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Home Photo Galleries Equipment Galleries Mike Foldy • Racine, Wisconsin

My brewery is named the Broken Wrench Brewery. It is an all electric HERMS (Heat exchange recirculaing mash) system. I built the system myself and did all the welding and fabrication on my own. I enjoyed building it, but I enjoy brewing with it even more!

My brewery is named the Broken Wrench Brewery. It is an all electric HERMS (Heat exchange recirculaing mash) system. The sparge tank is powered by a 240-volt 3000 watt heating element, which has a 1⁄2" copper coil in the tank that is used to heat the mash. The mash tank has a false bottom and recirculates the mash through the copper coil or through the bypass valve. The boil kettle has two 240-volt 3000 watt heating elements. The whole system is controlled by a multi-channel temperature controller. It controls the heat in the sparge tank and boil kettle and controls the mash temperature by opening and closing the two solenoid valves. The system uses a magentic drive pump and a counterflow wort chiller. This allows me to brew year-round in my basement. I built the system myself and did all the welding and fabrication on my own. I enjoyed building it, but I enjoy brewing with it even more!

Broken Wrench Brewery
My HERMS brew system consists of three converted kegs, a magnetic pump, and is powered by three 240 volt heating elements.

HERMS Brew System
A view of the control panel that has the multi channel temperature controller and on/off switches for the heating elements and pump.

Control Panel
This is a view of the magnetic drive pump and also my homemade magnetic stir plate.

Mash Tun
<p>This is the inside view of the magnetic drive pump and also my homemade magnetic stir plate. &nbsp; </p>

Drive Pump
This is the inside view of the boil kettle showing the two 3000 watt heating elements and the thermocouple that is used to control the heat.

Boil Kettle
Here is the counterflow chiller and the valve manifold that controls the flow of the sweet wort.

Counterflow Chiller


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