I've been using my HERMs system for a few years now, and have been fairly happy with it, but the way I have it set up has all ways bugged me.
I have two temp controllers, one that controls the heating element in the heat exchanger, and the other controller runs the pump depending on the mash temp. So normally, heat up the heat exchanger to 165ºF and then I add my grist water to hit a strike temp of 130ºF.Then I set the pump to run till I get to my mash temp around 152-158ºF. It takes about 15min to get up to temp, then the pump switches off. I let it stand till an Iodine test is no longer positive for starch, then i turn up the Heat exchanger to 175 and the pump up to 170 for a mash out.
This has worked well for most beers, but I would really like to do continuous recirculation, especially on higher gravity beers, but keeping the temperature from over shooting is difficult using just the controller on the heat exchanger to manage the mash temp.
Lately I've been thinking that if I just run the pump continuously and used the mash temp controller to manage the heat exchanger heating element, I could achieve this.
Does this make sense? any experience mashing like this?
I have two temp controllers, one that controls the heating element in the heat exchanger, and the other controller runs the pump depending on the mash temp. So normally, heat up the heat exchanger to 165ºF and then I add my grist water to hit a strike temp of 130ºF.Then I set the pump to run till I get to my mash temp around 152-158ºF. It takes about 15min to get up to temp, then the pump switches off. I let it stand till an Iodine test is no longer positive for starch, then i turn up the Heat exchanger to 175 and the pump up to 170 for a mash out.
This has worked well for most beers, but I would really like to do continuous recirculation, especially on higher gravity beers, but keeping the temperature from over shooting is difficult using just the controller on the heat exchanger to manage the mash temp.
Lately I've been thinking that if I just run the pump continuously and used the mash temp controller to manage the heat exchanger heating element, I could achieve this.
Does this make sense? any experience mashing like this?