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HERMS equipment profile??

LaserSnake

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Hello Everyone,

Long time watcher, first time poster!

I have a 3 vessel electric HERMS system that I built myself (a 30l version of the electric brewery style). I am setting up an equipment profile and am a bit confused about loses.

To sparge I pump water through my HERMS coil and in to my mash tun (which is then pumped out of there in to the boil using a different pump). I am wondering if my lauter tun loses should be 0?? My thoughts on this are there is no mashed wort left in the coil or hoses, there is obviously dead space in my mash tun and loses to hoses/pump to the kettle but by the time i finish sparging its pretty much just clear running water.

Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated.
 
Any wort that doesn't make it to the kettle is loss.

Any additional water needed to fill the HERMS or space below a false bottom AND is recoverable into the kettle is Mash Tun Addition.

Your water/grain ratio will then strictly relate to the total grain weight.
 
This tutorial will walk you through everything you need to know.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwEbjOt8OR8&t=7s
 
I sparge until I get to my boil volume.. and late in the sparge the liquid coming out of the mash tun in to the kettle is basically clear/water like. Is this still a loss even though its practically water? I assume it doesnt contain much fermentable goodness!
 
In accounting for total water needed to make a batch, yes. It doesn't get to the kettle, but it would be part of the calculations in the water tab of the recipe.

Are you measuring the final runnings gravity?
 
LaserSnake said:
I sparge until I get to my boil volume.. and late in the sparge the liquid coming out of the mash tun in to the kettle is basically clear/water like. Is this still a loss even though its practically water? I assume it doesnt contain much fermentable goodness!

Be careful because over sparging can be damaging to your beer. Doing so can raise the PH of the mash creating tannins and giving your beer an unwanted astringent quality.
 
Kevin58 said:
Be careful because over sparging can be damaging to your beer. Doing so can raise the PH of the mash creating tannins and giving your beer an unwanted astringent quality.

+1 for this. I had started down this same path with my response, but pulled back. I wanted to see if he was measuring gravity before suggesting a fix to a problem that might not exist.
 
I too have been struggling to hit my numbers and final post boil volume using a Ruby Street Fusion 15 gallon all electric system. Between the 3,4,4,7,9 foot hoses, two pumps and the HERMS system I've gradually increased my volumes to account for the dead space losses in the system. I've also gradually increased my ingredients to end up with an 8.5 gallon preboil volume which, last brew day, finally resulted in a full 6.0 gallon carboy and 5 gallon keg. My next batch will only be my 10th and the learning curve was definitely a lot steeper in the beginning.


I haven't yet found a blog yet for the Fusion 15 system. Would love to share the few tricks I've learned and search for advice from others. Quite surprised Ruby Street Brewing doesn't have a blog on their website.


Cheers!
 
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