HERMS brew today, pics to come

Brewing Morebeers "Fire In The Hole" ale today... I will post pics and notes here. I did not have any DME to make a starter, and I have to brew today, so I am simply rehydrating and pitching (2) packets of S-04....

Mashing in now... here are some prelim. pics...

Post more pix on the herms. Looks good!!!!!!

I heated 9.5 gallons of water to 180F in my HLT, transferred 4.7 gallons of that to my MLT and mashed in. While I was mashing in and getting the doughballs broken up, I heated the remaining 4.8 gallons in my HLT to 187F, then added the remaining 1.5 gallons for sparge at a temp of 70F which equalized my HLT at 159F, the target temp to start the HERMS recirc. 159F in the HLT will give me 155F in the MLT for the 60 minue mash. Now I sit and watch.

I created a special spreadsheet that will calculate how much water I need to preheat in my HLT and how much I need to add to my HLT and at what temp to get my 180F strike water down to my desired HERMS recirc temp in the HLT.

Here is a vid...

Very nice.... Shouldn't the temp probe be in the mash? That way the mash temp is controlled. I'm just asking questions not questioning your set up.

The problem is with temp stratification and locating the probe in the mash. Lets say the mash gets cool, so the then the pump starts pumping and the heating element heating... by the time the mash gets to the correct temp lets say near the MLT outlet, the top of the mash is too hot, because it takes time for that hot wort to trickle down through the grainbed. I have found that a differential of 4F will give me the desired temp in the mash. If I am mashing at 155F as I am today, I set the HERMS coil to 159F and run the pump during the entire mash to keep the entire mash at the same temp. Otherwise I would be heating the mash when PART of it got cool, and dumping heated wort on top, making the top of the mash say 159F while the temp probe sat at 155F. In terms of this particular system, locating the temp probe in the HLT allows me to monitor my strike water temp and allows me to heat my mash much more consistently than placing a probe in the MLT.

Keep in mind that I have a through the wall temp probe in the MLT, that is how I was able to accurately derive the differential temp between the HLT and the MLT. This also allows me to monitor mash temp for various purposes.

Speaking of which, the temp probe in the mash is telling me that I have reached my mashout temp... time to sparge!

Somebody needs to get called out more often.

First hop addition is in... transferred my Xmas Ale to the secondary today while this thing was mashing... I am also painting the interior of my house I have so much time on my hands!

Here is the beginning of the 30 min. sparge process

Collected 7 gallons at 1.060 pre-boil....

The Pol said:

Collected 7 gallons at 1.060 pre-boil....

Click to expand...

Nice... 77% efficiency. And I bet you could read a book through the wort even before boiling.

Oh yeah, the wort is CRYSTAL clear... I love HERMS

how much did that pump cost you and did you get it online or what? I am interested in a set up like this, most likely out of my budget though... I need to get a immersion chiller first but I need to get a pump.

The whole rig cost me about $900... the pump I bought for like $125 on sale online somewhere about 18 months ago.

Brew is chilled and in the freezer!!

Here is my Chrismas Ale that I transferred to the secondary....



Here are the hops and oak chips for the Fire In The Hole Ale....

Brew is churning and bubling away, got a nice big whiff of CO2 when I stuck my head in the freezer (idiot). Cant wait to have all of my kegs full!

24 hours into the ferment last night, I decided to take a look and see how the brew was coming. It had nearly had a blow off, should have had a tube. The airlock was completely plugged up and hissing, so I grabbed the stopper firmly an pulled. It shot right out of the carboy, next time I need to have a blow off on this brew.

Do you just re-use the water jugs? Or are you using store bought water? Just curious.....

I have to buy water...

Municipal water here is VERY hard, so I have a softener... I cant use either! So, I buy it all... about 11 gallons per brew