How Many Temp Inputs EHERMS Brewers?

I'm in the process of designing my system and ordering parts and I'm curious how many temp inputs everyone is using.

I plan on one in HLT for determining strike and sparge temps, one in BK for PID control of boil, and one in my dedicated HEX coil for monitoring mash temps. The one at the HEX will actually be at the input of the sparge arm into the MLT.

Anyone have any suggestions for other places to monitor temps? I'm considering one in the MLT for backup of my HEX.

I only have one. I place the temp probe in the HLT and set a couple degrees higher to offset for temp loss. Then I have a thermometer in my MT.

Brewtroller 2.0 allows you to monitor temps in the mash at up to three locations and it averages the three for a more consistent mash temp. I suggest you do that since your using the Brewtroller for control.

pickles said:

Brewtroller 2.0 allows you to monitor temps in the mash at up to three locations and it averages the three for a more consistent mash temp. I suggest you do that since your using the Brewtroller for control.

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Thanks! I just ordered my BT gear last night

Where would you suggest the three inputs be monitored? I'm thinking at the sparge arm inlet, and one in the MLT around the same area as the ones that will go into my BK and HLT, where would you recommend the third probe be placed?

EuBrew said:

I'm in the process of designing my system and ordering parts and I'm curious how many temp inputs everyone is using.

I plan on one in HLT for determining strike and sparge temps, one in BK for PID control of boil, and one in my dedicated HEX coil for monitoring mash temps. The one at the HEX will actually be at the input of the sparge arm into the MLT.

Anyone have any suggestions for other places to monitor temps? I'm considering one in the MLT for backup of my HEX.

Click to expand...

I have:

1. One at the output of the HLT for holding the water temp.

2. One in the boil kettle for boiling for the PID, though it's not needed as water boils at 212 and you could use a 2 cent resistor instead. There's no need to 'control' a PID running in manual mode. I do find that displaying and controlling the temperature in the boil kettle has benefits: It helps me minimize the chance of 'boil-overs'. I run the boil kettle heating element in 'automatic' mode and set the temperature to just below boiling. I then also set an alarm to sound once that temperature reached. The wort is then automatically heated to just below the boiling point without actually going any higher, and an alarm is sounded. I then switch over to 'manual' mode and continue heating while watching and stirring to avoid the initial boil overs.

3. My third probe used to be at the HEX output but it was always the same temp as the HLT temp, so I moved it to the MLT output so that I could instead monitor ramp times. It's not really needed.

Kal

In my setup I have temp sensors in the following places: one in HLT (3.5" from bottom), one at RIMS outlet, two in MT (3.5" and 10" from bottom**), one in BK (8" from bottom), one in plate chiller outlet and plan to put one at the cooling water outlet.

**If you place one temp sensor too high it could possibly be out of the mash and affect temperature control.

I suppose you could put one in the sparge outlet. The way my system is set up the sparge water always runs through the RIMS; it cleans out residual wort, step mashes and monitors sparge temps. You didn't exactly describe your setup in the OP and I know that your using a Brewtroller from other conversations. So your not just using the BK temp sensor for PID control (which is technically the Brewtroller operating in PID mode); it will be used to start the boil timer which in turn starts the hop addition timer/alerts, it will allow AutoBoil (a feature in BT 2.0) to throttle back the boil to prevent boil overs, and finally BrewTroller uses the BK temperature sensor as the "Chiller Wort In" value and its displayed in oth locations on the LCD and BTRemote. From what I understand BT 2.1-2.X will have Chilling logic which you may find useful in the future. You definitely need one in the BK.

Thanks pickles. Sorry I didn't specify my setup, brain is a little cloudy from painkillers because I had surgery a few days ago, damn getting old sucks! Hopefully the cloud will be lifting soon (i.e. body healing) since I've got lots and lots of parts on the way!

My planned setup is a EHERMS with a dedicated HEX for recirculation of mash. I'll still use a coil in the HLT that will be used as a chiller. Last 15 min of boil I'll pump through HLT coil to sanitize and start whirlpool. At "flame out" I'll fill the HLT with ice and H2O to start the chill.

So temp probes will be in the HLT, BK, MLT (2) and the output of the HEX, this is what I meant by the sparge inlet. I don't know that I need any more probes than that but the more I think about it I think I'll just order an extra 4" probe in case I want to add at some point. Thanks again for all the input!!

kal said:

I have:

1. One at the output of the HLT for holding the water temp.

2. One in the boil kettle for boiling for the PID, though it's not needed as water boils at 212 and you could use a 2 cent resistor instead. There's no need to 'control' a PID running in manual mode. I do find that displaying and controlling the temperature in the boil kettle has benefits: It helps me minimize the chance of 'boil-overs'. I run the boil kettle heating element in 'automatic' mode and set the temperature to just below boiling. I then also set an alarm to sound once that temperature reached. The wort is then automatically heated to just below the boiling point without actually going any higher, and an alarm is sounded. I then switch over to 'manual' mode and continue heating while watching and stirring to avoid the initial boil overs.

3. My third probe used to be at the HEX output but it was always the same temp as the HLT temp, so I moved it to the MLT output so that I could instead monitor ramp times. It's not really needed.

Kal

Click to expand...

Kal, I always thought having the probes at the output of the vessels would mean the input would be much much hotter. I want to put my mash probe in the outlet of the HEX for recirc. What made you change it to the MLT outlet?

My mash probe at the outlet of my HEX (recirc) was always the same temp as the HLT so it was a useless thing to measure. The two temps on my control panel always read the same.

I moved the mash probe to the output of my mash so that it shows me how fast the mash rises in temp (something useful).

Kal

I started with 3 probes, hex output, hlt bottom, and bk bottom. I realized shortly after that my mash was sitting about 3 degrees lower than my hex output and HLT.

Now I pull my bk temp probe and stick it straight in the recirculating mash during the mash. It is very important to have something in there, or in the mash output, for accuracy. I am using brewer's hardware 12" probes and the BCS-460.

If I were to revise or start again, I'd probably leave out the hex output probe and have 4 probes total, HLT, MT top, MT output, and BK.

Well while I'm not SET on my placement I went ahead and ordered probes from brewers hardware today. I'll be using brewtroller which supports tons of temp probes so I ordered 5 8" and 2 4" which I'm sure is overkill but I can either use em or sell em if I decide not to. I'm not 100% set again, but this is what I'm thinking.

1 8" in BK
1 8" in HLT
2 8" in MLT
1 4" at dedicated HEX output
not sure where the other 4" is going but I'm sure I'll use it somewhere