In designing this brewery I'm looking to use the latest in technology to create a maximum efficiency system to convert malt starch into malt sugar. Normally in a brewery, the grains are put in a large bin and by adding hot water to a certain temperature, they create a conversion from malt starch to malt sugar, the sweet liquid, called wort, can then be fermented into beer. Depending on how you obtain that conversion greatly effects the efficiency of the conversion. Many artisan brewers have efficiency ratings of 70-80%. This is often done by loading a large kettle with grains and heated water, and stabilizing the temperature at say 68 degrees Celsius, for one hour while continuously stirring the grains so they don't burn. Here's a drawing of how I perceive the HERMS system will work.
I'm trying to design a system that uses a concept called Heat Exchanged Recirculating Mash System or HERMS for short and the theory goes like this...
The 630 liter Hot Liquor Tank with circulating coil
The March Pump
the Mash Tun and Hot Liquor (hot water) tank are combined to circulate the liquid wort through a heat exchanger coil located in the Hot Liquor Tank using the using the March pump to keep the liquid wort temperature constant at 68 degrees Celsius. I have a thermostat attached to flip the March pump off and on to keep the temperature constant. The Hot Liquor Tank is powered by the Ghidini Steam Compressor. So as the pump recirculates the wort at a constant temperature, I get a excellent conversion efficiency ratio, usually around 98 %
The 670 liter Mash Tun
Then by turning a valve, I pump the wort into the Boiling Kettle and sparge (rinse) the mash with hot water to collect the remaining sugars and later also pump those into the kettle.
Then by turning a valve, I pump the wort into the Boiling Kettle and sparge (rinse) the mash with hot water to collect the remaining sugars and later also pump those into the kettle.
