HERMS Issues

Chris Norrick · Post by **Chris Norrick** » Tue Oct 31, 2006 5:08 pm

My brewing system is in transition. I'm in the process of making a brew cart and have added a hi-temp pump to make doing 10 gal batches easier. The cart isn't done yet but it was time to brew. I went ahead and set up the pump just to try it out. Then I get the brilliant idea to use my immersion chiller coil for a mash heat coil; essentially a Heat Exchange Recirculating Mash System (HERMS). I have to tell you it worked great. Had a 144 rest, a 156 rest and a 165 mash out. Was able to hit them and actually regulated the mash temp with some control, which I usually can't do.

Here's the problem. I had the coil in my HLT and had the burner on high. The water was boiling. I get to mash out and realize that my sparge water in the HLT is BOILING. A little too hot for sparging. What did I do wrong? Should I have kept the HLT around 180 or so and just have less heat to raise the mash temp? I ended up dumping a lot of the HLT water and adding in cold water to bring the temp down, but the time to took to do that the mash temp had dropped several degrees. Then I ran out of sparge water. In the process of fixing that with a bigger HLT. Anyone else have any experience with a HERMS?

Here's a pic of the temporary setup:
[albumimg]85[/albumimg]

Dwayne_Delaney · Post by **Dwayne_Delaney** » Wed Nov 01, 2006 8:41 pm

Chris Norrick · Post by **Chris Norrick** » Thu Nov 02, 2006 11:23 am

You know you're jealous. It'll be dead sexy if I ever get it done.

Chris Alvey · Post by **Chris Alvey** » Fri Nov 03, 2006 7:33 am

Wow, that thing's looking pretty good there.

I would guess that 180 degree water (as compared to 212) would still raise the mash, just not nearly as quickly. It certainly would be simple to keep it around 180 if you're not in a hurry to get to your next rest step immediately.

I am not sure if a gradual rise from one step to another is good, bad, or indifferent.

jefrey3 · Post by **jefrey3** » Sat Nov 04, 2006 7:45 am

In the brewery, we bring our sparge water to boiling during the mash & recirc. We sterilize the heat exchanger with it while filling the HLT. Then we mix tap water with the hot water on its way to the sparge arm. We can easily adjust the sparge temp with the hot & cold water valves.