My HERMS

I decide to build my HERMS after seeing so many fantastic breweries on the internet (almost all American and not one in the UK).  I had been brewing for many years and my plastic brewing equipment was starting to fail on me.  The last straw was when, during one session, the boiler wouldn't boil.  I emptied the wort into a fermenter to have a look at the element  and the fermenter split depositing a gallon of lovely wort on my garage floor before I got to it.

That was it, I was going to have one of those stainless steel jobbies like I'd seen on the internet.

Well, first off I searched the internet for the best ready made home brewery and discovered the B3 models from Morebeer.  However the cost of these systems is kind of high when you factor in the shipping from the US and any customs charges.  Therefore there was only one thing to do.  Build my own brewery!

This is the original MkI version of the brewery.....

It took me a couple of months to build and the majority of this was spent sourcing the necessary parts. 

My HERMS consists of 3 stainless steel vessels; one for the HLT, one for MLT and another for the copper (boiler).  The wort is recirculated with a pump through a heat exchanger.  A second pump is used together with a "Phil's Sparge Arm" to sparge with the water from the HLT.  Ball valves control the flow of the wort and liquor.  The whole system is contained by a wooden stand.

I've tried to keep the design very simple to enable cleaning and ease of use/repair.  I brewed many batches on this brewery and I believe it to be a well thought out and robust design.

The original brewery was based on a wooden frame.  This worked fine but any drips soaked into the wood so keeping it clean was a major headache.  So here's the MkII version, it uses the same plumbing and control as the original.  It's only the frame that's changed.

........nice isn't it?

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