White OWL Brewing
New Member
Dear Homebrew Community,
It's time for me to expand and get a bigger and more feature-rich brewing system. As I was able to source three 40 liter stainless steel pots for relatively cheap, I decided to design an eHERMS system, which I always wanted to have. So I guess it's time to face the scrutineers with more experience.
The system will be constructed entirely of TC parts, except for the fresh-water side, those will be Gardena parts. The reason behind this is that I know that given some time, feature-creep will become an issue. I don't want to have any extra features yet, all this system has to do is brewing with my usual processes on bare-bones as a proof of concept, afterwards features are allowed to come, therefore I need a modular and expandable solution and Tri Clover seemed for me the way to go. I want to use as few hoses as possible, one fix hose will be at the output of the plate chiller water-side and one at the fermenter out. The rest should be connected via TC stainless steel pipes.
I decided to go without HLT recirculation. The pots will be jacketed in neoprene and convection should take care of any layering. Temperature of the wort will be controlled at the exit of the HERMS coil and at the exit of the MLT to calculate a delta. Temperature in the HLT will be controlled by PID and adjusted to get the correct temperatures in the MLT, I don't really care for what number the HLT temperature represents, I only need to know if I should go higher, or lower to close-in on the correct temperature in the MLT. Temperature in the BK will be controlled by PID in PWM mode.
Important to understand is that the diagrams only show which part is connected to what and in what way. The diagrams don't show the three dimensional positioning of the parts to each other. I'm still designing all the TC parts in Fusion360 to get a better understanding of the positioning myself. The fresh-water line will be split at some point into "tap water" and "fully desalinated water" but as that's not relevant to the workings of the HERMS, I didn't include it into the diagrams to keep them more easily readable. Air lock might become an issue, which will most likely only impact the pumps, which I will solve by adding a T-piece pipe with a 1.5" TC end-cap with a PRV on top. The PRV can be used to release air by manually pulling on it.
I'm absolutely welcome to critique, especially on the HLT recirculation part, if the reasoning behind the critique makes sense. (e.g. no "You should do this, because everyone else is doing it, too")
Squares = 2-Way Valves
Triangles = 3-Way Valves (3x L-Type, 1x T-Type)
Circles = Pumps
It's time for me to expand and get a bigger and more feature-rich brewing system. As I was able to source three 40 liter stainless steel pots for relatively cheap, I decided to design an eHERMS system, which I always wanted to have. So I guess it's time to face the scrutineers with more experience.
The system will be constructed entirely of TC parts, except for the fresh-water side, those will be Gardena parts. The reason behind this is that I know that given some time, feature-creep will become an issue. I don't want to have any extra features yet, all this system has to do is brewing with my usual processes on bare-bones as a proof of concept, afterwards features are allowed to come, therefore I need a modular and expandable solution and Tri Clover seemed for me the way to go. I want to use as few hoses as possible, one fix hose will be at the output of the plate chiller water-side and one at the fermenter out. The rest should be connected via TC stainless steel pipes.
I decided to go without HLT recirculation. The pots will be jacketed in neoprene and convection should take care of any layering. Temperature of the wort will be controlled at the exit of the HERMS coil and at the exit of the MLT to calculate a delta. Temperature in the HLT will be controlled by PID and adjusted to get the correct temperatures in the MLT, I don't really care for what number the HLT temperature represents, I only need to know if I should go higher, or lower to close-in on the correct temperature in the MLT. Temperature in the BK will be controlled by PID in PWM mode.
Important to understand is that the diagrams only show which part is connected to what and in what way. The diagrams don't show the three dimensional positioning of the parts to each other. I'm still designing all the TC parts in Fusion360 to get a better understanding of the positioning myself. The fresh-water line will be split at some point into "tap water" and "fully desalinated water" but as that's not relevant to the workings of the HERMS, I didn't include it into the diagrams to keep them more easily readable. Air lock might become an issue, which will most likely only impact the pumps, which I will solve by adding a T-piece pipe with a 1.5" TC end-cap with a PRV on top. The PRV can be used to release air by manually pulling on it.
I'm absolutely welcome to critique, especially on the HLT recirculation part, if the reasoning behind the critique makes sense. (e.g. no "You should do this, because everyone else is doing it, too")
Squares = 2-Way Valves
Triangles = 3-Way Valves (3x L-Type, 1x T-Type)
Circles = Pumps
HERMS Base Layout
1. Fill HLT + MLT
2. Bring HLT + MLT to Strike Temperature | Recirculating MLT
3. Mash-In | Recirculating MLT
4. Transfer Wort from MLT to BK
5. Sparge / Fly Sparge
6. Boil
7. Plate Chiller Disinfection
8. Cooling | CIP - Return Waste-Water to MLT
9. Fill cooled Wort into Fermenter | CIP - Recirculate Cleaning Solution in MLT
10. CIP - Transfer Cleaning Solution from MLT to BK
11. CIP - Recirculate Cleaning Solution in BK
12. CIP - Remove Cleaning Solution via Fermenter Hose
1. Fill HLT + MLT
2. Bring HLT + MLT to Strike Temperature | Recirculating MLT
3. Mash-In | Recirculating MLT
4. Transfer Wort from MLT to BK
5. Sparge / Fly Sparge
6. Boil
7. Plate Chiller Disinfection
8. Cooling | CIP - Return Waste-Water to MLT
9. Fill cooled Wort into Fermenter | CIP - Recirculate Cleaning Solution in MLT
10. CIP - Transfer Cleaning Solution from MLT to BK
11. CIP - Recirculate Cleaning Solution in BK
12. CIP - Remove Cleaning Solution via Fermenter Hose
