Reusing wort from a herms calibration

[Shanna]

Hi there,

So I just upgraded the heating element in my herms from 1.5kw to 2.7kw as the old one was too slow to heat the water making brew days even longer. I am using a PID controller to switch the heating element on and off so I need to recalibrate it. The suggested way to calibrate the PID is to heat the recirculated water from 0 - 65C with grain in the mashtun to get the calibration as close as possible to a real mash.

As I have some time off over the next couple of days I am going to do this but I am wondering whether the liquid from the calibration of the PID could actually be used to make a beer by maintaining it say 65C for another hour or so after the calibration has completed. I know that various beer styles call for various temperatur rests at various temperatures but I am not sure whether the process of raising the temperature from 0-65C directly would damage the enzymes in the grain in any way. It would be nice to be able to actually use the grain + time & get a beer at the end.

Any comments on this would be appreciated.

Shanna

[molc]

In a word, I'd say yes, though it may depend a little on the style. Try a German wheat beer, as you'll have a protein and freulic (sic) rest built in, assuming your heating about 20L of liquid not very quickly. Measure your ramp time per C as well, so you can calculate the times your getting in each range after.

The big thing is your going up, not down, so your not denauteuring any enzymes too early.

As for the element size, I actually boosted my hlt to 4.8kw by using two elements, as I found the ramp a little slow. The side effect is each element is not on as long so there's less sustained load on each circuit, which actually makes it easier on the system.

Just food for thought, but if I was doing it, I'd put in both elements for the pid control.

[Shanna]

In a word, I'd say yes, though it may depend a little on the style. Try a German wheat beer, as you'll have a protein and freulic (sic) rest built in, assuming your heating about 20L of liquid not very quickly. Measure your ramp time per C as well, so you can calculate the times your getting in each range after.

The big thing is your going up, not down, so your not denauteuring any enzymes too early.

As for the element size, I actually boosted my hlt to 4.8kw by using too element, as I found the ramp a little slow. The side effect is each element is not on as long so there's less sustained load on each circuit, which actually makes it easier on the system. Just food for thought.

Perfect actually as I was planning to do a wheat anyway Yes I would be initially heating around 20 liters of liquid and I know what you mean about the ramp being slow but I am using a smaller 10 liter bucket that I have heavily insulated for heating the water for the herms.

If I remember correctly your double jobbing your HLT by also using it as your herms. My system has a single PID controller so I currently don't really have an option to currently add a 2nd heating element, although I am not 100% convinced that I will need it just yet.

Shanna

[molc]

Pid just needs to be able to turn on a relay, so it can control as many devices as you like as long as you wire them up correctly.
Like you said though, your herms is small whereas mine is the full 50L hlt. I only ever use about 15L but still, it's a big difference.
Bet it'll turn out to be a great beer.

[Shanna]

Pid just needs to be able to turn on a relay, so it can control as many devices as you like as long as you wire them up correctly.
Like you said though, your herms is small whereas mine is the full 50L hlt. I only ever use about 15L but still, it's a big difference.
Bet it'll turn out to be a great beer.

Lets see, hope the extra 1.2KW makes all of the difference in terms of stepping up the temperature as the other one just was not cutting the mustard

Shanna