gallon Glaciertanks electric boil kettle. Boil kettle has a stainless mesh filter and a dip tube; the mesh filter keeps out almost all hop material and at least 50% of the trub but the dip tube has a small diameter and limits flow out of the boil kettle a bit. I have a spare 1" triclamp fitting in the kettle but I don't currently have whirlpool capability as I just can't find a triclamp whirlpool fitting or solution.
My plan is to take my current copper immersion cooler and install it into the HLT and use it as the HERMS coil.
Specific Items I'm Looking for Feedback On
- Location for HERMS temp probes (mash exit, mash return, middle of mash????)
- Is a second PID controller a must for a HERMS system? (one for HLT, one for HERMS/Mash?)
- Increasing rate-of-temperature-rise during step mashing with HERMS. -The whole point of having a HERMS system for me is to enable step mashing; I already have a VERY well insulated mashtun so holding temps and avoiding heat loss is not an issue for my system. I want a fast rate-of-temp-rise so that I'm not leaving enzymes activate for longer than I want them activate and to make my brew day shorter. (No, I'm not interested in RIMS; YES I know about some of the new design and equipment improvements in RIMS systems; I'm sticking with HERMS.)
- Placement of HERMS coil within the HLT -should I recoil my immersion chiller so that it is almost as wide as the HLT and is therefore fully under the water line with a smaller quantity of water in the HLT?
- HLT liquid filling strategy. I normally brew 6.25 gallon batches so that I end up with only 5 gallons of very clear and trub and yeast-free beer in my keg; I have a 20 gallon HLT and can certainly overfill it so that the HERMS coils always remain covered with hot water and ready-to-step mash. This seems like it would be a good idea but I just don't have any experience with HERMS yet so I'm not sure. -I also definitely still want the ability to brew 10 gallon batches and would like to understand what that would look like on such a system; I think it means refilling and reheating the HLT after mashing in.
- Immersion coil in HLT vs. Counterflow chiller (or even plate chiller) as heat exchanger. This one I'm really interested in but I haven't really been able to fully wrap my head around the pros and cons here. It definitely seems like the rate of temp rise could be much higher and I wouldn't have to heat so much extra water in the HLT with a counter flow exchanger vs. an immersion coil in the HLT. It certainly seems like a good CFC could be dual use for both the HERMS heat exchanger and chilling post-boil. (As long as the sanitization issues are addressed.)
Other considerations: On the boil side I really want to be able to chill rapidly outside of the kettle and return the cooled wort back to the kettle to drop the total volume below 140F as quickly as possible. I'm afraid that my kettle will pass too much crud (trub and hop) to continuously chill through my plate chiller so I'm considering pickup up a CFC anyway. I'm also afraid that a plate chiller would reduce flow way too much to be able to whirlpool and chill with a single pump. -I think a good CFC and whirlpool setup would enable me to whirlpool and continuously chill in the kettle and leave the break behind but I'm imagining that a good trub filter would help this whole workflow out...
-I've also evaluated putting the HERMS coil in a separate smaller insulated vessel that has it's own electric element and I see some of the significant advantages but I'm simply not interested in this option.
Help! There's SOOO many moving parts and trade-offs to consider. Unfortunately I'm thinking that the best solution for my system is probably going to be the uber expensive one. (CFC + trub filter + extra PID controller and use CFC both for HERMS heat exchange and chilling.)
Adam