"Small" HERMS coil in "large" kettles

siestakey · Joined: 10 Mar 2017 Posts: 49

I was agonizing over whether or not to buy the small or large HERMS coil and ended up buying the smaller one. I haven't ordered my kettles yet, but was thinking about using 15 gallon boilermakers. I'm now having some buyers remorse and want to step up to the 20 gallon boilermakers. Is there anything preventing me or downsides to using the "small" HERMS coil in a larger kettle? Has anyone done this before? I suppose it shouldn't matter but just want to make sure.

Thanks!

**kal** · Posted: Mon Jan 15, 2018 4:56 am Post subject:

The smaller diameter coil is higher, so it's easier for it to NOT be under the water as much which may result in less heat transfer after you transfer strike water from the HLT to the MLT. Unlikely to make a huge difference if at all however - you may need to simply add a bit more water in the HLT at the start (assuming there's room) or you can fill the two vessels separately right from the start. If the coil you bought is from us and unused, we're happy to swap it out for you if you like. Reply to the order email I sent you (from kal@theelectricbrewery.com). Cheers!

Kal

siestakey · Joined: 10 Mar 2017 Posts: 49

Thanks Kal. If I do decide to get the 20 gallon kettles and swap the HERMS coil, what's the smallest batch that could be done in a clone system? The reason I ask is I want the ability to scale up obviously of tried and true recipes but if I want to make a one off beer and only want to have 6 gallons going into the fermenter, would I still be able to do that?

**kal** · Posted: Tue Jan 16, 2018 5:00 am Post subject:

Smallest batch size is usually limited by how high you have your heating element installed in the boil kettle. If you go with my design with the hop filter I use, this would usually be about 5 gallons on 20 gallon kettles.

The HERMS coil size isn't related to the minimum batch size.

So yes, a 6 gallon batch shouldn't be an issue.

Kal