New E-HERMS!! What to brew first?

[iamopie2]

Just put together our new Spike Brewing E-HERMS system and it is amazing! I am the officer in charge of the West Point Brewing Club and we are brewing Sunday. What should we brew first?




Note the laser etched West Point Crest they did for us. So cool!

 

[sillbeer]

Head over to www.theelectricbrewery.com and check out their recipes. Their system is very similar to yours. They have an electric pale ale that I'm going to try soon.

 

[jcav]

Congrats on the new system. I have a Kal clone so it's fairly similar to yours. Keep it simple the first time Pale Ale, Blonde Ale, Brown Ale, etc. Also keep track of your first 5 brews and take good notes on efficiency, your volumes into your boil kettle pre boil and and into your fermenter. Get BeerSmith or other software it really helps. Then after 5 brews you will know an average on how your brew house efficiency is and you can adjust the percentage and order the correct amount of grain for future recipies. Once you dial it in your gonna get great efficiency on that rig. Do a mash out each time when your dialing your system in and you will get the correct average. Some people don't always mash out which is fine, but be consistent when your dialing in your system on the first 5 batches.

Good Luck!

John

 

[chudsonvt]

Maybe try a more authentic Witbier with a rest at about 125 deg for so for 20 minutes before stepping up to 152. Traditionally, it is a decoction mash, but it can be great with a HERMs. I do it with flaked wheat and the 20 minutes but you could try a more raw wheat between maybe 120 and 125 for a bit longer. I just haven't gotten that far, myself. I'm still experimenting, but with great results. Flaked isn't supposed to really benefit from a rest at that level but I like the result. But if you go too long with the flaked, you will loose head retention. I did a 40 minute and didn't like the result.

 

[chudsonvt]

Oh, and I'm very jealous.My HERMS is a very manual custom setup with 10 gallon coolers and cheap 12VDC pumps. You have something I can drool over.