Turbo for the HLT

[bf514921]

Over the years i have been slowly refining my process of brewing, upgrading equipment all the fun things over 15+ years of brewing. One of my pinch points in my process is heating up the HLT(15 gallon hlt i keep full of water for brew day, i fill it back up after initial strike, and after sparge as well) It can talk some time. My current system is 240 with a 5500 watt heating element for the HLT. I decided to add a little extra kick to the system in the form of a rims tube with an addition 1650 watts of heating to speed up the re-heating process during the brew day. In addition to the speed up, it runs on 120, and a separate circuit. Didn't need to add any additional house wiring. I am sure its been done before, but thought i would share. it can be an easy way to speed up the process of the brew day without tons of extra equipment and cost. i Made it part of the recirculation loop on my HLT.

 

[Deadalus]

I like the Inkbird controller, I am using one to run a small electric boil kettle for small batches (3 gallons). I realized that I could also use this kettle to heat strike water in on a regular 120 circuit vs my EHERMs 240 circuit. I have a keggle EHERMs system and brew mostly 6 gallon batches (90%) and then some 10 gallons (10%). What size batches are you making, 10 gallons? Can you describe where you are losing time in a little more detail? On a 6 gallon batch, I could just draw the strike water out of the HLT. Since the HLT and the strike water will be over mash temp, I usually replace about a gallon of water. That cools the HLT down to about where I need it for mashing. Usually what I do though is to heat the strike water in the MT. I still end up adding cold water to the HLT to drop the temperature. My specific reason for heating in the MT is so that I get all my RO water situated without too much need for gallon jugs. Now on a 10 gallon batch, I can't recall if I ever overcooled the water by refilling to the top of the coil after taking the strike water. My process is to keep the coil submerged, with as little water above it as possible and I don't usually pull the strike water out of the HLT. Heating the strike water in the MT is front loading the time requirement, but I use that time to mill and prepare water salts. Were you getting a temperature dropoff below mashing temperature when refilling the strike water? And maybe you are brewing 15 gallons even. I am not seeing exactly where you are losing time on the HLT strike water refill. I am not understanding at all what you are refilling the HLT for after sparging and needing to heat the water back up? You have a 30 amp panel. I can see losing time there by wanting to heat the HLT after the sparge as that would definitely delay the boil. No matter what, your system will be operating quicker as your ramp up times will improve.

 

[bf514921]

Doing 5 gallon batch, I refill the Hlt with room temperature water and takes a bit of time to reheat and then start my herms recirculation, really trying to cut down that time. Then after sparge I add back more water and heat for cleaning

 

[bf514921]

The hlt does go below mash temp when adding back the room temperature water.

 

[Deadalus]

How big is your HLT? This is just a hypothesis, in my view the optimal level of water in a HERMS would be at about the top of the coil. If you would like to limit the amount of time and energy involved from a strike water replenishment, fill the HLT to above the coil as much as possible (the remaining headspace) minus the volume of water you need to add to drop the HLT temperature back down from strike temperature to the mash temperature you need. We also want the water level to be just above the coil after this addition. This avoids unnecessarily heating the water above the coil, as it is most likely unnecessary. I'll give an example.

Suppose my keggle can hold 14 gallons, my coil top sits at the 10 gallon mark, and I need 4 gallons of strike water at 163F. If I heat the 14 gallons in the HLT to 160 and take the four gallons out, I will have 10 gallons of 163F water left right to the top of the coil. Ok, but I need the HLT to be about +3 (system dependent) vs the mash temp in the MT. So I need to drop the HLT to say 155F if I want to mash at 152. This might be roughly a one gallon addition. [Depends on your system and faucet temp.] If I add that gallon, I will be at 11 gallons in the HLT. That's one gallon more than I will ever need later so why heat it up? Same reason not to refill to 14 gallons. Instead, start with 13 gallons, dropping the HLT to 9 gallins after the strike, and adding one gallon back to top off at 10 gallons. You won't need 10 gallons of sparge water. I think this is the optimal approach for 5 gallons in most any HERMS without another heat source. You might need to approach ir even use the max HLT volume for larger 10 gallon grain bills. I have only just recently started paying close attention to the HLT volume and I don't do 10 gallon batches frequently enough to be more confident about the necessary volumes. If you use brewing software, you could review past recipes for strike and sparge volumes needed to determine whether you may need to max out your HLT initially. It may be common for 10 gallon batches but definitely not needed as much for 5 gallons. And for all my five and ten gallon recipes, I've never needed more water than the coil height. There's always some left over in the HLT and I never top off after sparging.

I think you are wasting time unnecessarily replenishing sparge water, particularly on a 30 amp system where you have to choose between the HLT and BK. I fly sparge, so I keep the HLT at 170F. This requires some input of heat so I can't fire the BK. I can switch elements once all the sparge water is in the MT while still draining. On a 5 gallon batch, I can be close to boiling by the end of sparging, 10 gallons a little longer. I think you may be creating an unnecessary loss of time by refilling and heating water after sparging. Now you could use your RIMS alone to keep your sparge water at 170F if fly sparging or even to heat the additional water you put in to replenish the sparge water. That would free up your 5500W element to start firing your BK. But you have to wait for the element to get covered in wort. Maybe you already thought of that too.

 

[bf514921]

15 gallon kettle. It takes about 11-12 gallons to have the herms coil covered. When sparging i like to start from full so it is easier to see the volume markings

Hindsight being 20/20 i definitely should have had a 50 amp put in instead of the 30 amp.

For a 5 gallon batch i really only need 8-10 gallons for the wort, however i usually have about 25 gallons of RO water. I use whatever RO water that is left for cleaning with the PBW and rinsing.

 

[IDMaynard]

Over the years i have been slowly refining my process of brewing, upgrading equipment all the fun things over 15+ years of brewing. One of my pinch points in my process is heating up the HLT(15 gallon hlt i keep full of water for brew day, i fill it back up after initial strike, and after sparge as well) It can talk some time. My current system is 240 with a 5500 watt heating element for the HLT. I decided to add a little extra kick to the system in the form of a rims tube with an addition 1650 watts of heating to speed up the re-heating process during the brew day. In addition to the speed up, it runs on 120, and a separate circuit. Didn't need to add any additional house wiring. I am sure its been done before, but thought i would share. it can be an easy way to speed up the process of the brew day without tons of extra equipment and cost. i Made it part of the recirculation loop on my HLT.View attachment 865696

Will your controller handle an additional 5500W element in the HLT?

 

[bf514921]

No, it's only a 30amp panel