I'm having big issues with my Herms system .. after i mash in my temp drops witch is expected but as i start running wort through the herms the temp drops about 15 deg and sometimes 20deg and i cant get it to rise no matter what .. also im getting stuck sparges and run off to the boil kettle. I checked my grain crush and its fine my question is .. am i not letting rest long enough ? is the pump sucking so hard that its compacting the grain bed or posibly is my false bottom to small ... i didnt think i needed to insulate my 55g mash drum for this system or insulate my hoses but would that help ?
Cheers
lots of things going on here. :rockin:
I'm no expert, so take with a grain of salt.
it is definitely a possibility that you could have many contributing factors going on.
since you're getting stuck sparges your mash temp controll problem could be due to a lack of flow through the HERMS coil. if you cannot circulate enough wort through the HERMS to overcome the heat losses from your uninsulated mash/hoses/etc then your temps could definitely drop and have a very hard time coming back up.
it is completely possible for your pump to be compacting your grain bed due to too much flow and/or an improperly sized false bottom. on a 55G drum, I would expect the false bottom to be a raised/flat affair that basically cover the entire bottom of the drum; you may be able to use a domed false bottom as well I suppose.
while you're circulating through your HERMS, what does the flow actually look like? are you running full-bore on the pump and does it look like the sort of flow you would expect from your pump? does the flow start great and then slow down?
what does your system look like? you mentioned a 55G drum mash tun, but what does the HERMS side look like? What size is your coil? what size is the water bath? do you have any trouble maintaining the HERMS water temp? (and what do you typically set it to?)
insulation definitely helps, at least around the mash tun. you shouldn't need insulation on your hoses, but it definitely doesn't hurt.