Question for HERMS users

[McCuckerson]

Hi everybody,

Yesterday I completed the inaugural brew on my new HERMS. The brew went great; no-cill, no-sparge American Amber @ 70% eff. I really cannot complain about that. I did notice a few things that fellow HERMS users could help me out with:

1.) I noticed that the spent grains were piled up against 1 side of the keggle. I was unaware that nozzle/difuzer design was an issue with HERMS as I just had the outlet hose suspended in the mash. Can this lower efficiency or does the recirculating mash mix all of that up?

2.) My 2000w electric element mounted in a cooler is starting to rust after a test run and one brew session. Is this typical? I was thinking of using the HEX water to sparge with but I cannot if it has rust in it. Is this normal?

Thanks everybody!

 

[The Pol]

I never had the grain pile up on one side of the MLT, does your recirc come out with a lot of force? Is it not gently flowing into the pool of water above the mash?

As for the rust, that is typical. This is why water heaters have annodes.

 

[McCuckerson]

I never had the grain pile up on one side of the MLT, does your recirc come out with a lot of force? Is it not gently flowing into the pool of water above the mash?

As for the rust, that is typical. This is why water heaters have annodes.

I had my valve wide open, I was in awe of the March's power..... Should I not have done that?

 

[The Pol]

I had my valve wide open, I was in awe of the March's power..... Should I not have done that?

If it isnt hurting your eff. it really doesnt matter. Glad you like the March, I have a couple LGs now and will see how they work next week on a wet run.

 

[McCuckerson]

If it isnt hurting your eff. it really doesnt matter. Glad you like the March, I have a couple LGs now and will see how they work next week on a wet run.

March worked well. I mounted it low (thanks for sharing your early priming problems) and had no problems priming at all. It was really nice to not have to stand over a cooler and watch the thermometer to see if I needed to add hot or cold water!!!! HERMS is awesome!

 

[The Pol]

March worked well. I mounted it low (thanks for sharing your early priming problems) and had no problems priming at all. It was really nice to not have to stand over a cooler and watch the thermometer to see if I needed to add hot or cold water!!!! HERMS is awesome!

HERMS is awesome... makes brewing easy doesnt it?

Glad the pump worked well.

 

[McCuckerson]

HERMS is awesome... makes brewing easy doesnt it?

Glad the pump worked well.

I just looked at you gallery to see what you are up to. You dog!!!!!! They are beautiful!!!!!! There you go putting ideas in my head again..... expensive ideas......

 

[The Pol]

I just looked at you gallery to see what you are up to. You dog!!!!!! They are beautiful!!!!!! There you go putting ideas in my head again..... expensive ideas......

It is a beast of a build... it will be my greatest creation yet. Once rhe brew rigs wireless bridge arrives, it will be finished... Mounted pumps today etc...

 

[OLDBREW]

If you are just running the hose into the top of the grainbed, you are probably creating some channeling. You will make out a lot better using a diffuser

this work very well. you can lay it on top of the level grainbed

 

[Bobby_M]

You don't need to run the pump balls out during recirculation and it's actually not a good idea. You can really compact the grainbed into a solid block of "concrete" doing that.

 

[Douglefish]

I never had the grain pile up on one side of the MLT, does your recirc come out with a lot of force? Is it not gently flowing into the pool of water above the mash?

As for the rust, that is typical. This is why water heaters have annodes.

Are you saying that the rust is unavoidable? I've got a 5500W Ultra low heating element in my kettle and that doesn't seem to rust. My element in my little head exchanger does rust. I thought that this was because I did something wrong? How do you prevent yours from rusting?

 

[The Pol]

Are you saying that the rust is unavoidable? I've got a 5500W Ultra low heating element in my kettle and that doesn't seem to rust. My element in my little head exchanger does rust. I thought that this was because I did something wrong? How do you prevent yours from rusting?

Some people accept the rust, some people coat the base with high temp. food grade paint/epoxy or something like that.

 

[Douglefish]

Will Rust in any way hurt your beer?

So I'm hearing that only the base of the element is what rusts?

Thanks for the help Pol

 

[McCuckerson]

You don't need to run the pump balls out during recirculation and it's actually not a good idea. You can really compact the grainbed into a solid block of "concrete" doing that.

Good point! I know that now, like I said: first time with the new HERMS. It was really awesome though. It felt like a real brewery: pump running, heater cycling..... it was cool!