Ok, I'm new to this forum but not to brewing. I've been extract and crude all grain brewing for 15 or 20 years. I've finally made the jump to designing and building a brew stand. I've fallen in love with the HERMS process but want to use propane heat. I guess that makes it a p-HERMS. The plan is a 3 keg system all on one level using two pumps and burners under the HLT and BK.
Anyway, I thought I had a good understanding or idea of how to monitor control and adjust mash temperature. I was planning to use a PID to monitor HLT temp measured in the HLT and turn on and off the burner. The temp, guessing now, would be set to 180 F and maintained. A second PID would monitor mash temp in the MLT and with a re circulation pump running continuously open and close solenoid valves to divert wort through the HEX or a bypass loop depending on if heat is needed or not. I thought the denaturing of enzymes due to the high temp HLT would not be significant enough to worry about but I'd get much faster response in changing temps for step mashes and mash out.
Now I have seen several alternatives like turning the pump on and off, or using only a single PID monitoring mash temp but controlling the HLT burner. Many of the posts that I've read just don't give quite enough detail for me to feel like I fully understand. I'm curious about the details of how some of you experienced HERMS brewers are doing it. This is your chance to brag about your system and all it's pros and cons. Details on how and where you monitor and adjust temp as well as why you choose that method would be great.
Thanks
Thanks
Anyway, I thought I had a good understanding or idea of how to monitor control and adjust mash temperature. I was planning to use a PID to monitor HLT temp measured in the HLT and turn on and off the burner. The temp, guessing now, would be set to 180 F and maintained. A second PID would monitor mash temp in the MLT and with a re circulation pump running continuously open and close solenoid valves to divert wort through the HEX or a bypass loop depending on if heat is needed or not. I thought the denaturing of enzymes due to the high temp HLT would not be significant enough to worry about but I'd get much faster response in changing temps for step mashes and mash out.
Now I have seen several alternatives like turning the pump on and off, or using only a single PID monitoring mash temp but controlling the HLT burner. Many of the posts that I've read just don't give quite enough detail for me to feel like I fully understand. I'm curious about the details of how some of you experienced HERMS brewers are doing it. This is your chance to brag about your system and all it's pros and cons. Details on how and where you monitor and adjust temp as well as why you choose that method would be great.
Thanks
Thanks