BLING BLING Electric HERMS Conversion

[The Pol]

I will, but I am wasted right now... and have company coming over in a few.

OH, by the way I am having a son. Found out today... sweet huh?

 

[NJTomatoguy]

I will, but I am wasted right now... and have company coming over in a few.

OH, by the way I am having a son. Found out today... sweet huh?

Congrats

 

[cyberbackpacker]

Blessings and Congrats!

 

[kal]

I will, but I am wasted right now... and have company coming over in a few.

OH, by the way I am having a son. Found out today... sweet huh?

Congrats! That's definitely one reason to keep drinking! (I have a 2 and 5 year old which pretty much ensure I'll never stop brewing).

Kal

 

[nathan]

that's great news! I know when I first saw the weener on the sonogram I was stoked. And my son gave me the treat of having his fist wrapped around it at the time, embarassing the sonogram tech and the wife, but making me cheer!
Notice my avatar, which is about a year old now. My kid is obsessed with anything brewing related. I can lay things on the floor and he seems to know what's for brewing and want to play with it. When he was a wee tot, I had him in a pack-n-play with me while I brewed and he'd sit and watch.

crack a home brew to celebrate for us! I'm going to go pour a porter and drink it in your honor!

Also, take your time. Wife put 2+2 together and realized that my impending trip for school is going to cost a lot and the thinking around the brewhaus is I should keep making beer till mid-summer with what I have before I upgrade to electric.
I figure that'll give me plenty of time to get the plans drawn up tight, and parts lists, links to where to buy, etc., so I can slam it out fast in the first week of July.

 

[Ewalk02]

Congrats POL, looks like you'll have a brewing partner! Anyways, did you have to specially order your 30A 2-pole GFI breaker? I'm looking everywhere and cant find anything that's over 20A.

 

[The Pol]

Congrats POL, looks like you'll have a brewing partner! Anyways, did you have to specially order your 30A 2-pole GFI breaker? I'm looking everywhere and cant find anything that's over 20A.

Nope, got it at the store.

I already have a brewing partner, HER name is Kayla, she will be a pro by the time that JUNIOR, yes... JUNIOR is old enough to brew.

 

[bakins]

JUNIOR, yes... JUNIOR is old enough to brew.

The Pol, Jr. ??

Congrats. I have 4 little assistant brewers...

 

[The Pol]

The Pol, Jr. ??

Congrats. I have 4 little assistant brewers...

Yes, he will officically be a Junior... nice eh?

 

[The Pol]

UPGRADE:

HLT and MLT sight gauges and silicone hoses installed this weekend.

 

[conpewter]

Did you bend that polycarbonate yourself for the sight glass?

 

[The Pol]

Did you bend that polycarbonate yourself for the sight glass?

Yes, the writeup will be on brewersfriend.com in the coming week....

 

[The Pol]

 

[Ceedubya]

I see you made it into the new BYO this month

 

[The Pol]

I did? OH, is that the magazine that came out a couple months ago? Where my rig is on like page 6 or 8? OR, am I in it again???? What issue?

 

[Ceedubya]

I did? OH, is that the magazine that came out a couple months ago? Where my rig is on like page 6 or 8? OR, am I in it again???? What issue?

Its the March-Apil issue Vol 15 no 2. And yes, its on page 8 in the section "Homebrew systems that will make you drool"

Maybe its been out for awhile, I just picked it up this week. I knew right away I recognized the system from your post.

Good job :rockin:

 

[The Pol]

Its the March-Apil issue Vol 15 no 2. And yes, its on page 8 in the section "Homebrew systems that will make you drool"

Maybe its been out for awhile, I just picked it up this week. I knew right away I recognized the system from your post.

Good job :rockin:

Cool, yeah that is the one. I was going to say, they owe me another beer mug!! Brewing on it right now!

 

[The Pol]

April 12, 2009 Brew Day!

 

[bakins]

did you pitch the next day? How long did it take to get to pitching temp? I ordered some containers from US plastics as well,but they seemed to have gotten lost on the way to my house

 

[The Pol]

I filled the HDPE container at 6PM yesterday at 189F, reached 68F today at 3pm, so I pitched then. At 8:30pm I had activity in the airlock... so far, so good.

 

[wisdom86]

Stupid question for ya' POL if I was going to run an all electric setup similar to your unit could I use 1 PID to run two different heating elements i.e. HLT and BK? Obviously they would not be on at the same time. So, with 1 PID and two switches would this be possible? Awesome thread, Congrats on Jr.

James

 

[The Pol]

Sure you could... here is how.

Place the thermocouple in the HLT, where you NEED temp, control.

