Thanks for all the information and pics. I have been strongly considering order the same from HGB and your information was very helpful and has convinced me to move forward with ordering. Question, is there anything you would have asked to have done differently now that you have the system? Did they install the ball valves you have pictured for the HERMS ports on the HLT Lid.
I don't have ball valves installed on the HERMS ports - I am not sure from my picture exactly what you are seeing. Being the amatuer I am with the camera it could be background clutter. I have ball valves installed on my kettles for draining/filling, and on the output of the pumps for flow rate control. With that said, here is what I would have done differently now that I have it:
- I would have installed a dip tube in my HLT. I actually still can. This is not something High Gravity would have done anyway. They drilled the hole and sent the parts. I assembled tham after the kettles arrived.
- I would have had the element in the BK installed lower to accomodate smaller batches. However, I decided to build up a 10 gallon kettle for smaller batches instead.
- I would have gone with the 4 wire model. My 3 wire setup is plenty safe, but for no extra cost I could have been prepared for 4 wire if I felt the need to at some point.
- I ditched the SS thermowells. I found that although they eventually settle in to their ambient temperature they react too slowly for my liking. This meant overshooting my target temp by a few degrees. I have since ditched my homemade thermowells in the pics and gone with the ones specifically designed for the Johnson A419. These are copper and react more quickly than SS.
- I would ask for the heating elements without the 6 foot cord. I ended up cutting them short and installing twist lock ends on them. For my 10 gallon kettle I am going with this:
http://www.brewershardware.com/TC15F10NPSCOV.html
from Brewers Hardware. If it works out I will retrofit my 20 gallon BK and my HLT with it. I don't weld, so I am going to have to find a shop to weld the tri clover ferrule on for me. However, it provides strain relief, covers the electrical connections better than the shrink tube on the High Gravity setups, and is easy to remove. Overall, safer and more efficient. In fact, I could conceivably move the element between kettles and not have to have one in each with this setup. One thing I have found is that I have to clean the BK element after each batch - it gets coated with white protien during the boil. It would be easier to clean if I could easily remove the element.
- The other thing I am going to do is add two "L" type two way ball valves. This will give me the capability of running my process from adding the initial water to the HLT to filling the BK with the sweet wort without having to remove or change any hoses or connections. I will still have to do a simple hose swap to move the wort from the BK through the chiller, but I will have a good hour to get that done in a liesurely manner, not like the chinese fire drill I have had going on during the brew process to date.
- One final thing I could have done is think through my end to end process more before deciding on a final configuration. However, I can only imagine so much given the fact that I don't have much experience yet. I learn by doing, and I wanted to stop cutting bait and start fishing, so to speak. I do have extra parts starting to pile up as I change things around. However, I knew this would be the case, and I don't mind a little trial and error.
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