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Some great advice there! Calluma, I'll be doing another chocolate beer and will definately try the essence you have. Love johnnyboy's idea of adding vanilla and salt to give an extra dimension, makes sense as I've done it with cookies! Never thought to do the same with beer. Brilliant! I...

Use low fat cocoa powder. I used a cocoa powder with 1% fat last night and it worked well. A normal (circa 23%) cocoa powder will kill any head. You can buy defatted cocoa powder from Dukan for £6 per 250g. Do not use "instant" hot chocolate powder! Get some gelatin to clear it up...

Thanks for the reply MyQul. I had a look today and it appears to be bubbling away, so I think that for whatever reason a foam wasn't able to form. I still think it's likely due to the 22% fat of the cocoa powder, but I will probably never know. Hopefully it'll turn out good! :D

So, I brewed Jamil's Chocolate Hazelnut Porter today. Hit all the targets and the brew went well. The weird thing was that when I aerated the wort by stirring, try as I might I could not get any foam created. I stirred vigorously for three minutes but nothing! Could this be because of the...

So you never redistribute the mash before sparging? Interesting. I have no experience of anything other than fly sparging, and certainly none of recirculation so this feedback is good. Ok, the next theory then (and the only other theory I had) is as you have said, a temp issue. When I...

I did brew number two yesterday (a citra pale ale) in my new HERMS system :party: I found I had a serious loss of efficiency in the mash, ending up around 7 points below target gravity in the kettle. When I'd finished sparging I noticed the grain bed was not flat, it was peaked in the...

Brew 2 on the new system being done today. I did what Fil suggested and recirculated a few liters manually to get rid of the grain. I then adjusted the outflow to under 2 liters per minute as per the helpful Mr Lard. I'm keeping an eye on this one, I'm bricking it! Don't want to screw up...

Are you cleaning the inside after each use? If you get dirt building up on the plate above the element it will start cutting out. I started scrubbing mine with a wire brush after each use, which solved the problem.

That makes a lot of sense, I'll watch out for that cheers.

That's a good point adomant. I did encounter a problem with the mash runoff, and tried to sort it by raising the rear of the tun. After opening the pump up and cleaning it still isn't working. I'm not sure how practical it is to run off into a separate vessel and then pump from there, as...

It's a mini mag 12v pump, should be good for 15l per minute. I pulled it apart this morning to have a look, but couldn't see any wear or grain particles. I was expecting it to be full of the stuff! I'll clean it tomorrow morning and throw it back together, maybe it'll work.

I just did it manually in the end. Poured the lot into a fermentor and poured it into the boiler. Not ideal but needs must eh! :thumb: Was a decent first brew all things considered. I used a load of old hops and grain that I wanted to get rid of, I sensed there may be trouble haha

Aha, so there is still hope that I haven't been an idiot and destroyed my pump on the first brew! Thanks for all your input. HERMS is quite a learning curve, especially if you rush into it. It was so much fun doing the brew though :thumb:

Yes it was still primed, when I tried to switch it on again I got nothing...the motor wasn't going. The main cause of mag pump failure is overheating/bearing failure (so I understand) but this shouldn't have been an issue in this case as the flow rate was on max to the inflow, and only...

Hi, I started my first brew with the new system today. All was going well until...pump failure :( I was recirculating my mash, and after 30 mins it just stopped working. The mash was coming out through a fully opened valve, into the pump (not turned on until primed) through the HERMS and...

How do you deal with the bit after the boil, ie the kettle tap, hoses and chiller? I understand there's no need to sanitise pre boil, but as the chlorine solution cleans and sanitises it's like I get the sanitisation for free :)

Anyone know how slow you can reduce the flow rate down to before it starts to punish the pump? Also, is it best to control flow rate with the tap before the inflow of the pump, or after the outflow of the pump? I've been testing a couple today, cheers

I've been searching for a guide to cleaning and sanitising a HERMS system. I have found one that seemed to be posted to all major forums, alas the poster's site that it forwarded to is no longer up. Does anyone have any tips on the most efficient/effective way to clean and sanitise before a...

It was the wrong size fuse, all sorted :)

Hi, I'm having a problem with my Sestos PID, purchased from Homebrew Builder. Each time I switch the thing off and try to turn on again, the fuse blows. I was surprised at how small the fuse was, as it's only 100ma. Anyone know what it's protecting and why it might be blowing each time...