New Budget(ish) HERMS.

by **ockelford** » Fri Jul 24, 2015 10:36

Hello all...

Today this is happening...

by **BarnsleyBrewer** » Fri Jul 24, 2015 10:46

Should get a good system from those little beauties... Keep the pictures coming of your build. :thumb:

by **mark1964** » Fri Jul 24, 2015 11:08

Good luck pics please

by **pittsy** » Fri Jul 24, 2015 16:44

looks like someone's got the brew bug

I love herms it so much easier and opens the door to lots of choice .

by **Adrian_98_uk** » Fri Jul 24, 2015 18:45

I'd love a HERMS but don't fancy doing the wiring quite yet

by **pittsy** » Fri Jul 24, 2015 19:32

Adrian_98_uk wrote:I'd love a HERMS but don't fancy doing the wiring quite yet

My first herms was just a pump 2 pots and some copper coil with a gas burner and just monitored temp by sight and switched gas on or off , no wires .

by **ockelford** » Fri Jul 24, 2015 20:25

Hi chaps and chapesses!

What a day! Anyhow, I've got to the back broken on all the major jobs that involve hacking metal thingies and slicing fingers open.....

So the brewery needs to be brought out of storage and assembled at the front of the house(we have a dead end access road and cool neighbours) every time, so I built a timber frame that could be stored in the office:

This before we got serious with the tools (my mate Rick who is a talented plumber! )

So we got the wort chiller and a boiler complete:

Also, got the mash tun and herms pot done (some genius Pipe
Bending from Rick) and some nifty soldering into the tank fittings.

Finally ended up with some thing like this:

Still to do: sort all the connections, silicon seals, pumps, pt100s, a few electrical connections etc etc...

Basically nothing I can't do in 20 minute bite size chunks.

My fantastic wife recommended I get the brewery set up, but while she didn't realise how big this project was going to be, she's been very ok with it. Must take her out for dinner!

Ps watch think of the herms? And yes that is my blood on the wood...

by **ockelford** » Sat Jul 25, 2015 10:55

pittsy wrote:looks like someone's got the brew bug I love herms it so much easier and opens the door to lots of choice .

Hi pittsy, what extra choices would you say are available over a 3 tier gravity system?

by **BarnsleyBrewer** » Sat Jul 25, 2015 13:29

Looking good. :thumb:

by **Dennis King** » Sat Jul 25, 2015 14:05

Great photos

by **bobsbeer** » Sat Jul 25, 2015 14:27

Looking great. I'm not sure I have made anything that doesn't have some of my blood sweat and tears in it. :lol:

by **pittsy** » Sat Jul 25, 2015 16:45

ockelford wrote:
pittsy wrote:looks like someone's got the brew bug I love herms it so much easier and opens the door to lots of choice .

Hi pittsy, what extra choices would you say are available over a 3 tier gravity system?

Step mashing is easy with herms with 3 tire or single pot and allows you to brew weiss beers and such like without any problems and also gives you clear beer into the fv .

by **ockelford** » Sat Jul 25, 2015 20:32

pittsy wrote:
ockelford wrote:
pittsy wrote:looks like someone's got the brew bug I love herms it so much easier and opens the door to lots of choice .

Hi pittsy, what extra choices would you say are available over a 3 tier gravity system?

Step mashing is easy with herms with 3 tire or single pot and allows you to brew weiss beers and such like without any problems and also gives you clear beer into the fv .

Fair enough. I think I did the right thing!

by **PhatFil** » Sat Jul 25, 2015 20:53

Looking Grand

But you say you cut the fingers but I cant see any proof:) real breweries are built with sweat n blood

plumbers blood doesn't count only brewers blood holds the magic hehe.

by **pittsy** » Sat Jul 25, 2015 20:54

If you want a strong beer with plenty of body then mash low for most of it and finish high for body , like an ipa . Mashing low for a short time then finishing off high for most of the mash could give you a session saison instead of a sipper .also most German recipes also ask for 2 or 3 mash temps so now will be easy to do :thumb:

by **ockelford** » Sun Jul 26, 2015 10:09

pittsy wrote:If you want a strong beer with plenty of body then mash low for most of it and finish high for body , like an ipa . Mashing low for a short time then finishing off high for most of the mash could give you a session saison instead of a sipper .also most German recipes also ask for 2 or 3 mash temps so now will be easy to do

I see what you mean actually, my brother and I did infusion multistep mashing with a plastic bucket brewery. The whole process was stressful. Now its as simple as upping the number on a digital display, i can see that being an easy option. Looking forward to it, maybe a witbier or something similar...

by **ockelford** » Fri Aug 21, 2015 18:10

Quick update:

I have all my ingredients for my first brew and the equipment is nearly all done...

Just testing the HERMS parts and its raising the temp nicely...

The rest of the working parts are all done too, including the boiler:

The copper has all been degreased and oxides and sulphates dissolved in citric acid. Just testing and calibrating and a final rinse down and we are good to go!

Aiming for the bank holiday.

by **mark1964** » Sat Aug 22, 2015 06:38

you've done a great job looking very similar to our herms set up. A herms is also good for repeating the same beers over and over so if you make a special one it can be done in just the same way next time

by **ockelford** » Sat Aug 22, 2015 08:40

Thanks mark1964. After months of obsessive behaviour and good old fashioned pottering, that's exactly what I need to hear!

The plastic 3v system I built was a bridge job and it always went wrong and failed to keep temps etc.

I'm very excited to have a brew day with this gear... Just need to wait for good weather now!

by **mark1964** » Sat Aug 22, 2015 08:54

have fun