stuck/plugged HERMS coil

beorn12 · Joined: 03 Aug 2015 Posts: 7 Location: Mexico City

Hi guys, yesterday I brewed 10gal of an Amber Ale. Everything went well, except that during lautering, there was a little grain going into the herms coil through a small gap in my mash tun false bottom, . This has happened before, the pump was running fine, and everything circulated, so I thought nothing of it. However, as I was cleaning up, I noticed the coil got plugged as in it wouldn't circulate the pwb solution I was cleaning with. (probably from the grain that went in there) Any ideas into how to unplug it? Or do I need to replace it?
thanks

jbrace1 · Posted: Mon Aug 03, 2015 5:49 pm Post subject:

Maybe let it dry (grain shrinks) and try to dislodge with a shop-vac?

Maybe a little vibratory shock on the coil at the same time if you happen to have some type of vibratory device in the house Wink

**kal** · Posted: Mon Aug 03, 2015 7:29 pm Post subject:

This is odd, as the diameter of the HERMS coil (1/2" OD) is considerably larger than any gap you would have in your false bottom.

What should happen is that at the start of the mash when you start recirculating, some little bits will indeed go through the false bottom, through the HERMS coil, and then end up on top of the grain bed. Eventually this stops as the grain bed forms a natural filter.

If enough grain is getting through the false bottom to actually clog the HERMS coil then there's a bigger problem somewhere. Just something to keep in mind.

What sort of false bottom are you using? What is the diameter of your HERMS coil?

Kal

beorn12 · Joined: 03 Aug 2015 Posts: 7 Location: Mexico City

Hi Kal, it's 1/2" diameter. There was no problem during the mash or lauter. Yes, bits of grain were going through and being deposited over the grain bed without an issue. However, I didn't rinse it out right away. That was my mistake. I forgot there was wort still in there. I carried on with the boil and the hop additions, chilling, and it was after adding the yeast that I remembered. I tried running PBW solution, like I always do, but it was completely clogged by then. I left the coil out to dry in the sun. hopefully by tomorrow it will have dried and shrunk a bit, like jbrace1 suggested.

**kal** · Posted: Fri Aug 07, 2015 1:28 am Post subject:

Tungsten · Joined: 06 Dec 2014 Posts: 318 Location: Buffalo, NY

Is it definitely the coil and not a pump problem? Can you gravity feed through the coil? If it's me and it's just cleanup, I'm probably blowing through a (clean) hose to try and use pressure to get the breakup out of there (although I agree with Kal, it seems like something weird is going on here).

Just to check off the boxes... were the ball valves open? Smile

**kal** · Posted: Fri Aug 07, 2015 3:08 pm Post subject:

If there's dried up / plugged up stuff in the coil, I'd get it wet by forcing some water in / keeping it full of water and turning it. Eventually it'll loosen up and you'l be able to blow through. Once you get some movement I would then recirculate hot water at around 170F with oxiclean (or similar) for a good half hour to scrub it clean.

I'd then look at why this happened in the first place / change your brewing process for next time to make cleanup simpler going forward. Like I mentioned above, see if you can change your process so that you never have to clean the coil at all (I sparge through it so that it's always clean). Cleaning is annoying. The less you have the clean, the better.

Good luck!

Kal

Castermmt · Posted: Sat Aug 08, 2015 10:49 am Post subject:

beorn12 · Joined: 03 Aug 2015 Posts: 7 Location: Mexico City

Thanks guys for all your responses. I had to disassemble it from the kettle, but I unplugged the coil last month. I left it soaking in PWB solution for about 2 weeks, then I hooked up a hose from my CO2 tank to one end, turned it on, and all the junk came out the other end. Ran it with water, more PBW, Starsan, assembled it again, good as new. To avoid this, I'm definitely gonna sparge through the HERMS coil from now on.