2 vessel gas fired HERMS build

[geniz]

The HLT/BK was rinsed and hot Oxyclean was run though it and the pump. After about an hour, everything was rinsed with cold water and circulated.

 

[geniz]

My measured OG for this brew was 1.049 which gave me an efficiency of 71.3%. I'm happy with that, especially since I'm still tweaking the system.

All in all I am happy with this system and I feel that I get a good efficient brew day with a minimum of equipment. I can brew both 5 and 10 gallon batches on this system and I don't think I'm losing too much efficiency by not sparing into a separate vessel.

Although I am not using the HERMS coil to regulate the temperature of the wort, it is available in case I want to do step mashes, say for example I wanted to do a protein rest on a wheat beer.

As the system progresses, I'll post more.

 

[geniz]

An update:

Brewed a 10 gal batch of a 1.053 APA today. Same technique as before using a recirculation/sparge technique as outlined above. Efficiency was 67%. Wasn't too bad, but I think my efficiencies are just too variable. Most likely this is due to the recirculate/sparge. The drawback with this system I think is variable efficiencies with varying OGs. As the OG of my beer goes up, my efficiency goes down. Id like my efficiencies to be more consistent across styles. I just dont think I'm gonna get that with this technique. If I remember correctly this is one of the reasons why Lonnie didn't go with this system.

I think I'll go back to a traditional three vessel system and see if my efficiencies are more consistent.

Any feedback from others using a two vessel system?

 

[brans041]

Was there any new brews done on this system?

Have you improved your efficiency at all?

 

[geniz]

The last few brews I've been batch sparging and collecting the running a into a bucket and then transferring into the HLT/BK so I haven't been using it as a recirc system.

It still works well as a single burner, single pump system.

Still haven't given up totally on doing a no sparge recirc system. Probably will experiment more with it here in the near future.

 

[joeg13]

This is exactly what I want to do. It looks great! What made you go back to batch sparging?

Any advice would be great. I have the pot and the cooler, but I don't want to spend the money on the pump if there are any major drawbacks. Thanks!

 

[geniz]

This is exactly what I want to do. It looks great! What made you go back to batch sparging?

Any advice would be great. I have the pot and the cooler, but I don't want to spend the money on the pump if there are any major drawbacks. Thanks!

Its a great system but I found that I couldn't keep a consistent efficiency between different styles of beer. The higher the gravity, the less efficiency. However, my efficiency was repeatable when making the same beer over and over again.

I still use the system as pictured, but the only thing I do now is batch sparge into another vessel and when Ive finished sparging, I pour the wort into the BK to boil. Still one burner, one pump.

Others on this forum use this type of system successfully as a no sparge system. Id try it first as a no sparge system and then if needed, you could add a vessel.

If you have any other questions let me know

 

[CanadianSamsquatch]

Thanks for all the info!