Brewing in Shediac

[JwbHardwick]

Hello all I just registered to the forum and would like to introduce myself. I been making beer since the mid-eighties starting out making 10 gallon batches in a garbage bin with extract, sugar and hops. (Remember the old 4 oz hop bricks)  I progressed from there to making extract with grain additions and eventually went on to make all grain batches. I stopped making the all grain batches due to time and space constraints and starting using Festabrew kits which I found quite satisfactory.  I recently decided to get back to all grain and built an electric HERMS system.  The system is complete and working fine.  I've made 2 batches a basic blonde ale and a German style pilsner. They are fermenting now.  We'll see how they taste in 2-4 weeks.

[robcoombs]

Welcome, and congrats on the upgrade. 

[mikegraham]

welcome

[Roger]

Welcome! 

[Two Wheeler]

Welcome to the club Jim! Would love to see pictures of the HERMS set up some time

[JwbHardwick]

Not sure how to import a picture?

[feldmann]

Welcome to the club!

Easiest way is to upload the picture onto your computer and then upload it to an image hosting website like imgur.

[JwbHardwick]

Here is the picture of the HERMS.  https://i.imgsafe.org/eeaf27a369.jpg

[Two Wheeler]

That's awesome! Did you do the panel yourself?

[robcoombs]

Very nice!

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[JwbHardwick]

I did the panel myself but it was a DIY with the parts sourced mainly from ebrewsupply.com following their design which is very similar to the Electric Brewery. The pots are just shy of 10 us gal from Costco 18 gauge 304 stainless graduated with tri-clad bottoms.  The rest of the gear such as pumps, hoses, valves, fittings and elements were sourced from Ontario Beer Kegs, Brew Hardware, and Everwood Ave. Brew Shop.

[Two Wheeler]

Very nice set up Jim! 

[JwbHardwick]

I've brewed four batches through my HERMS so far. A blonde ale (5%abv already in the keg), a german style pilsner 5.5%abv (lagering in a fridge now), a pale ale 6%abv (in the carboy ready to keg), and an english bitter 4%abv (just brewed today).  The efficiency varies but is in the low 90's to high 80's except for the first batch which was terrible due to equipment problems and learning the system. The sparge time is appears to influence the efficiency quite a bit.  I done it at 30", 40", 60", and 80". The 80" sparge had the highest efficency. My grain mill is set at 0.045" it appears to crack most of the grains. I'm happy with the taste of the blonde ale, it's a nice summer drink. Temperature and PH for the mashes are spot on. That's the update on the system.

[mikegraham]

Nice to see its working good for u

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