pinchegil
Strangedog Brewing
Ok, I will begin with my setup, and then give my opinion on where I went right, bur more importantly where I went wrong. Note, all my Kettles and hardware are stainless steel
HLT: keggle with site guage, single bottom valve with center pickup tube, 50 ft Stainless 10" herms coil, thermometer, and swirling tube
Mash Tun: 16 gsl Bayou Classic, single valve, thermometer, generic 12" false bottom adapted with shark fitting drilled out to sit 1/2 inch off of bottom(don't buy BC False bottom with this kettle 3 gals dead space), 5 foot silicone hose off ss 90 as manifold (see electric brewery and sabco on this matter)
Boil Kettle: 16 gal Bayou classic, swirler tube, bottom ball valve, thermometer
Burners: BayouClassic 6" under HLT, 10" under BOIL
Additional: Temp probe at HERMS coil exit, all connections are cam locks, silicone hoses, side inlet chugger pump, center inlet Williams Brewing pump, Stainless Counterflow chiller
Hardware Mistakes:
the lure of stainless steel had me drilling holes randomly thereby giving me left hand boil and HLT. I propose your mash tun should always be in the middle with the valve, and the sparge inlet in the center pointing to the HLT, using a T to inclose the thermowell. Then lay out your kettles, and mark them with a sharpie where you want your inlets to go Ideally this should be a left hand an a right hand.
If you put your HLT on the left, and your BOIL on the right then:
HLT should have the bottom valve front center, the thermometer 2 inches above the valve, site glass 8 inches to left of center, and HERMS coil inlet and outlet should exit about 8" to the right of center
BOIL: should have the swirler at top 8 inches left of center pointing swirl in clockwise motion, valve should be low center, and thermometer should be 4" above valve. failure to follow the clocking will result in requirement of longer hoses
Pumps:
you will need minimum 2, I am thinking about 3 for dedicated HLT swirler
Hoses:
if you are incorporating a swirler in HLT you will need 5 at least 4 ft each 5ft better, 2 for swirler hlt to pump, pump to swirler, 3 for MASH tun valve to pump, pump to lower coil, upper coil to return too short of hoses is a major PIA
Brew Day Mistakes:
Sparge Water, I totally forgot to add dead space for pumps, coil and hoses. To remedy this, I calculated the strike water, I mashed in, then watching the site guage, I added the water to fill the mash tun to about 1.5 inches above grain bed then subtracted total from calculated and came up with 2.3 gallons to be added to initial strike, the sparge water should stay the same because any difference will already be compensated in the strike phase affected
make sure you have catch containers (eg. tupperware) to hold under hoses as you connect and disconnect (avoids messy floor)
Lessons Learned:
1. More work than non herms brewing
2. Way more fun.
3. Much clearer wort (I fly Sparged)
4. Swirlers are way too cool
5. 16 Gal HLT too small for high gravity 10 gal batch (go at least 20 gal if possible)
6. Screw the smaller burner, the HLT needs the 10 inch as well
6. Don't be too disappointed in your first yield, i was aiming for 1.068, I hit 1.062 I'll take it
7. after wort is boiling, warm water and PBW and run it through pumps, hlt, and mash tun, then save to run through boil kettle.
I have a lot of ideas to make the system better, I will post to this thread with the changes I make, including a re-design of the common sculpture to make it lighter and smaller storage footprint
HLT: keggle with site guage, single bottom valve with center pickup tube, 50 ft Stainless 10" herms coil, thermometer, and swirling tube
Mash Tun: 16 gsl Bayou Classic, single valve, thermometer, generic 12" false bottom adapted with shark fitting drilled out to sit 1/2 inch off of bottom(don't buy BC False bottom with this kettle 3 gals dead space), 5 foot silicone hose off ss 90 as manifold (see electric brewery and sabco on this matter)
Boil Kettle: 16 gal Bayou classic, swirler tube, bottom ball valve, thermometer
Burners: BayouClassic 6" under HLT, 10" under BOIL
Additional: Temp probe at HERMS coil exit, all connections are cam locks, silicone hoses, side inlet chugger pump, center inlet Williams Brewing pump, Stainless Counterflow chiller
Hardware Mistakes:
the lure of stainless steel had me drilling holes randomly thereby giving me left hand boil and HLT. I propose your mash tun should always be in the middle with the valve, and the sparge inlet in the center pointing to the HLT, using a T to inclose the thermowell. Then lay out your kettles, and mark them with a sharpie where you want your inlets to go Ideally this should be a left hand an a right hand.
If you put your HLT on the left, and your BOIL on the right then:
HLT should have the bottom valve front center, the thermometer 2 inches above the valve, site glass 8 inches to left of center, and HERMS coil inlet and outlet should exit about 8" to the right of center
BOIL: should have the swirler at top 8 inches left of center pointing swirl in clockwise motion, valve should be low center, and thermometer should be 4" above valve. failure to follow the clocking will result in requirement of longer hoses
Pumps:
you will need minimum 2, I am thinking about 3 for dedicated HLT swirler
Hoses:
if you are incorporating a swirler in HLT you will need 5 at least 4 ft each 5ft better, 2 for swirler hlt to pump, pump to swirler, 3 for MASH tun valve to pump, pump to lower coil, upper coil to return too short of hoses is a major PIA
Brew Day Mistakes:
Sparge Water, I totally forgot to add dead space for pumps, coil and hoses. To remedy this, I calculated the strike water, I mashed in, then watching the site guage, I added the water to fill the mash tun to about 1.5 inches above grain bed then subtracted total from calculated and came up with 2.3 gallons to be added to initial strike, the sparge water should stay the same because any difference will already be compensated in the strike phase affected
make sure you have catch containers (eg. tupperware) to hold under hoses as you connect and disconnect (avoids messy floor)
Lessons Learned:
1. More work than non herms brewing
2. Way more fun.
3. Much clearer wort (I fly Sparged)
4. Swirlers are way too cool
5. 16 Gal HLT too small for high gravity 10 gal batch (go at least 20 gal if possible)
6. Screw the smaller burner, the HLT needs the 10 inch as well
6. Don't be too disappointed in your first yield, i was aiming for 1.068, I hit 1.062 I'll take it
7. after wort is boiling, warm water and PBW and run it through pumps, hlt, and mash tun, then save to run through boil kettle.
I have a lot of ideas to make the system better, I will post to this thread with the changes I make, including a re-design of the common sculpture to make it lighter and smaller storage footprint
