So, I think I've more or less gone over this before. However here's the skinny on the Hybrid Double Herm system.
A) We've got an on-demand Tankless Hot Water Heater that has 15 5500 elements inside it. This can produce water up to 180 degrees (We had it modified slightly, although I don't think we'll run it over 165.) To run it that high though, you can't run the water that quickly.
So, what we do is come in early and start filling our HLT with 165 degree water. The HLT has 2 heating elements in it. If you've followed the thread you know that we are seriously under-powered due to some disagreements with our electricians over who should get usage rights to the service in our building. Ultimately it turns out that electrical code trumps everyone and electricians get to interpret that as they choose. So we lost and we get tiny little elements in our 10 bbl tanks unless we want to spend $40k to upgrade out electrical service.
SO, as the 165 degree water comes into our HLT, we turn on the elements as the water rises above them with our control panel, which I think you'll recognize. We have found that the control panel does little more than maintain the temperature of the water. It doesn't actually do much to increase temp, at least without extra thermal insulation on the HLT.
THEREFORE, we have included [THREE] 32 tip natural gas burners with 3/4 inch inlets and our natural gas line. The tanks we had manufactured are actually built for gas-fired systems, then modified for electrical elements. So, they're perfectly rated for burners underneath them. I'm adding a few burners capable of up to 160,000 btu's each under the tanks to help with my heating needs.
This will get me up to my HLT temperature needs.
Meanwhile, I am patiently filling my MLT with water from the On-demand tankless hot water heater at my strike temperature. Again, using my (Well recognized) control panel I can turn on my pump and start up the HERM coil and circulate the liquor in the HLT until it is precisely at my desired mash in temperature.
Then I mash-in.
The control panel maintains temperature in the HLT, monitors the temperature in the MLT and controls the pump to circulate the wort through the HERM coil as necessary to maintain temperatures as required. All the while I manage the natural gas burners manually. (The only downfall, unfortunately. The good news is that the elements do seem to maintain temperature within the HLT quite nicely so I expect I will be able to reduce the burners quite a bit once the mash has hit proper temperature.)
Once my mash has completed I will crank up the burners again, increase the HLT temp sufficiently to mash-out. Then I'll transfer over to the BK and do the sparge in the MLT. Once finished all the sparged wort will be transferred to the BK and the burners will be moved over as well.
Then the fun will begin. I'll turn on the BK elements as soon as the wort has covered them and get the serious boil going when the burners have been moved. With all three burners turned up I should be able to reach a vigorous boil relatively quickly. Then I can turn down the burners sufficiently to allow the elements and minor to moderate burner help maintain a steady boil and I'm (as they say,) cooking with gas.
So, there you have it. I'm planning on doing our first test batch this weekend. A blonde Ale. Low ABV and mild flavor. Nothing too dramatic.
I'll also make some Teetotaler Lemonade and store up a few kegs of that while I'm waiting on the mash and the boil. Since we've been granted our license for beer and soft-drinks we'll manufacture and eventually distribute both. Teetotaler is unique in that we carbonate it. Makes a very nice shandy.
Pictured is Teetotaler's funky cousin, Raspberry Teetotaler. You can't quite tell due to the lighting and the camera, but it's pink. It's quite tasty. Just the right mix of sweet and sour. We are currently talking with the local distillery and hopefully they'll be using our root beer, lemonade and ginger beer for their mixed drinks in the next month or so.
Special thanks to Kal. Works like a champ. We managed to put it together all by ourselves.
How come you sent so many extra parts though? ;-)