Why is there a burrner for the mash tun in a HERMS syste,m

[Turbogator]

A friend and I are getting serious about brewing and we are considering buying the Blichmann pilot system https://www.blichmannengineering.com/10-gallon-gas-herms-pilot-system.html . This will be stepping up from a single kettle and plastic coolers for the mash tun and hot liquor tanks. And it will be stepping up from a single infusion mash to a multi-step temperature-controlled mash. I’ve never used a HERMS system before and I have some questions that I am hoping you all can help me with.

First question is why is there a burner for the mash tun. My understanding is that the mash temperature is maintained by recirculating through the herms coil which in turn is heated by the water in the hot liquor tank which is heated by a burner. Am I missing something? Is there a time in the process of brewing in herms system in which I would directly fire the mash tun while the mash is in process?

My second question is what is your overall impression of Blichmann boilermakers? I’m a little dubious of the valves. All the valves in my current system are 2- or 3-piece ball valves. The ones on the Blichmann look smallish and appear to be gate valves. If my intention is to step up to better equipment are the valves a step back ?

I really apricate any advice or help you guys can offer



Thanks

 

[day_trippr]

The only things I can think of wrt the mash tun burner is it provides a spot for the mash tun to sit, and provides the flexibility to direct-fire the mlt. As I run a more typical 3V2P herms sans a MLT burner why one would do that isn't obvious to me, and tbh they could have mounted an empty burner frame for a pot rest and dropped the price $100. Either way, that'd be a great question to ask Blichmann directly.

As for the valves those are Blichmann exclusive infinitely adjustable valves that most folks seem to like. They are in no way similar to gate, butterfly or ball valves, and have the advantage of being essentially pocket free and being extremely easy to disassemble for inspection and cleaning.

Cheers!

 

[Vale71]

Wow, that is pricey!
The only reason to have a burner on the mash tun that I can think of is to heat the strike water faster prior to mashing in. If you have two burners running concurrently, one directly heating the sparge water and the other the strike water, it should take about half the time to get the system ready than if you only fired the liquor tank burner while recirculating the strike water trough the exchanger.
Of course it also makes the whole assembly more simmetrical and possibly pleasing to the eye, which for the price of a small brewery is the least you could expect...

 

[eric19312]

Two reasons...

Like @Vale71 mentions could use this to speed up heating strike water. Might confuse the PID controlling your HLT a bit but you could turn it off when you are about 5 degrees from target and be in pretty good shape. Also I don't think the PIDs on ToP work in PID mode when buring gas since gas is either on or off from solenoid.

Having the burner also allows user to decide whether to brew HERMS or Kettle Fired RIMS.

 

[day_trippr]

There's a boil kettle and burner, a hlt burner and kettle, and all the pumps and plumbing necessary to NOT need a mlt burner to any plausible advantage.
eg: I pre-boil my strike and sparge liquor separately in bk and hlt, respectively, for the speed factor, and eventually underlet the mlt for the strike.

No mlt burner needed. And frankly heating strike water in a mlt is not a great way to go when underletting works so nicely (no dough balls, lower O2 uptake, a quick stir to equalize the temperature and you're good to go).

So it really makes little sense to have that third HellFire element, aside from providing direct-mash heating flexibility that rationally would never be exploited...

Cheers!

 

[Vale71]

I had a brain fart and didn't consider that it would be the third burner in the system. In that case I agree, it serves no apparent purpose other than to increase the already rather steep price.

 

[augiedoggy]

That system cost about half the cost of my brewpub 3 bbl electric counterpart... Very pricey for what it is.. and it doesnt even have sanitary fittings which for this pricepoint should be a given.

 

[Soulshine2]

A friend and I are getting serious about brewing and we are considering buying the Blichmann pilot system https://www.blichmannengineering.com/10-gallon-gas-herms-pilot-system.html . This will be stepping up from a single kettle and plastic coolers for the mash tun and hot liquor tanks. And it will be stepping up from a single infusion mash to a multi-step temperature-controlled mash. I’ve never used a HERMS system before and I have some questions that I am hoping you all can help me with.

First question is why is there a burner for the mash tun. My understanding is that the mash temperature is maintained by recirculating through the herms coil which in turn is heated by the water in the hot liquor tank which is heated by a burner. Am I missing something? Is there a time in the process of brewing in herms system in which I would directly fire the mash tun while the mash is in process?

My second question is what is your overall impression of Blichmann boilermakers? I’m a little dubious of the valves. All the valves in my current system are 2- or 3-piece ball valves. The ones on the Blichmann look smallish and appear to be gate valves. If my intention is to step up to better equipment are the valves a step back ?

I really apricate any advice or help you guys can offer



Thanks

I still use a cooler mash tun, I just add more hotter water to raise my temps in step mashing.