Minimum size for HLT in HERMS brewing

[dionbill]

Guys, I am starting the design on my first/initial ebrewing setup. I have a 15.5 gal brew keggle and an 8gal tall boy brew kettle. Would the 8gal boil pot work as heat transfer medium or do I need a bigger pot? Plan on doing no more than 10 gal all grain. Thanks gang.


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[Bigscience]

I use a 5 gallon sanky as a HERMS chamber and it works great. BUT I also have a separate HLT. The issue I ran into when I used my 15.5 HLT with a coil was when I had to add water after dough in to heat up for sparge. It cooled down to where I couldn't use it for HERMS.



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[TommyTbar]

I am also interested in the minimum, I have three keggles and was curious to hear how big of a beer i could brew and still have my herms coil submersed and/or how low would I have to mount it to get the maximum use out of it. Any input would be much appreciated

 

[ChocolateMaltyBalls]

I use a 5 gallon sanky as a HERMS chamber and it works great. BUT I also have a separate HLT.

That is awesome.

OP: Smaller pots are better for dedicated heat exchange vessels. If you're using the same 8gal vessel for both the heat exchange and HTL then you will have to refill it after you transfer the strike water, and then heat it up to mash temp, then to mash out temp. If you have a large enough vessel and mount your coil low you might not have to top off, but it will take longer to reach temp.




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[sandyeggoxj]

Will your element fit in the 8 gallon pot? Also, where your element is your HEX coil cannot be. Usually your HLT water is your sparge water, so keep that in mind. You will probably need the better part of it to mash in and then you will need to heat fast to recirculate the mash to maintain. Bigger the element the better the HLT.

 

[dionbill]

Sandy, I haven't actually purchased anything at this point, just in the planning stage. I have never actually done an all-grain at this point either, but i'm moving that way. So, I actually have a chance to redesign my brewery (for all grain anyway) and would like to move to a HERMs automated system eventually, if not right away. Therefore i'm looking at what i have and what i would need. My thought now is a 3 container system including 2 SS pots (boil and HLT) and a 10gal cooler for the mash tun. My initial mash water would come from the boil pot, so while i'm heating the initial mash water to temp in the boil pot, i would be heating the HLT water for the heat exchanger. Mash-in, then start the HE pump. I would then use the HLT water as my sparge water at the end. Do the boil, fill the HLT with ice water and cool back through the HLT HE coil. Does this seem correct to you guys or am i missing something fundamental here??? So, with all that being said, is 5-7 gallons typically enough to sparge for a 10 Gal batch? Is a 15.5 Gal kettle big enough for a 10 gal boil (Blichmann suggests a 20 gal pot for 10 gal batches)? If the 8 gal boil pot is not big enough for the HLT, is it big enough to use as a mash tun, and instead of buying a 10 gal cooler, i would by an appropriately sized HLT Pot. Sorry guys for all the questions by your incite is quite helpful...

 

[poptarts]

If you haven't bought anything yet you can follow my thread. I'm building a dedicated HERMS system for what I hope to be 50$
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/50-dedicated-herms-468563/

 

[Brad2287]

I have 15, 15, and 25 gallon pots (hlt, mash, boil). The 15 gallon pot is two small for the full volume needed for a 15 gallon batch. In order to not have to top up with cold water in my hlt using herms I heat up 25 gallons in my boil kettle then use part of it to dough in and the remainder goes to the hlt. This gives me no lag as I try to get my hlt to temp. I did this to utilize existing equipment when upgrading.

You can do 10 gallon batches in a keggle. I and many others have done it. It is super tight and you have to be mindful of boil overs due to how fast they happen. I would recommend fermcap in order to help lower boil over risk.

 

[Bigscience]

If you haven't bought anything yet you can follow my thread. I'm building a dedicated HERMS system for what I hope to be 50$
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/50-dedicated-herms-468563/

Tried to follow the link on my phone and it takes me to the 'Why is this forum so dead' thread in 2004.



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[poptarts]

Me too that's odd.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=468563

 

[showcow]

How about this for minimizing necessary HLT size:

Heat as much water as possible in HLT to ~190.

Transfer strike water to MLT and run through herms coil.

Add cold water to top up HLT, hoping to end up at your desired mash temp.

It would take fussing (and would be different for different sized mashes) but you CAN calculate the beginning temp needed to reach mash temps given starting hot water volume + cold water added. I don't think it would take too long for the MLT water to cool off, and you could take the lid off if necessary to help...