Herms

[Tom C]

It has been a while since I have posted here last and have missed the lively chat and useful tips. Have no fear though, the brewing continued. One thing I have been thinking of doing though is moving towards a HERMS like system.

I have a home made built three tier system plumbed with copper fittings, pump and a counter flow chiller. I have an immersion chiller that I have not used but kept as a back up. I was wondering if I could use this as a heat exchanger as part of a HERMS system. From the Mash tun I would have one hose attached to the immersion chiller that is sitting in a set temp body of water. One the other end have another tube that leads to the pump and back into the mash. My only concerns to this is:

1. the pump rate (should only be about a gallon per minute yes?)
2. possible airation of the mas due to different size connections from the immersion chiller to the pump

Any thoughts?

Tom Callinan

ON TAP: Oct-Bock-Fest, Pumkin Mash and Hoegarrden
IN Queue: Chocolate Hazlenut Porter, Scottish Strong, Victory IPA

[B_rad1969]

It may work. I suppose you could use it either way. I tried to siphon through a 5 gal. bucket with cool water to cool the wort and it didn't work so well. The copper got clogged up and the water heated up way to fast to cool the wort. I know you are going in a different direction though. I'd use 1/2 copper so it doesn't clog. I the HERMS system idea though. Clean the copper well.

[danno]

I built a HERMS in my brew rig, used it a few times, and took it back out. it just wasn't that effective. I had no problems aerating like you're worried about, my biggest problem was that with the length (6' or so) of my hoses, and running through the pump, I had a ton of heat loss, so it just wasn't that effective. it took an hour to raise the temp from 135º to 153º. I used 1/2" copper, and had a coil running through the wall of my HLT. I have pics if you want to see it...

[clcoyle]

Well, that pretty much zorches my idea of doing that. So now I'm back to a RIMS idea.

Funny, how if you just hold off and keep reading things, you start to get a beter idea of what the heck you should do.


73 from N2LC

[Tom C]

Originally posted by danno
I built a HERMS in my brew rig, used it a few times, and took it back out. it just wasn't that effective. I had no problems aerating like you're worried about, my biggest problem was that with the length (6' or so) of my hoses, and running through the pump, I had a ton of heat loss, so it just wasn't that effective. it took an hour to raise the temp from 135º to 153º. I used 1/2" copper, and had a coil running through the wall of my HLT. I have pics if you want to see it...

Of course I would love to see it. I don't think I would use the HERMS as a bumper...more so to stabilize the enitre mash at one temp.

Tom C

[corkybstewart]

This same issue is being discussed in the thread "Upgrading to 10 gallons".

[HogieWan]

Originally posted by Tom C
Of course I would love to see it. I don't think I would use the HERMS as a bumper...more so to stabilize the enitre mash at one temp.

Tom C

I know my mash tun temps are NOT uniform, but I like that. I have higher temps in the middle to leave some unfermentables and lower temps in the edges to dry things up. My thermometer seems to get a good average based on the flavor profile of my last few brews.

[Tom C]

well i just tried a trial run with water only of using my immersion wort chiller as a heat transfer unit and it seemed to pump well (about a gallon per minute). I have the pump attached to my mash tun through a portion of piping on my brew sculpture into one end of the wort chiller. The wort chiller will sit in the hot liquor tank at about 150 degrees f and then be pumped back into the mash just below the top of the mash. to avoid hot side aeration.

I have a great false bottom and am not worried that the pump of the mash will compact the grain bed too much. I will be trying this during an actual mash on Friday and plan to run the herms for 5 minutes every 15 minutes during the mash. It will be interesting to see how things turn out.

Tom C

ON Tap: Choc Haz Porter, Pumpkin Mash, Oct Bock Fest
In que: Victory IPA, Scottish Strong
about to brew Ommengang and turn half into Three Philosophers

[stkn_reefer]

Congrats on the conversion :cool:

One question, in your mash tun are you using a commercially available false bottom or one that you made? Details details!...

[Tom C]

Originally posted by stkn_reefer
Congrats on the conversion :cool:

One question, in your mash tun are you using a commercially available false bottom or one that you made? Details details!...

Commercial it is for a sanke keg so has a flat edge and raised in the middle. Northern Brewer sells them.

Tom C

[Zman]

I've got a herms system that I've been using for almost two years now and I love it. I've seen a lot of posts about the benefits of using a herms system but there are a couple of key Benefits that really make the system worthwhile for me.
1) Higher efficency: my mash efficiencies are 80-85%, which translates to lower cost brewing.
2) quicker overall brewing time: with the herms system my total brewing time is 3-3.5 hours from the time I start the mash to the time I pitch the yeast (this means I can brew after work.. I don't have to use up an entire saturday).
3) the herms mashing system I built is portable and breaks down easily for storage. I don't need a 6 foot monster brewing rack taking up space in my garage or basement.

my website is located at:
www.zamonski.com/herms