HERMS build

[CTDan]

Hi everyone.

I am planning on building a HERMS setup in the next couple days and would like the opinions of those on this site. The build will be pretty straight forward. I will circulate the wort from the mash, through a 50' coil immersed in a bucket of water heated by an Anova sous vide thingamajig and then use my pump to send it back up to the sparge arm.

What do you think? Will this work? Any potential issues that might come up? Should the pump be before or after the coil?

Thanks!

Dan

 

[therealrsr]

I would use the pump to push vs. pull the mash liquid through the coil. I think you will have a tough time getting it primed with that configuration. Otherwise should work fine, keep the avon sous away from the coil as best possible to avoid hot spots. Maybe double bucket or some alternative for insulation to hold temp.

 

[Jaybird]

Totally agree with @therealrsr you will want to just drain from mash then pump from there through everything. Magnetic pumps don't "PULL" well.

Good luck on the build. Post up a few picts. Lets see this thingamajig

Cheers
Jay

 

[CTDan]

The HERMS bucket will be below the mash tun, so it will be gravity filled. The laws of physics are on my side when it comes to priming the pump, but for now, I will use a push rather than pull.

I'm not too concerned about a hotspot. The Anova has a small propeller at the bottom to circulate water in the bucket. Everything is ordered and hopefully I will have a nice lager mashed on Friday.

Dan

 

[therealrsr]

Cool, good luck and hope your lager turns out great!

I have an anova sous (only use it for cooking, run my coil in the HLT) and the submerged portion with heating coil gets hot while it circulates. The instructions caution about allowing submerged plastic to rest against it. I was only advising of that and suggesting don't let it touch/near the heat exchange coil.

I definitely was not trying to be a wet blanket thrown on your creative idea. You asked, I have experience with both items so I answered.

 

[CTDan]

The experiment went well, but there were a few issues. I used a 7 gallon brew bucket for the HERMS tank. The immersion circuator was able to maintain the temperature, but was not able to increase it by more than a few degrees. I had to pull water out, boil, and add it back to make the temperature rise. I also saw a 5 degree drop between the HERMS bucket and the mash tun. I am going to invest in a 5 gallon beverage cooler or similar cooler that will hold the coil and possibly build a cart that will shorten the distance between the mash tun and the HERMS tank. In the end, I got 85% efficiency on the mash and it has great clarity.

 

[ant-man]

what calculation did you use to come up with the 50' coil you are going to use.

I am only asking because i am doing a similar build and will be doing 10 to 20 gallon runs.

Cheers

 

[CTDan]

what calculation did you use to come up with the 50' coil you are going to use.

I am only asking because i am doing a similar build and will be doing 10 to 20 gallon runs.

Cheers

It was an educated guess... I searched for a HERMS coil on Amazon and this came up.