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First brew on my HERMS system, issues of concern

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is it an issue if the false bottom is smaller in circumference than my kettle, ie. 10 inch round domed false bottom vs. a 15 inch round kettle?

Not in my experience...It would greatly depend that the bottom of the kettle be flat. Any dents, deformations that provided a gap between it and the bottom would cause channeling issues.

Having a rigid connection from the false bottom to the wall of the kettle/cooler is important though. I wouldn't trust a piece of silicon hose.
 
Hello to all,

Wanted to post my first HERMS brew experience in order to trouble shoot some issues and de-stress.

I have been brewing for over 3 years and made the move to an electric HERMS 10 gallon system, electric control panel, 15 gallon HLT and BK, 16 gallon Mash Tun, counter flow chiller, dual pumps etc. A Kal and short circuit brewers clone more or less minus the larger vent hoods.

The brew that was made was a 5 gallon batch APA.

3 1/2 gallon mash in
fly sparge to follow to boil volume

Ill list the issues encountered for feed back from you guys.

1. when douging in, 3 gallons of the strike water was below the false bottom, leaving 1/2 a gallon or so above. mash consistency when doug in was like thick oatmeal and was able to be moistened. better consistency when mashing commenced. is this ok or normal?


2. when cooling via counter flow chiller and whirlpool arm, temperature drop was very nice and rapid until a clog was encountered somewhere between the BK and wort pump. During clean up and rinse, I noticed the wort pump wouldnt move water from the now clean BK containing hot water into the wort pump via hose and out said pump. The out side of the pump just spit a little bit of foam. Possible clog in the wort pump? Should I take the pump head off and inspect?

3. Due to the clog, the whirlpool didnt center the trub and hop debri, therefore it mostly went into the stainless conical.

4. I noticed in Kal's brew instructions on his web site, he dough's in at his set temp. Beer smith has me striking at a higher temp as previous brews and then it drops to set temp for mash time. Any pro or con for not striking higher than at mash set temp?

Also, Kal recommended that mash out was not always necessary going into fly sparge but beer smith still lists a mash out for 10 minutes and then into fly sparging. Any suggestions pro or con?

Other than dripping condensation from my vent hood of 350 cfm, those were my stressers.

Thank you to all who reply. sorry in advance for typos

chris

When figuring your required H20 based on you quarts to lbs ratio, ie, 1,25 quarts to pound, take your total water required for mashing and then add in your deadspace volume. That will give you the proper mash thickness. It will also reduce your sparge water requirement. Let me know if you need help on how to do that in beersmith, I can explain it for you.
 
When figuring your required H20 based on you quarts to lbs ratio, ie, 1,25 quarts to pound, take your total water required for mashing and then add in your deadspace volume. That will give you the proper mash thickness. It will also reduce your sparge water requirement. Let me know if you need help on how to do that in beersmith, I can explain it for you.

PM sent
 
When figuring your required H20 based on you quarts to lbs ratio, ie, 1,25 quarts to pound, take your total water required for mashing and then add in your deadspace volume. That will give you the proper mash thickness. It will also reduce your sparge water requirement. Let me know if you need help on how to do that in beersmith, I can explain it for you.

It is not technically deadspace though because it looks like most of the MLT will be drained to the BK. When recirculating with the HERMS, you will actuall have a significantly thinned down mash. I am not really sure how much different that would make but IMO, I would try to minimize the deadspace.
 
It is not technically deadspace though because it looks like most of the MLT will be drained to the BK. When recirculating with the HERMS, you will actuall have a significantly thinned down mash. I am not really sure how much different that would make but IMO, I would try to minimize the deadspace.


That was my dilemma with my HERMS originally & why I ended up with a dome.
 
It is not technically deadspace though because it looks like most of the MLT will be drained to the BK. When recirculating with the HERMS, you will actuall have a significantly thinned down mash. I am not really sure how much different that would make but IMO, I would try to minimize the deadspace.

True, it's not technically deadspace. The way I look at it, in my system I have 2 gallons of water under the false bottom. During mash, as I recirculate, this water is always sitting under the grain and not really with it (yeah, the molecules of water change, but you get my point). Therefore, the amount of water creating the mash and actually residing with the grain is still meeting my target of 1.25 qt/lb. It works well for me, the mash isn't too thin. My only concern is the possibility of the pH being knocked out of whack, but that has not happened yet.
 
True, it's not technically deadspace. The way I look at it, in my system I have 2 gallons of water under the false bottom. During mash, as I recirculate, this water is always sitting under the grain and not really with it (yeah, the molecules of water change, but you get my point). Therefore, the amount of water creating the mash and actually residing with the grain is still meeting my target of 1.25 qt/lb. It works well for me, the mash isn't too thin. My only concern is the possibility of the pH being knocked out of whack, but that has not happened yet.

Makes sense. I have actually done a few full volume no sparge batches with the HERMS system. I mashed in as usuall. I had the remainder of the water ready in the BK. I circulated from the BK to the HEX to MLT and back to the BK. They were all very good beers and cut out a lot of sparging time. I guess that is not much different. Although, I did make adjustments for the entire batch of water.
 
Lol! I am moving tomorrow and my entire brewery is all packed up. I have 2 kettles set up that way and just configured it from the box of extra stainless fittings I have. I think I have a 5/8" dip tube and a half inch dip tube. The idea is to find a fitting that is pretty tight so no grain can get through the spaces. I bet Bobby from NJ would test fit something for you though if you asked...

Cheers.

Looking forward to brewing again in like 3 months.... heh

BSD


I like your recommended solution. What size diameter dip tube are you using and do you recall what size male camlock you used? Selling my current kettle set up and purchasing smaller is not feasible both financially and time consumption. I built the system in order to have the option to do both 10 gallon and 5 gallon batches. The only hick up was the false bottom at this point. If I was to go any smaller with the HLT then I would have to add water to both HLT and mash tun prior to brewing...... but I do appreciate all the help being offered.
 
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