$50 Dedicated HERMS

Used this system to heat up my strike water while I was sleeping last night. Worked flawless had boil done at 8am. Once again held temps the entire mash within .4c of desired temp.

 

Glad to hear it! I have everything ordered, now to build it and put it to use!


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Post pics when you make it.

 

Just got the stc-1000 wired up and testing it out now. I was hoping to brew today but I'm waiting for the pump to come in, which should arrive tomorrow.


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nice

 

I'm still not following. Whats preventing liquid from flowing out the side which has the temp probe. Maybe I am just challenged

 

The liquid needs to flow over the probe so it can get a reading. its really not complicated at all, its so simple that it might look confusing. just thread the probe in one end of the tee then out the side. the probe end is long enough where it wont be able to do the 90 degree corner and slip through. then just shove the hose on either end, it doesn't matter and then toss the entire thing in the ton on top of the bed.

 

Concept works for a Keggle size batch too! Last week I crammed a 1500W-120V element in a 4 gallon pot that was filled with about 2 gallons of water and a 10ft coil of 3/8" ID copper tube. I recirculated at about 0.25 gpm and was able to hold a pretty steady mash temp. Also, I managed a 5 degree F step over a 15-20 minute period.

Unfortunately, I had to cycle on and off manually because I fried the SSR that controls the HLT (due to an undersized heat sink) and the HERMS controller is in the same control box (not a good smell).

Gentlemen we can rebuild him, we have the technology...

 

Is your mlt a keggle or a cooler?

 

My MLT is a poorly insulated keg. Usually I have to add a quart of 212*F water every 10 minutes to maintain a "steady" mash temp.

For reference: last week's batch was 18lbs grain with 27qt (1.5 qt/lb) at 150*F for 15 minutes then added 5 quarts to get to 156*F held for 15 minutes then stepped it up to 162*F over 15 minutes or so followed by a "proper" mash-out with another 1.5 gallons to hit 168*F.

I located my HERMS temperature probe right where it comes out of the HERMS so I don't risk "overcooking" the enzymes. I try to keep that temperature 1-2 degrees higher than the rest of the mash to account for the MLT heat loss. Or boost it to 162*F for intra-saccharification steps.

FWIW - I also hit 87% efficiency, which is 2-3% higher than previous runs. And the wort seemed to have less hot break than other batches.

 

Got ya. My confusion was that I thought this nylon tee was outside of the mash tun. Now I understand

 

It's wednesday and this week has been crazy busy so far. I'm picking up fittings tonight and looking to do a test run with water after work this evening. Provided all goes well, I'll be using it to heat up my strike water while I sleep and mash in first thing Friday morning to make a Summertime Wheat Ale for my cousin's wedding. I'll be posting pics as I gather them.


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I gotcha too, but I'm not sure that the wire coming in contact with the hot wort is food safe although the nylon tip may be.

Nealm


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Yea I guess, its plastic, it doesn't smell funky and it shows no signs of melting or anything, so I'm going to assume the amount of anything it is leeching is pretty small since its like 2" of wire in 5 gallons of beer. I'm a lot more concerned for the people who spray star san in their beer to fight hot break. And pretty sure the alcohol is doing more damage then most the stuff everyone is concerned with being food safe or not. at some point we all need to RDWHAHB and embrace the cancer.

 

An STC-1000 is an aquarium controller so the probe is designed to be water-proof. However, I have heard stories of wort dissengrading the plastic around those probes. A thermowell might be a good idea.

 

I finally have everything put together. I gotta coil up my hex once i'm home from work this afternoon and try my hand at priming a pump...get some water recirculating and see if I can get it up to strike temp. I'm really excited to finally be able to recirculate my mash and keep mash temps.


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Got it plumbed and running. Priming the pump wasn't as difficult as I thought it was gonna be. Heating up now and we'll see how it goes!


