Pictures of my herms brewery winter rebuild.

Hello all, some pictures of my winter rebuild.





50ltr HLT 2x2.2kw elements, one controlled by pid, the other manual, 38ltr Thermopot mashtun with stainless false bottom c/o
Hop & Grape, 2ltr herms pot made from a stainless saucepan.







70ltr boiler heated by 8kw propane burner.







Control box.

I will post more pictures later, with better descriptions of what I have done.

Wooow, this looks wonderful!! :thumb: :

verry nice proper job love the way the pipes come out of the table :clap:

Very nice! Just out of interest what are those shiny quick disconnects you're using and where did you get them from? I'm looking for something similar on my brewery refurb.

Liking a lot, that control panel is mad :mrgreen:
Imagine what the average copper walking past seeing it would think :shock: :rofl:

cracking work mate :thumb:

thats awesome! dunno what half of it does but its still awesome!

Thats an awesome build, hope your proud of all your hard work!! :)

Cracking build. Where did you source the switches and lamps for the control panel. :thumb:

Thanks for the interest.

manxape said:

Very nice! Just out of interest what are those shiny quick disconnects you're using and where did you get them from? I'm looking for something similar on my brewery refurb.

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Camlock fittings from Intrico Products, but watch out for the postage costs, order all you need plus spares. ( Do you happen to know Graham and Debbie Bradley who live in Onchan ?)

mashman said:

Cracking build. Where did you source the switches and lamps for the control panel. :thumb:

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Lamps and switches came from Auberins in USA, but I also got some lamps from China, which are identical. I do have some spare lamps which I do not require.

The control panel idea is stolen from the Electric Brewery with modifications to suit my requirements. It has four pid's. The two on the left are Auber SYL-2342 and control the HLT and Herms via SSR's. The two on the right are cheapo Chinese REX-C100's and are to show Mash temp and Boiler temp, but do not control anything. The timer in centre is a Sestos B2E £18 free p&p ebay.
All Pt100 sensors are from Auber's as are the SSR's and heatsinks. I do like the Pt100 sensors as they can be unplugged from the sensor wires. ( makes cleaning easier ) My only complaint with them is that the plugs are a bit fragile where the wires connect inside. I had to repair one which was badly soldered. I brought extra plugs and sockets from Aubers for the control box connections, but if doing again I would use XLR plugs and sockets, they are much more robust.














I have three pumps. One ( Totton ) for mash liquor, and sparge, one ( Totton ) for herms, and one ( solar pump ) for boiler whirlpool to speed up cooling using immersion cooler and to pump to fermenter. When I first built the system the boiler was higher than it is now, and I had to pump from MT to boiler, now I have lowered the boiler so can gravity feed from MT.
The decals on the control panel are made from self adhesive photo card, and printed from computer using standard word processor.

Next instalment I will describe the Herms build, with some more pics.

Cheers for now. John

bewbrew said:

All Pt100 sensors are from Auber's

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was going to ask you that. I found expert electrical good for all switches, lights etc etc.. and would recommend them.


I am surprised you don't have any inline protection on the controls side of things. To protect form surges and elements going wrong etc.. nothing like it for making PID's go "POP!"

Fast blow fuses are a must on the live power supply to the PIDs.
Fuses are just a little cheaper than a new PID!

Very tidy job - well done. :clap:

Wish I was clever enough to make something like that! Looks amazing! :clap:

Dennis

Hi all. Thanks to mixale and mrlard for suggestions of fuses on PID supply, now done.

This is my herms unit. made from a 2 litre saucepan stolen from the kitchen. It is fitted with the bottom from a quick boil
kettle, which has a 2.8kw element.
I cut a hole in the bottom of pan using plasma cutter, and bolted the kettle base to it sealing it with high temp silicone.
The herms coil is 10mm copper tube about 3.5M long.
It will increase temp of 12ltrs water in MT by 2.5 deg per minute at a flow rate of 3ltrs a minute.

Well done, looks fantastic..... :thumb: I'm sure I've seen the boiler lid idea before.

BB

Love the control box. I am abit away from making something that need. What speed / amp fast fuses would people recomend using!?

D

Why all the foil insulation on your walls and table?? :hmm:
Are you from another planet or are you the head brewer on a spaceship? :wha:


BB :P

BB you are quite correct, good ideas are always likely to be stolen :thumb:









The insulation on the walls is to combat the steam problem I had before I fitted the extraction idea stolen from you.
I plan to tile everythin when I can collect enough surplus tiles ( free ) from my local supplier. Will probably look like Jacobs
Coat but it will be free, and easy to clean .

The HERMS unit made of a sauce pan with a boiler lid is such a great idea, and I like the compactness of if. The whole set-up is very impressive! One day... although I might have to do a course in plumbing and electronics first!

Dennis

Stunning piece of work, OP, that control unit took a lot of work, I can tell.

Have you any pictures of your fuse protection, please?

Funnily enough, when I saw this I was reminded of the Electric Brewery - their's is awesome too.