PopNLochNessMonsta
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- Oct 11, 2012
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By day I'm a heat transfer/fluid engineer who works with all kinds of heat exchange, control, and piping systems. About 5 months ago I made the move to electric brewing, and for a while I've been toying with building a HERMS system for a challenge.
Anyway, I've always looked at the HERMS diagrams and wondered if they could be simplified, especially because my brewing space (large apartment bathroom) is a bit space-limited to have 3 big vessels sitting there all the time. So I sat down for a while today and I think I've come up with a significantly simplified (and probably cheaper?) full brew system design. Here's the diagram!
I forgot to add a legend to the pic. The circles with X's in them are all valves. The ones with 2 connections are just ball valves, the ones with 3 connections are 3-way diverter valves. The "TC" in the mash tun is a thermocouple.
Features/advantages:
So anyway.... I'm pretty stoked about it and it'll probably become my next project. Just hoping to share the diagram, see if something like this is already out there, and get another set of eyes in case I forgot something.
Thanks for checking it out!
Anyway, I've always looked at the HERMS diagrams and wondered if they could be simplified, especially because my brewing space (large apartment bathroom) is a bit space-limited to have 3 big vessels sitting there all the time. So I sat down for a while today and I think I've come up with a significantly simplified (and probably cheaper?) full brew system design. Here's the diagram!
I forgot to add a legend to the pic. The circles with X's in them are all valves. The ones with 2 connections are just ball valves, the ones with 3 connections are 3-way diverter valves. The "TC" in the mash tun is a thermocouple.
Features/advantages:
- Only two vessels (mash tun and a combined HLT/BK)
- Only one heat exchanger for both heating the mash and wort chilling (I use a counterflow HX)
- Never have to move a pot, hose, or heat exchanger. Everything from grain to fermenter can be done with valves and switches. Manipulating the valves will allow you to: (1) pump hot water to the mash tun, (2) recirc wort and hot water through the HX, (3) drain hot water from the HLT/BK, (4) pump wort to the HLT/BK for the boil, (5) chill wort and send it to the fermenter, and (6) flush all the lines with boiling water to clean them.
- Only one PID controller (two if you want to control the HLT temp)
So anyway.... I'm pretty stoked about it and it'll probably become my next project. Just hoping to share the diagram, see if something like this is already out there, and get another set of eyes in case I forgot something.
Thanks for checking it out!