For sparging - if you move the hose from the top of the HLT to the bottom of the HERMS, and the hose from the bottom of the HERMS to the Boil Kettle (BK), then you will clean your HERMS coil while you are sparging, thus saving time during cleaning. Additionally, to increase efficiencies during the ~ 45 min sparge, you want to let the wort in the MT drop to the top of the grain bed…then you want to add sparge water to the top of the grain and match the flow so that you have about an inch of water on top of the grain bed until you have added your desired amount of sparge water. Just an old school homebrewer trying to help. Looks like an excellent system. Cheers!

@michaeljames3509

3 жыл бұрын

Old school, the liquid in a mashtun is extract and when hops are added to extract it becomes wort, or no?

Great job!!!

The controller is AWESOME!!! "Complex things aren't necessarily, useful, simple things are." Kalashnikov. Although, mash pH may be within range, depending on the volume of hot extract, and the length of time hot extract recirculates through a grain bed, over sparge occurs, which extracts tannin, especially, when malt is poorly, crushed, when the rollers are set at one gap, not taking into consideration malt varies in size, moisture content, hardness, etc.. When 2 qt. per minute of hot extract recirculates for one hour, 30 gallons of extract flows through a grain bed sized for a small batch of beer, then, during mash out, hotter extract is recirculated to raise mash temperature to mash out temperature, and to maintain temperature during the rest period. After that, more water is ran through the grain bed during sparge. Tannin extraction is a time, temperature, pH thing, and that is why vorlauf is kept within 10 minutes. Mash out isn't needed in the infusion method because enzymes are long gone by the time the saccharification rest ends. Mash out is used in the decoction method because the brewing method preserves enzymes by using thick mash, and low temperatures. The thinner the mash the quicker Alpha works. The higher the temperature, the quicker Alpha denatures. After 30 minutes into the saccharification rest, test for starch with Iodine, if starch liquefied, sparge, nothing more will happen. There is no sense in continuing recirculation for 30, 40 more minutes, and risk tannin extraction. Regarding efficiency, the temperatures that are used to make home made beer aren't high enough to burst amylopectin, which is very rich, heat resistant, complex starch that makes up the tips of malt, before Alpha denatures, and the richest starch in malt, paid for, is thrown out with the spent mash. When Alpha liquefies amylopectin, dextrinization, and gelatinization occur. Although, feeding chickens with the starch is OK, it's better to make beer with it because amylopectin contains the ingredients that provides body and mouthfeel in beer. Mash is boiled to take advantage of the starch. When the starch is thrown out, beer dries and thins during fermentation, and conditioning, and that's one of the reasons why homebrew is artificially carbonated, and drank, green, in about three or four weeks, basically, from a sealed, secondary fermenter. In homebrewing, higher efficiency is achieved, than in a Lab that uses expensive test equipment. Efficiency is listed on the malt spec sheet that comes with every bag of malt, which is used in brewing for determining the quality of malt, before the malt is purchased. Malt spec sheets are online from every malthouse, it provides E Caveat Emptor. Recipes, not indicating the malthouse that produced the malt cannot be trusted because the brewer cannot obtain the malt spec sheet. A recipe recommending single temperature infusion, which is used in grain distillation, more than likely includes high modified, to over modified, high protein, malt, which is OK for making distillers beer. Due too the way that enzymes function, and chemical precipitation, strike and target temperature are pretty much useless for making ale and lager, unless homebrew malt contains something special that allows enzymes in the malt to work at a single, high temperature, and one pH, in one hour, without denaturing. The high temperature that recipes recommend denatures low temperature activated enzymes that are required for making ale and lager, Beta in particular. Beta is responsible for conversion at 140 to 145F. Homebrew extract contains mostly simple sugar, glucose, and depending on the rest temperature, more or less, sweet tasting, nonfermenting types of sugar. The extract lacks fermentable, complex sugar (maltose and maltotriose), tasteless, nonfermenting types of sugar (limit dextrin), pectin, and a type of protein responsible for head retention. The brewing method skips conversion, dextrinization, and gelatinization. To produce pseudo, ale and lager with HERMS and RIMS, the brewing system has to be capable of step mashing, and reaching each temperature step within 10 minutes. For the brewing method to work, malt has to be under modified, and low in protein, which is brewers grade, malt. Under modified, malt is richer in enzyme content, than high modified, malt, and low protein, malt contains more sugar. Brewers grade, malt is 40 Kolbach and lower, and contains less than 10 percent protein. Homebrew malt can be 52 Kolbach and 16 percent protein. The higher the modification and protein content, the less suitable the malt is for making ale and lager, but very suitable for making distillers beer. Modification (Kolbach, S/T, SNR) and percentage of protein are important numbers listed on a malt spec sheet.

I never really understood the operation of a HERMS system until today ... thank you.

@HomebrewHappyHour

2 жыл бұрын

Thank you for tuning in and commenting!

First comment! Nice system! Ask for forgiveness later? 😌hmm

The website is evasive- how much is it? It calculates shipping cost before I even know how much it is? I have to create an account to determine cost? Idiotic. Sinister. Do better

@HomebrewHappyHour

2 жыл бұрын

Which website, Mark? If you're referring to the Brautag site direct then I don't know what "calculated" shipping you could be referring to or "create an account to determine cost". I'm sorry that something seemed to really ruin your Christmas Eve! You can buy a system thru Kegconnection or Kegoutlet (shown at the bottom of the Brautag's site) right now for only $3500 plus shipping. I hope that helps you! www.kegconnection.com/brautag-3-vessel-herms-20-gallon-brewing-system/

@markhaneklau5021

2 жыл бұрын

@@HomebrewHappyHour thank you for your prompt reply! Happy Holidays and happy brewing!