Why herms

A HERMS is basically a tubed coil fitted to the inside of a vessel and then the vessel is filled with water and heated using a heat sauce. The water in the vessel is enough to fully immerse the coil and as wort passes through, internally within the coil, heat from the water will transfer to the wort thus heating the wort to the temperature of the water within the vessel.

To make this type of system work the coil length needs to be long enough or internally wide enough to ensure the wort spends enough time in the coil to heat to the desired temperature. These systems may not be for you. Flavor impact aside, you effectively eliminate the need for decoction mashing with the ability to perform step mashes with ease. Namely, if you brew in extreme climates with big seasonal temps changes. You can achieve very consistent and repeatable outcomes by simply taking notes and repeating what you did before.

The bottom line is that if you keep the variables the same, your outcomes will be consistent and repeatable. If you derive a lot of joy in brewing from designing elaborate brewing systems, give these a closer look.

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John Horn. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. What is RIMS? Expense These systems are expensive to build and more expensive to buy.

HERMS uses fewer parts and less energy for most single-infusion mashes, but RIMS may come out ahead for brewers who routinely perform stepped temperature mash regimens. We took five systems into our brew lab and put them to the test to help you decide whether an electric turnkey system is for you. Next Up:. Brewers have many options do to this, with the most rudimentary likely being adding calculated quantities of hot water to the mash to raise it to the desired rest temp.

There are more complicated methods however. In designing our system, we weighed the advantages and disadvantages of each, and with a goal of semi-automation and repeatability, a H eat E xchange R ecirculating M ash S ystem seemed like the best option for us.

With any recirculating brewing system, wort drains from the bottom of the mash tun, into a pump, which then pushes the wort back on top of the mash. In many systems, some form of heat is supplied to the wort while in transit from the pump to the top of the mash in order to ensure constant temperature rests.