TRI-clamp herms coil?

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Olive Drab

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Does anyone have an example of tri-clover/clamp fittings instead of compression fittings for their herms coil in the HLT?
 
I didn't build mine, but I hope this helps.

hot liquer tank.jpg
 
Yes, I'm really quite happy. I'm going from 5 gallon batches on my stove to this, and it is a substantial investment. I finally pulled the trigger with Stout about a month ago and I have no regrets. I haven't brewed on it yet, but all the welds and the build quality look excellent. There is one thing I would change on th HLT if I had the chance, and that is the entrance for the heating element. It's fine on the boil kettle because the bottom is not flat so there is an added ring that raises everything up (see the 3rd pic above). The HLT doesnt have this, so the entrance is low and I'll have to raise the kettle so the heater encloser doesn't hit the counter. It's not a huge problem since I'm using a formica counter and need to raise it anyway because of heat, but there isn't a great way to enclose the heating element if the kettle is resting flat on a counter. It's just to low.
 
Thanks for all the info! How long did you have to wait to get all the kettles? Did shipping cost an arm and a leg?
 
Shipping was 305 from Washington state to Boston for all 4 tanks (fermenter not in picture) via a freight Co. Everything was in stock at the time of purchase, so it only took a little over a week to get.
 
What are you using for your element enclosure? Your set up is nearly spot on to what I have been researching, minus the fermenter. I have been leaning towards using the element adapter from Brewers Hardware (LINK) and using a pass through vs. Stout fitting, which I assume does not come with a similar cap with built in grounding screw. Of course, the BH adapter is now on back order.

Also, does the HLT have a recirculation fitting to prevent stratification? It wasn't shown on the web site, but it looked like it was present on your tank from the photo.

It looks great, and I hope you don't mind some more questions that will certainly arise!
 
What are you using for your element enclosure? Your set up is nearly spot on to what I have been researching, minus the fermenter. I have been leaning towards using the element adapter from Brewers Hardware (LINK) and using a pass through vs. Stout fitting, which I assume does not come with a similar cap with built in grounding screw. Of course, the BH adapter is now on back order.

Also, does the HLT have a recirculation fitting to prevent stratification? It wasn't shown on the web site, but it looked like it was present on your tank from the photo.

It looks great, and I hope you don't mind some more questions that will certainly arise!

No problem. Thats why we're here. Below are the links to the encloser and watertight conduit I used. I just pulled the 10/2 wire through it. The conduit has wire in it in the picture, but that is not the case. I purchased a circle cutter from sears (20$) to cut the hole, but you will need a drill press to use it. Otherwise a greenlee punch will do the trick. The electrical box has a grounding lug inside, so you can just use that to ground the kettle.

That element adapter looks like the bomb though. If I had known I probably would have gone that route.


My HLT has the "Herms" option which is used to recirculate the mash liquid from the mash tun. The mash tun has no direct heat. It should keep stratification to a minimum and because your recirculating during the mash, theres no need to vorlauf before sparging.

You can get it or a "rims" module if you prefer.


http://www.homedepot.com/Electrical...splay?catalogId=10053&langId=-1&storeId=10051

http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs...talogId=10053&productId=100163598&R=100163598


http://www.homedepot.com/Electrical...splay?catalogId=10053&langId=-1&storeId=10051
 
Wrox,

Nice work on the enclosure. Know thy self: I am going with the adapter! This is a blog from Norway showing it in greater detail (LINK).

I will likely go the HERMS route as well. Sorry for the confusion, my question on the recirculation pertained to the HLT, not the MLT. As you are recirculating your mash through the HERM coil, the concern (from what I have been reading) for stratification is in the HLT itself. By recirculating your future sparge water, you keep the temperature more uniform across the coil.

This is all from reading, not experience, so anyone who can chime in if this is a real world issue for 5 to 10 gallon batches on a HERMS, I would love to hear it. Most of the builds I have seen recirculate the HLT water.
 
That adapter is cool. Nice find. I will probably replace my franken boxes down the line with those. Anyway, I'm totally new to all this high tech gadgetry, so I don't have an answer for you on whether it's a real problem to consider. You could do it with this HLT with 2 pumps. One recirculating the mash through the herms coil and one recirculating the water through the outlet and inlet. There are four triclamp fittings on the thing besides the site glass. When I get it up and running I'll see how it goes and compare just mash recirculating and both.
 
Thanks again.
Former New Englander...... Damn those Red Sox! Ugg. what a pissa of a season!

Yeah, not a good season. I work in the area, and the funny thing is all the resteraunts and bars are having a banner year! It seems everyone is hanging eating and drinking and arriving late and leaving the games early. But here come the Pats!:mug:
 
I miss living up there! But when I was up there the sox were the good ole sox, fold after the All-Star game and never won it all. The Pats were the same. Figure I leave the area and look what happens!

Brew on.....
 
That is some most beautimus gear. Clean shiny stainless all gleamed and blinged for a batch of happiness. Good luck with it when you finish it all up.
Bob
 
The cheap way to do a TC fitting on a herms coil is to buy a coil from your vendor of choice, then drill out two TC caps to match the OD of the tube, and either silver solder or silver braze them in place.
 
