Small Scale HERMS

Just wanted to showcase my small scale HERMS I built recently. I live in NYC and brew 1 gallon recipes due to limited storage space. I started home brewing in early '00 but stopped because the 5 gallon batches were just too much beer to consume for a guy who lived alone and worked 60hrs a week.

I recently started brewing 1 gallon all-grain batches but they never really came out as good as my my partial-mashes I made about 18yrs ago. I decided to build something that would be more efficient and also not heat up the entire house using the gas stove. I know a lot of people think that 1 gallon brewing is a waste of time but I like the variety I can make and it’s still so much cheaper than buying a $17 six pack of Sierra Nevada at the local deli. And we now have an 18mo old toddler running around so our beer consumption has dropped significantly.

I already owned an induction stove and sous vide circulator and wanted to upgrade my equipment to a HERMS without having too much extra equipment. Everything was purchased via Amazon and a couple Home Depot trips for about $300. I also built this with the intention of being able to upgrade the system down the road to do 2-3 gallon batches with only having to upgrade my brew kettle and some minor part purchases.

It took a couple brews to figure out a complete step by step process to brew but now that I have a system, the brewing process is so efficient. I also now use the HERMS coil as a wort chiller so that process now takes about 15min instead of a 40min ice bath.

Attached is my original blueprint for the system and a video of the complete brewery mashing an oatmeal porter.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sK_fUQ_5okI&feature=youtu.be

Video didn’t show up… I do like the Idea of you using your Sous Vide as a heating source… I know some of the peeps here do that style of cooking, and well, maybe get an inspiration for how to ditch the propane boiler, or even stove top method… Of course, your doing small batches. I think you’ll be able to figure how to “scale up” when the time comes. See if you can get the Vid to link up. Sneezles61