My friends and I have finally decided to go beyond the 5ga carboy system and are contemplating a 15ga HERMS build from the ground up using keggles as both mash tuns and the boil kettle (or spring for a stainless pot, not sure at this point). Our biggest concern is that none of us, despite our various skills, can weld non-iron pipe (which to date has not been a problem). My questions to the seasoned vets out there are 1) Is the silicon tubing a viable option to begin with and then hard pipe everything when the kinks are worked out and, the second option, 2) will threaded elbows on stainless or copper pipe cause us problems as far as sanitation. We're a pretty handy bunch but no plumbers, mostly engineers and a worthless lawyer. Any imput as to plumbing a HERMS would be appreciated.
Hard piping vs. silicon tubing
- Thread starter CurtisB
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I would definitely work with hoses first until you get the system down. Then look to hard plumb it. The only place threads will cause a sanitation issue is on the cold side. Everything with the actual brewery will get boiled so it's rarely an issue.
I'm in the process of hard plumbing my rig as well. Right now I only have the the burp/dump valve and the line from my pump to my RIMS tube. I still need to hard plumb the RIMS to the Mash tun and the Mash tun to the inlet valve of my Pump, oh and the outlet of my pump to my BK. But I can't go any further until I get a new SS mash tun. That being said and with only 2 lines hard plumbed I find I like it a lot better than the silicone. Your not having to take on and off hoses for cleaning, etc... As mentioned I would brew with your system to work out the kinks. I finally did it after about a year of brewing on my rig.
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