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Home Photo Galleries Equipment Galleries Rob Welniak • Plainfield, Indiana

My system is an ongoing evolution from a simple 5-gallon (19-L) Rubbermaid all-grain system that I used in my kitchen, with water heated on the stove to an all-electric HERMS that utilizes 10-gallon (38-L) Rubbermaid coolers and a 15.5-gallon (59-L) Sankey keg for the boil kettle. 

My design philosophy is simplicity, efficiency, affordability and repeatability. I built my own bulkheads and through-the-wall thermometers for affordability and reliability. When possible I sourced components to build items in lieu of buying commercial components.

Design
My boil kettle is a 15.5-gallon (59-L) (legal) Sankey keg that has been converted to an E-Keggle. It is outfitted with a ½” ball valve, custom pick-up tube, 5500W ULWD heating element and thermocouple.

Boil Kettle
All components are powered through a custom 240VAC control panel that I built.

Control Panel
The panel also contains switched outlets for the HLT and March 809 pump. It also contains a “kill” switch that will kill both legs of power to the E-Keggle heating element regardless of the PID and SSR command.

Switch
The HTL HEX contains 25’ of ½” copper tubing (a modified pre-chiller) that is outfitted with brass QDs. It also sports a custom through-the-wall digital thermometer.

HTL Lid
The control panel consists of a PID and SSR for the E-Keggle heating control.

PID and SSR
10-gallon (38-L) Rubbermaid beverage cooler converted to HERMS HEX with a ½” ball valve bulkhead.

Inside HTL
The HTL had a 1500W 120VAC heating element controlled by a Johnson A419 controller that is mounted to the cooler itself.

HLT Controller


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