Installing a HERMS coil

[VladTheImbiber]

Hi,

I'm new to brewing so forgive my choice of words, but I purchased an already made brew rig that came with a nice HLT. At the top are 3 stainless bulk heads. One to recirculate water and two to hook up a HERMS coil (I assume). Problem is, the bulk heads are elbows (pointing down) and at the top of the pot (15gal pot I think?). All coils I see online for purchase have the ends horizontal to be installed by drilling new holes in a new pot I assume (towards the middle or bottom of the pot). In my case, I need the ends of the coil vertical to connect to the elbows and to extend to the top of the pot.

I know copper is easy to kink (and would tarnish?), is stainless a better choice or am I thinking about this all wrong? Can stainless be easily bent without damage?

PS> I wish I could find a photo of an existing setup like the one I describe above.

 

[phishheadmi]

I have no practical experience with this, but I've read that filling the tube with salt will help keep it from kinking while bending. Could your 90* elbow be a removable dip tube or something? Check bargain fittings.com they have all kinds of parts perhaps you could remove the elbow and connect directly to the herms?

 

[microbusbrewery]

I've never tried to bend stainless tubing, but my understanding is it's very difficult without tools/machines. You could have one made to your specifications, but I wouldn't recommend trying to bend it yourself.

FWIW, I have a copper coil I made for my standalone HEX on my HERMS. Soft copper is easy to work with. For sharp bends like a 90 degree elbow, just use a standard 90 copper elbow fitting and sweat the joint. I'd consider some kind of removable joint between the coil and the pot fittings, just in case you ever need to disassemble things. On mine I used compression to MPT fittings for the bulkhead.

 

[FuzzeWuzze]

If i understand correctly you have two of these near the top of the pot facing directly down? I assume they are side by side and not stacked on top of eachother?

http://www.bargainfittings.com/index.php?route=product/product&path=36_56&product_id=126

The previous owner probably used a harvested(or diy) immersion chiller with the coil ends coming straight up into the compression fittings, this isnt ideal because it makes fully draining the coil pretty much impossible short of blowing air through it with a shopvac or something. Ideally you'd have the outputs stacked vertically so the coil is horizontal(as you mentioned most are) and gravity drains it out the bottom port. You also lose all the wort thats in the coil.

Stainless will be a bit easier to keep clean and as you said not tarnish, but copper maybe easier to use for your somewhat unique setup.

That said the guys at Stainlessbrewing are top notch and this more or less is what you need
http://www.stainlessbrewing.com/10-...mentor-coil-Currently-out-of-stock_p_244.html

But you would want to get the specifics for how far apart you need the two inputs coming back into be and how long you want the vertical arms to be as well as how big of a diameter you are working with for the coil. They are all custom made anyways so they probably wouldnt charge much extra for a few mods. Its where i bought my standard 50' HERMS coil and it works great.

It may be just as easy to drill your own holes properly spaced and put in some weldless bulkheads to hold a more normal HERMS coil.

 

[VladTheImbiber]

I never thought about how to drain the coil. Attached is a photo and you can see how high up the elbows are through the bulk head.

I plan on running sparge water through the coil to at least clean the coil for the most part (during sparging) but didn't think about draining.

 

[microbusbrewery]

I never thought about how to drain the coil. Attached is a photo and you can see how high up the elbows are through the bulk head.

I plan on running sparge water through the coil to at least clean the coil for the most part (during sparging) but didn't think about draining.

It does seem like kind of odd the way the previous owner did it. You can just flip it upside down to drain it. If you have an air compressor that you can use to give it a little blast it'll clear out better.