GFbeerGuy's Page

Hey Alex, coupla points. Do you have 2 separate vessels for HLT and mash tun or are they somehow combined?

I would advise against having an element in your mash tun to heat the mash. You can get away with heating the mash runoff (sweet wort) but you really can't heat the grain directly  it will scorch and burn.

There is really only 2 ways to apply heat to maintain a mash temperature, and they both require recirculation (you need pumps): RIMS and HERMS. Do some google searching on those, but just quickly RIMS (Recirculating Infusion Mash System) is heating the recirculating wort directly, with HERMS (Heat Exchange Recirculating Mash System) you heat water which in turn (through the heat exchanger) heats the wort. Generally with HERMS there is less risk of scorching the wort.

Because both of these methods require expensive equipment (pumps and plumbing) homebrewers took to using insulated vessels to mash in – the humble chilly bin, with which you can infuse once and hold the mash temp for an hour.

With this really common single infusion method you only have one option to increase the mash temp, say for mash out: add more hot water. Plenty of people do it, it's what I did on my old system.

Does all that make sense?

Personally I would do it the other way around – stick the immersion chiller in the HLT and recirculate the wort through it. Though you'd probably need to recirc the hot liquor (water in HLT) also so that the temperature is even.

You absolutely can use an STC 1000 with a probe in your HLT. That's what my old system used. Be aware though that it's either off or on. Which means you get temperature fluctuations above and below your set point before the STC has time to react. I brewed perfectly well for about 5 years with that setup.

A more accurate way to do it is with a cheap PID/SSR combo. A PID will 'learn' your system and keep your temperature much more precise (within 0.5degC) with no over or under shoots. Note you can't use the K type thermocouple/probe that comes in that package, use one of these instead.

Your copper immersion chiller will be fine to recirc wort through as a heat exchanger.

You could add another sensor and PID to measure wort as you recirculate it, or, you could just use a good old glass dial thermometer to measure your general mash temp. It's totally up to how much you want to spend, spending more makes things easier and more accurate to a point, but there's no reason your beer can't be awesome with just analogue dial thermometers. I used them for everything for ages and made great beer.

No, there is no timer function on that particular model.

For that you need the ramp/soak model from Auber, significantly more expensive. Again depends on your budget, and appetite to automate something that's as simple as pushing a button a few times.

 I went for this PID  

http://www.auberins.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1&products_id=239    for the following reason

1. I went SSR so that I can tune the wattage all the way down to say 10% of rated  element value.
2. I will use this pid in my HLT, it has a timer, so If I want to mash in at 6am for a morning brew, I fill the HLT the night before and I don't have to get up at 5am and turn things on.   Same for say a 5pm mash in after work.
3. I will run a copper coil inside my HLT and recirc wort through this coil during the Vorlauf     http://www.homebrewtalk.com/wiki/index.php/Vorlauf   and if I am doing step mashes  (though don't see steps as that important right now).
4. Its not the cheapest PID out there but seems to be the only one with the timer function for auto switch on.

For the other PIDS that I will eventually buy I wont need a timer.  At the moment buy boil kettle has 2 elements they are either on or off manually, suits me fine right now.

Worth noting that the PID Peter mentions doesn't do multiple timed/automated temperature steps. The ramp/soak one is he only one that does that.

Also worth noting is that the timer PID doesn't come with the "turn on after a length of time has passed" function out of the box. I bought one for exactly what Peter describes – fill the HLT at night and set the timer so that it's starts heating before I get up. The description on the Auber website product page used to say that it did that, but then I read the instructions which clearly stated that it didn't. They have since changed the description on the product page to match the instructions which confirms to me that it can't. Talk about bait and switch!
There is a way to achieve that, using the alarm relay to switch on the SSR output. I have a wiring diagram if anyone wants it. But for me it would mean adding another switch to my control panel to selectively isolate that functionality (so I can still use it normally as well) and I don't want another switch on my panel.