Why would a HERMS system have a burner under MLT?

[kansasbrew]

I'm thinking about building a single tier system and eventually might go with the HERMS way of keeping the mash at temp. I see brew sculptures with a burner under all three pots including the MLT, and, maybe this is dense, but why? The strike water for mashing comes from the HLT, correct? Then the mash is recirculated through either the HLT or the Brew Kettle side. Is that right? When would you ever turn fire on under the Tun? I'm not being dense on purpose; I'm dense by accident.

 

[onthekeg]

Some people like to overbuild things, since it looks good and rather than do it twice they put a burner under the MLT. I can see filling the MLT with strike water and bringing it to temp with that burner.
If you have the HERMS and recirc, you could heat from say 122-152 much quicker with both rather than just a herms coil. It does give additional options rather than just the HERMS coil.

Not a bad question though.

 

[Bobby_M]

Are you sure you're seeing a direct fired MLT AND HERMS system? In many cases, this type of system would be called a direct fired RIMS, like the Brutus 10 for example. If you are sure you've seen HERMS systems with a burner under the MLT, it is probable that the system was once used as a direct fire RIMS and later upgraded to HERMS. Why ditch the burner when you can just heat strike water in the MLT and save the pumping BS for the sparge?

 

[cdelap]

I have 3 burners as well as a hlt with a herms coil. I did this to give me the ability of doing 2 beers at once, after I mash out it gives me the ability to boil the second running from a big beer for a lower gravity beer I also can bring 2 pots with 7-8 gal up to temp much faster than 1 pot with 15 gal

 

[kansasbrew]

Ok, so I'm hearing that one does not need the burner under the MLT. If you have one in a HERMS, you would use it to get the strike water prepared and then use the HLT to get the sparge water ready? That seems to make sense. I guess you could have your brew kettle going on the other side to heat the water for recirculating?

 

[luhrks]

The simplest explanation is "options".

I use all 3 burners in my rig. First to heat both strike and herms/sparge water in the two kettles and also for step mashing.

 

[akthor]

I can see filling the MLT with strike water and bringing it to temp with that burner.

I can also see doing two beers at once or 3 extracts at once.

Biggest reason, my stand came with 3 burners

 

[Yunus]

Kansasbrew,

I was about to ask the exact same question so I don't think your being dense.... although it could be both of us :rockin:

I'd like to ask a follow on question. Is a HERMS system with a 50' coil of copper tubing easily capable of maintaining mash temp without direct fire help from a burner under the MLT? This is assuming that the burner under the HLT can maintain the temperature of the HLT.

 

[cdelap]

I have roughly a 25' coil and have no problems keeping temp. I also set my PID's alarm to turn on the pump if the system drops more than 3 degrees below my set point which makes it so I don't have to worry about the temp falling to a unacceptable level if I am paying more attention to preparing the next steps