Have the SSR output go to an outlet, where the two different elements will be plugged in, at different times.

Run the PID and thermocouple as normal on the HLT when mashing

Plug in the BK element when you want to boil, and put the PID in manual mode (% output) which is what we all seem to do... then the temp. reading from the thermocouple in the HLT has no bearing on its operation anyway.

This would be really easy to do. Use the PID in Auto mode for the HLT, run it in Manual mode for the BK... one thermocouple in the HLT, no switches, no extra outlets, just unplug one and pkug in the other.

 

[slnies]

Stupid question for ya' POL if I was going to run an all electric setup similar to your unit could I use 1 PID to run two different heating elements i.e. HLT and BK? Obviously they would not be on at the same time. So, with 1 PID and two switches would this be possible? Awesome thread, Congrats on Jr.

James

Well, yes and no. If you had a two channel PID with two thermalcouple inputs then yes you could do that. Those PID are quit expensive, even if you can find one used. But for a normal PID the answer is no. You might be able to control heating and cooling for the same process, but after that.... I hope I was able to explain well enough for ya. S.

 

[The Pol]

Well, yes and no. If you had a two channel PID with two thermalcouple inputs then yes you could do that. Those PID are quit expensive, even if you can find one used. But for a normal PID the answer is no. You might be able to control heating and cooling for the same process, but after that.... I hope I was able to explain well enough for ya. S.

Obviously from my above post, I disagree... meh...

 

[LooyvilleLarry]

Stupid question for ya' POL if I was going to run an all electric setup similar to your unit could I use 1 PID to run two different heating elements i.e. HLT and BK? Obviously they would not be on at the same time. So, with 1 PID and two switches would this be possible? Awesome thread, Congrats on Jr.

James

Yep, this is exactly how I did mine.
The output of the PID goes to a DPDT switch (center off). If it is in the Mash Position, the output is directed to the MASH SSR; Boil to the Boil SSR.

I only have one temp sensor in the HLT. On boil, I use a manual %, which doesn't utilize the sensor, BUT the PID requires it.

I'll be doing a post on Friday of my Brew Build, that closely follows The Pols, but with some differences.
Larry

 

[conpewter]

Sure you could... here is how.

Place the thermocouple in the HLT, where you NEED temp, control.

Have the SSR output go to an outlet, where the two different elements will be plugged in, at different times.

Run the PID and thermocouple as normal on the HLT when mashing

Plug in the BK element when you want to boil, and put the PID in manual mode (% output) which is what we all seem to do... then the temp. reading from the thermocouple in the HLT has no bearing on its operation anyway.

This would be really easy to do. Use the PID in Auto mode for the HLT, run it in Manual mode for the BK... one thermocouple in the HLT, no switches, no extra outlets, just unplug one and pkug in the other.

This is exactly how I run my system and it works great

I also have a switch for the 30 amp line that allows me to turn off the element/SSR manually. This way I know there is no power going to the plug, probably not needed but it's been useful. Make sure you GFI protect everything in some way.

 

[The Pol]

It will work as I described it... you need only one thermocouple and one outlet with a normal $45 PID

Auto mode on the HLT
Manual mode on the BK

 

[slnies]

Obviously from my above post, I disagree... meh...

No your not. You do agree. You just are using the PID independently for two different aps. What I described is a PID that would do both tasks at the same time. Your pid set up, is still not able to do that. it does not have the outputs or the inputs to accomplish that end. I DID NOT MEAN THAT YOU COULD NOT USE THE SAME PID TO BOIL AS WELL AS MASH. You just can't do it at the same time.

You never know. You may at some point in time decide that you need to brew successive batches for upcoming parties. The ability to mash and boil at the same time becomes a big time saver.

 

[The Pol]

No your not. You do agree. You just are using the PID independently for two different aps. What I described is a PID that would do both tasks at the same time. Your pid set up, is still not able to do that. it does not have the outputs or the inputs to accomplish that end. I DID NOT MEAN THAT YOU COULD NOT USE THE SAME PID TO BOIL AS WELL AS MASH. You just can't do it at the same time.

You never know. You may at some point in time decide that you need to brew successive batches for upcoming parties. The ability to mash and boil at the same time becomes a big time saver.

His question was can he do it if he does not run them at the same time. So... I guess the answer was yes, you can. I was simply answering the OPs question, not taking into account various random variables.

 

[Yorg]

I only have one temp sensor in the HLT. On boil, I use a manual %, which doesn't utilize the sensor, BUT the PID requires it.
Larry

So are you saying that you need to leave a probe plugged into the PID, even though it ignores the input?