Samuel9609
Member
Hey guys! I have a blichmann top tier, two burners, two 15 gal boilermakers, and two 10 gal igloo coolers among other things. I just bought a march pump, a whole bunch of cam locks and silicone hose, and I have a 50 ft coil of copper for chilling. You might know where im going with this.... Im trying to decide whether to go RIM or HERM. I like the idea of HERM and im willing to cough up the money for a new boilermaker and use my copper coil to install and have a HERM but im trying to figure out a couple of things.
1) the whole point of temp schedules is holding temps for certain periods of time to allow for protein rests and for the enzymes to do their thing and basically cut up starches into sugars that the yeast can work on. The whole recirculating the wort just leads to a clearer wort (supposedly). My question is it takes forever to heat all that liquid in the HLT to 145F, then to 155F, etc. When "stepping" you are supposed to get to the desired temp as fast as possible and hold it there. So is it better to use a combo of direct fire on MLT and recirculate back through autosparge on MLT until the HERM is up to desired temp then recirculate through there OR direct fire on MLT,pump to HERM that is being direct fired as well and back into the MLT through autosparge OR infuse sparge water from boil kettle (this is assuming you are boiling some extra water on the side) on mash to jump it up quickly while recirculating it through MLT and then to HERM ORRRR to really achieve what I want to do, do I have to buy another coil two boilermakers and use the coil I have to make two HERMS and while one temp is achieved and im recirculating im heating the other HERM to switch to.
2) In regards to infusion (if that is your answer along with one of the options). If recirculating the wort is to make a clearer final wort then it defeats the purpose of recirculating if you stir your mash to distribute the heat of the infusion, right? You are just stirring everything back up and destroying the natural grain bed filter, right? It just doesnt make sense to stir it, but if you dont then you have different layers of temperature throughout your mash and your chance of consistency is shot. Its a catch 22, damned if you do and damned if you dont.
My plan is to eventually get the Blichmann tower of power to regulate all of this and have a buddy make a program for me to automate the temp schedules but until then im just confused on which way to go. ANY help would be much appreciated
1) the whole point of temp schedules is holding temps for certain periods of time to allow for protein rests and for the enzymes to do their thing and basically cut up starches into sugars that the yeast can work on. The whole recirculating the wort just leads to a clearer wort (supposedly). My question is it takes forever to heat all that liquid in the HLT to 145F, then to 155F, etc. When "stepping" you are supposed to get to the desired temp as fast as possible and hold it there. So is it better to use a combo of direct fire on MLT and recirculate back through autosparge on MLT until the HERM is up to desired temp then recirculate through there OR direct fire on MLT,pump to HERM that is being direct fired as well and back into the MLT through autosparge OR infuse sparge water from boil kettle (this is assuming you are boiling some extra water on the side) on mash to jump it up quickly while recirculating it through MLT and then to HERM ORRRR to really achieve what I want to do, do I have to buy another coil two boilermakers and use the coil I have to make two HERMS and while one temp is achieved and im recirculating im heating the other HERM to switch to.
2) In regards to infusion (if that is your answer along with one of the options). If recirculating the wort is to make a clearer final wort then it defeats the purpose of recirculating if you stir your mash to distribute the heat of the infusion, right? You are just stirring everything back up and destroying the natural grain bed filter, right? It just doesnt make sense to stir it, but if you dont then you have different layers of temperature throughout your mash and your chance of consistency is shot. Its a catch 22, damned if you do and damned if you dont.
My plan is to eventually get the Blichmann tower of power to regulate all of this and have a buddy make a program for me to automate the temp schedules but until then im just confused on which way to go. ANY help would be much appreciated