I used camlocks on my last system to install the HERMS coil, thinking that I would want to remove it for cleaning. However, since the pot is only used to heat water, there is really no need to ever clean the outside. If you can get the tri-clamp stuff cheap and can weld stainless, go for it, but I would not consider a QD connection necessary for this application
 
I used camlocks on my last system to install the HERMS coil, thinking that I would want to remove it for cleaning. However, since the pot is only used to heat water, there is really no need to ever clean the outside. If you can get the tri-clamp stuff cheap and can weld stainless, go for it, but I would not consider a QD connection necessary for this application

I would tend to agree with this. I have been contemplating possibly pulling it to use as an immersion chiller in the boil kettle also, but I'm not sure if that will be neccasary in my process. The disconnects make it possible to do. I'm thinking I could immersion chill while starting to wirlpool through my plate chiller. I'm just not sure if its needed to cool the wort that quick, but I'm concerned about wirpooling hot and oxigenation.
 
Wrox,

How high is the tangential inlet on your Boil Kettle? Have you measured the liquid level that covers it on the inside? They don't really say what the dead space in cone the From Stout's site and the photos, it looks pretty low. It doesn't appear hot side aeration would be an issue so long as the inlet is below the liquid.

It is a great point about what to do if you want to whirlpool at a lower temperature. Dropping in an immersion chiller is probably not ideal, especially with the planned set up. Instead, what about recirculating though the HERMS coils in the HLT? I know some like to chill to 140-150 or so then whirlpool. This might be an option.
 
Yes, I could do that. It is probably a better solution since I would actually have to finagle the herms coil around the heating element on the HLT to get it out. Just turn the HLT into a CLT and maybe throw a bag of ice in to boot. It would probably get down to 140. Like I said earlier, I'm going from BIAB on the stove to this, so there is going to be a learning curve and some experimentation to do. The tangental inlet is about 1/4 of the way up the boil kettle. I'm assuming it would be submerged half way in a 10 gallon batch and 2/3rds in a 15 gallon batch.
 
I didn't build mine, but I hope this helps.

Sorry to resurrect an older thread. I'm considering having one made with Tri-Clamps to hook into my keggle. I'm considering going with a 25' coil, but I'm wondering if that will be long enough for heat transfer. So, a few questions:

1. How well does this keep you wort at the proper temperature?
2. When you want to increase the temperature (say from 152 mash to 168 mash out), how long does it typically take?
2. How long is the coil?

Thanks.
 
I've got a 25' SS that I use for my HERMS. I measure the mash temperature at the outlet of my tun as it feeds into the recirculating pump, so it's slower to respond, but very stable. I'm doing this with a 10 gallon tun and the coil in my 10-gal HLT. It can take 10-15 minutes to ramp to mash out, so I would definitely suggest a bigger coil if your system is larger.
 
Good to know. I use a keggle for my HLT and a Rubbermaid cooler for my MLT. I want to use the coil as a HERMS coil now with the option of using it as an immersion chiller in the future. With typical 5 gallon batches would 25' be adequate or would you still recommend something larger (say 50')?
 
For a 5 gallon, it would be fine. I usually shoot for about 8 gallons pre-boil, so my mash-in water is usually just shy of 4 gallons.

One tip: assuming you fly-sparge, send your water into the MLT through the HERMS coil. That way you don't lose any high-gravity runnings.
 
One tip: assuming you fly-sparge, send your water into the MLT through the HERMS coil. That way you don't lose any high-gravity runnings.

Explain what you mean by this. I've not used a HERMS system yet, so I'm having trouble understanding your meaning. I do fly sparge, so you know.
 
hafmpty said:
Explain what you mean by this. I've not used a HERMS system yet, so I'm having trouble understanding your meaning. I do fly sparge, so you know.

Well, you'll be going from the outlet of your MLT to a pump, then through the coil and back into the top of the MLT. That's the flow during mashing. When it's time to mash out and start sparging, your lines will be full of high gravity wort.

With the various lengths of hose I have, the discharge from the coil is fairly short - not enough to go across the bench to the BK. The hose from the wort pump to the coil is long enough to go to the BK. The sparge water chases the wort from the coil.

If my hoses were long enough, that would be a non issue. But, even then, I'd lose whatever was in those longer lines and the coil. Low gravity at the end of the sparge, but it would still be probably in excess of a quart, versus maybe 8oz of line loss the way I do it.

If you want, I can draw a pic to clarify my plumbing.
 
Sorry to resurrect an older thread. I'm considering having one made with Tri-Clamps to hook into my keggle. I'm considering going with a 25' coil, but I'm wondering if that will be long enough for heat transfer. So, a few questions:

1. How well does this keep you wort at the proper temperature?
2. When you want to increase the temperature (say from 152 mash to 168 mash out), how long does it typically take?
2. How long is the coil?

Thanks.

I do this another way; rather than pump wort through a coil in the HLT, I pump water from the HLT into a 50' copper coil in the MLT. With a temp controller I turn the pump on and off to maintain mash temp. Ramp up is 1-2F per minute but I have sped that up by putting a RIMs tube with a 1650 element in it in between the HLT out and MLT coil input.
 
I do this another way
Yeah, I've seen that in other setups. More than one way to skin a cat. The ramp up times seem pretty good.

If you want, I can draw a pic to clarify my plumbing.

If you're willing, that would be great. Considering the ramp up times helibrewer gave, what is your time bdjohns1? Say from 152 to 168, how long does that usually take?
 
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