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I made a quick YouTube video of my brewday, nothing fancy but you get to see what I came up with.

http://youtu.be/Q_H-mnyglfY

Once i was within a degree of hitting my temps, I turned it down to medium...once it started to dip too much I put it back to high and it seemed to keeps temps within .4C


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Nice work im loving mine still, the ability to hit and hold numbers exactly is amazing. and Ive been prepping my water the night before and letting this bring it up to strike temp while I sleep. I can get out of bed and just dump grain in and have an hour to wake up before I need to do anything else. shaves a good 30 - 60 minutes off my brewday.

 

Do you have a link for this pot from walmart? Searching the site I can't find it.

 

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Mainstays-8-Quart-Stock-Pot/20713636

pretty much any 1-2 gallon pot should do the trick.

 

Thanks, I'll check out my local store to see if i can find that.

 

Here's the American wheat I brewed with this system. I had the clearest wort I've ever seen. Hit all my numbers and it was nice keeping a mash temp for an entire hour. Can't wait to brew again in a couple weekends!


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Any worries with running your pump all night? I know that they are meant to pump liquid and all, but not sure if their meant for extended use. I also have a chugger.

 

I've done it several time and no issues yet.

 

I came here to appreciate the ghetto HERMS, I left with not only that but the realization that I could be cooking steaks in my RIMS.

 

Pretty exciting stuff, I just cooked some trout in mine again last weekend, just makes the best beer and food.

 

Ive ran my pump for well over 12 hours and no issues. I'll be brewing a pumpkin ale with this system this weekend. Can't wait to see how it comes out!


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I flashed my STC to do F with stc-1000+ makes it pretty nice not having to convert. but yea still using the same setup. Just brewed 2 days ago with it and it held temps and let me hit numbers like a champ again. and had the pump running for a good 7 hrs straight and it was warm but not to hot to touch by far.

 

Funny you say that, I ordered the DoCooler Version of the STC-1000 that reads in F* so I wouldn't have to do the conversion. I'll build another STC project box for my kegerator, since I don't be keeping such a keen eye on it, C* is fine.


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Sorry if this was already mentioned, but I didn't see it. You said your system held temp pretty well and didn't have much stratification when you had the pump turned up, but it stratified a bit with the pump down lower- I've got a rectangular cooler with lower manifold, and I'm making an upper manifold for this build. How many GPH to you think the pump should be set at to keep stratification to a minimum? What's yours set at? Thanks! Love this build and can't wait to get mine running!

I'm thinking your skinnier, taller tun will stratify more than my wider, shorter one, but still wanted to get your thoughts.

 

I just run the pump at full these days, In a cooler the stratification is so minimal. the input and output of the HERMS is never more then .2 F Im sure your cooler would work just about the same as mine. The pump moves wort so fast you cycle the cooler in like 1 minute anyway.

 

Thanks for the reply- I'm planning on using an ebay pump through 20' of 3/8 copper, so I'm hoping it has enough oomph. Can't wait to do a decoction on this and actually have the main mash hold temp.

 

The 10' of 1/2 is working plenty good for me and that would be a lot less resistance. But let us know how it goes.

 

Would this same exact system work (STC1000 + 10 gal cooler + exact same heat plate) with 3-4 gallons in the HEX HLT?

I agree that it would take longer to heat the water initially but would it require more energy to keep it at that temp?

I have some 3/8" 304 stainless pipe & I fear that I won't be able to keep it that low in the HLT because of it's rigidity.

 

If you insulate your HLT it would for sure, uninsulated your just going to have to try and see. It will definitely take longer to heat up and take more power to hold it at temp. Most I have done is 2 gallons just to see and it worked fine, i would be willing to bet it will work but ramping is going to pretty much be out of the question.

 

Thanks -

No steps -

I was looking at a RIMS tube, PID & the works so I could more accurately maintain mash temps but was looking @ ~ $300.00.

I have most everything needed to do this HERMS already so nothing really lost except a little time.. Will keep all posted.

Any thoughts on how many feet of 3/8" tubing?

 

Wow, Sounds Awesome!

 

my 1/2 10' does a great job at holding temps, i would bet you could get away with just 10' of 3/8, maybe 15' if your doing like 10 gallon batches.

 

It is if you like heating water while sleeping, never missing mash temp, and love consistency.