Hello to all,
Wanted to post my first HERMS brew experience in order to trouble shoot some issues and de-stress.
I have been brewing for over 3 years and made the move to an electric HERMS 10 gallon system, electric control panel, 15 gallon HLT and BK, 16 gallon Mash Tun, counter flow chiller, dual pumps etc. A Kal and short circuit brewers clone more or less minus the larger vent hoods.
The brew that was made was a 5 gallon batch APA.
3 1/2 gallon mash in
fly sparge to follow to boil volume
Ill list the issues encountered for feed back from you guys.
1. when douging in, 3 gallons of the strike water was below the false bottom, leaving 1/2 a gallon or so above. mash consistency when doug in was like thick oatmeal and was able to be moistened. better consistency when mashing commenced. is this ok or normal?
2. when cooling via counter flow chiller and whirlpool arm, temperature drop was very nice and rapid until a clog was encountered somewhere between the BK and wort pump. During clean up and rinse, I noticed the wort pump wouldnt move water from the now clean BK containing hot water into the wort pump via hose and out said pump. The out side of the pump just spit a little bit of foam. Possible clog in the wort pump? Should I take the pump head off and inspect?
3. Due to the clog, the whirlpool didnt center the trub and hop debri, therefore it mostly went into the stainless conical.
4. I noticed in Kal's brew instructions on his web site, he dough's in at his set temp. Beer smith has me striking at a higher temp as previous brews and then it drops to set temp for mash time. Any pro or con for not striking higher than at mash set temp?
Also, Kal recommended that mash out was not always necessary going into fly sparge but beer smith still lists a mash out for 10 minutes and then into fly sparging. Any suggestions pro or con?
Other than dripping condensation from my vent hood of 350 cfm, those were my stressers.
Thank you to all who reply. sorry in advance for typos
chris
Wanted to post my first HERMS brew experience in order to trouble shoot some issues and de-stress.
I have been brewing for over 3 years and made the move to an electric HERMS 10 gallon system, electric control panel, 15 gallon HLT and BK, 16 gallon Mash Tun, counter flow chiller, dual pumps etc. A Kal and short circuit brewers clone more or less minus the larger vent hoods.
The brew that was made was a 5 gallon batch APA.
3 1/2 gallon mash in
fly sparge to follow to boil volume
Ill list the issues encountered for feed back from you guys.
1. when douging in, 3 gallons of the strike water was below the false bottom, leaving 1/2 a gallon or so above. mash consistency when doug in was like thick oatmeal and was able to be moistened. better consistency when mashing commenced. is this ok or normal?
2. when cooling via counter flow chiller and whirlpool arm, temperature drop was very nice and rapid until a clog was encountered somewhere between the BK and wort pump. During clean up and rinse, I noticed the wort pump wouldnt move water from the now clean BK containing hot water into the wort pump via hose and out said pump. The out side of the pump just spit a little bit of foam. Possible clog in the wort pump? Should I take the pump head off and inspect?
3. Due to the clog, the whirlpool didnt center the trub and hop debri, therefore it mostly went into the stainless conical.
4. I noticed in Kal's brew instructions on his web site, he dough's in at his set temp. Beer smith has me striking at a higher temp as previous brews and then it drops to set temp for mash time. Any pro or con for not striking higher than at mash set temp?
Also, Kal recommended that mash out was not always necessary going into fly sparge but beer smith still lists a mash out for 10 minutes and then into fly sparging. Any suggestions pro or con?
Other than dripping condensation from my vent hood of 350 cfm, those were my stressers.
Thank you to all who reply. sorry in advance for typos
chris