Hello fellow brewers! As we speak, I am both brewing and brrrrrp drinking some homebrew. I have a relatively new HERMS system that I have 5-6 brews on now. Up until now, I had a thermometer inline between my heat exchanger and my mash tun to double check my RTD, so I calibrated my RTD to read the same temp as the thermometer and mashed trusting that reading.
Now, I took the thermometer and moved it into the mash, and OMG I am 3 degrees lower!!!! Yes yes, I checked all around the mash, its consistent.
The RTD is located between the HE and the Mash Tun, I have a "T" that has the RTD, then the in of the wort for the HE / out of the wort toward the mash tun. I have never taken into account heat loss between, the exchanger, mash tun, etc. Nor have I thought of the amount of lag between the temp of the incoming wort vs the temp of the mash.
So I have some questions:
1. Should a HERMS user use a "lag time" factor of say, 10 minutes between start of mash and temperature stabilization to make sure that the temp of the wort can fully stabilize the mash at that temp?
2. What do the rest of the HERMS users do to make sure that the mash temp is consistent with the temp of the wort exiting the HE? Do you up the temp out of the HE and periodically check the mash?
3. Would it be better to check the temp of the wort exiting the mash tun and heading towards the HE vs checking the temp out of the HE heading towards the mash tun?
Now, I took the thermometer and moved it into the mash, and OMG I am 3 degrees lower!!!! Yes yes, I checked all around the mash, its consistent.
The RTD is located between the HE and the Mash Tun, I have a "T" that has the RTD, then the in of the wort for the HE / out of the wort toward the mash tun. I have never taken into account heat loss between, the exchanger, mash tun, etc. Nor have I thought of the amount of lag between the temp of the incoming wort vs the temp of the mash.
So I have some questions:
1. Should a HERMS user use a "lag time" factor of say, 10 minutes between start of mash and temperature stabilization to make sure that the temp of the wort can fully stabilize the mash at that temp?
2. What do the rest of the HERMS users do to make sure that the mash temp is consistent with the temp of the wort exiting the HE? Do you up the temp out of the HE and periodically check the mash?
3. Would it be better to check the temp of the wort exiting the mash tun and heading towards the HE vs checking the temp out of the HE heading towards the mash tun?
