Guides or tutorials for propane automated RIMS / HERMS

Question

I'm considering trying to piece together a propane HERMS system, inspired by the awesome-looking Blichmann Tower of Power. I know there are several well-known electric HERMS guides (e.g. The Electric Brewery and Brutus), but I want to stick with propane for now.

Are there any good build guides? Where should I start?

Answer 1

The original Brutus build is not electric, but natural gas, so that may in fact be a good place to start, especially for seeing how the flame control works (temp controller + pilot and valve.) The write-ups are very good and many have successfully built clones. A new spring is needed on the honeywell valves to convert from natural gas to propane - this blog describes the process.

There are a couple of others pages with propane builds:

2-vessel gas fired HERMS build

This one is nice and simple - just one pump and doesn't require any kind of pilot or valve on the propane burner since the mash is done in a cooler.

Single tier HERMS build

This is a single tier system, like the Brutus/Electric Brewery, using PIDs and a honeywell valve to control the flame.

Answer 2

Traditional forums are a good place to start. Often people share pics and advice on how they built theirs.