HERMS double or triple coil?!

[cod3ck]

I have a HLT keggle I grabbed from a garage sale a couple years back and am looking to upgrade it to a HERMS setup.

There are two 1/2" NPT connections already welded into the keggle that I'd like to tap into for this.

The catch is the connections are only 7" apart vertically and I'd like to fit a 50', 1/2" stainless coil in there...

Has anyone heard or seen a HERMS coil that is a coil within a coil? I'm thinking if I can find some version of this I'll be able to successfully fit the coil into the two separate welded connections.

Any help is much appreciated! [emoji482]

 

[cod3ck]

Never been done huh?! Interesting...

 

[TallDan]

I'm sure if you contact one of the vendors that do custom work you can get something made for you. Seems like a standard SS coil with some custom bends to put the input and output where you need them would do it.

 

[BrewKaiser]

A custom coil such as you describe will be expensive to fabricate. It might be easier and cheaper to add another 1/2 NPT fitting where you need it for a coil already commercially available and repurpose the left over original fitting for your temp probe/gauge, float switch, or just plug it.

 

[stevehaun]

50 ft coil is overkill. You will do fine with a 25 ft coil.

 

[Dcpcooks]

Give stainlessbrewing.com a shout. If it can be made they are probably your best shot. I'd say a shorter coil maybe 25-35' at1/2" will work just fine for 5-10 gallon batches. I have a 50' 1/2" coil in my 30g set up and it's plenty big enough for fast ramps on 15-20 gallon batches.

 

[stevehaun]

In my system, I can measure HLT temp and temp of wort just past the exit of the HERMS coil. These temps are always within 1F. My coil is 25 ft long. Once the temp of the wort is equal to that of the HLT, adding length does not improve heat exchange. A longer coil adds cost and more resistance to flow.