HERMS system ideas

[wired247]

I'm putting together a HERMS system with a few sankee kegs. I'm going to be running a pump on the mash tun and one on the HLT to run through a 40 plate heat exchanger and back to the mash tun with a valve inline on the water side to restrict flow .

Anyone tried this? I was thinking of putting the thermocouple in the tun and cycling the water pump on and off with the temperature controller. Is my wort coming out of the heat exchanger going to be too hot ? Should I put the thermocouple after the heat exchanger instead of in the pot? Smaller heat exchanger instead?

 

[outside92129]

Out of curiosity, why not just run tubing through the HLT like the standard HERMS configuration? Simpler, cheaper, and less things to go wrong.

 

[day_trippr]

Considering what one can pull out of the bottom of a MLT, running that through a plate unit could be a headache waiting to happen.

A coil placed in the HLT offers a lot more cross-section to avoid such plugging problems. Seems to have worked for a lot of folks...

Cheers!

 

[wired247]

Plugging isnt really a problem . I have a large inline screen that catches everything there is to catch after my lauter screen. I also have a few extra 30 and 40 plate heat exchangers. If it works OK I was going to possibly try the HLT as an electric pressurized pot boiler with controls and pressure relief set at 250 ish and possibly even give it a go as a heat source for the boil as well.

 

[audger]

Should I put the thermocouple after the heat exchanger instead of in the pot?

thats what i did. if you arent measuring the temp of the wort coming out of the HEX (the hottest point) then you have no idea if you are overheating it.

 

[Bsquared]

I did this for a few batches, but used my counter flow chiller. Hot water from the HLT pumped through the outer line and the mash through the inner. I had a thermo coupler at the output of the exchanger and one in the mash tun. I used the one in the mash to control the HLT pump, and just used the one at the out put to monitor the temp coming out. The pump from the mash I kept as continuous.

It worked fine, but I have put a coil in my HLT, and will be pumping through it now. I wanted to use my counterflow chiller exclusively for chilling.