Brand new to AHA and homebrewing. Looking for advice on a system. Looking at 3 vessel HERMS. Spike Brewing, SSBrewtech, High Gravity Brewing Wort Hog. Want to do it right.
Welcome to the forum! You may want to start with an all in one system, such as Grainfather, Anvil Foundry, Mash & Boil, Digimash, Brewers Edge, Brewzilla, etc…but if you are looking at jumping into very sturdy and somewhat expensive systems, then Spike (has an all in one and 3 vessel), SSBrewtech, Blichmann, etc… the sky is really the limit. But you can get into the arrangement with a lot less and then learn and decide. Others will give you specific thoughts on that, but some have suggested biting the bullet on a nice set up right up front and then enjoy the system for a long time, before switching up components or approaches.
Cheers!
If you’re new to homebrewing, I’d advise you to start small and simple. Learn what you need before you go big. You may decide that you don’t need to. I’ve brewed 573 batches in the last 23 years and I’ve come to the conclusion that less is more. Don’t be seduced by shiny stuff.
Denny gives good advice here - there are lots of toys and lots of pretty shiny things to choose from, none of which is necessary to make great beer. Not to knock any of it because some folks really enjoy creating a kind of microbrewery (pro setup) feel at home. I’ve been brewing 12 years, use a solid quality10 gallon kettle, the same orange 5 gallon mash cooler I started with, and most often ferment in the plastic carboys I’ve had for years. Get the basics down - you’ll then be a better brewer who is better able to extract the best possibilities from more expensive equipment later on. That’s my 2 cents worth.
A lot of new homebrewers think that brewing on fancy, expensive equipment is the key to making great beer. Not so. Happy yeast is the key to making great beer. To that end, the number one thing you should do is focus on yeast health and fermentation control. Making great wort is easy, with any kind of equipment, including plastic. Making great beer is harder and boils down to using a lot of healthy yeast and controlling ferm temps. It’s true that SS allows for processes that may not be possible or easily done with plastic, but the only thing that absolutely has to be SS is the kettle.
By all means, if SS is your vibe and you have the cash to burn, go for it. But if you don’t focus on the yeast, you will not brew any better beer on a fancy SS system than you would with primitive plastic buckets and a cooler mash tun. You will, however, spend ten times the money.
My advice is to buy a 10-gal cooler mash tun and a few plastic fermenters (my preference is the Fermonster but really any will do). Get your processes and fermentations under control, and scale up from there.
I recently hopped back into it and this is my advice.
Don’t waste time and money like I did tweaking your set up I would have saved a lot of I stopped and asked myself a few questions and others and did some research.
What kind of beers would I like to make? And what kind of equipment would be best suited for those beers?
So do I want to bottle? Or keg? Kegging is a little investment but totally worth it imo for the turn around time ease of clean up and less of a hassle washing bottles and other items. Nothing against bottling but I definitely glad I went the keg route.
Also a fermentation chamber imo is a must if temps fluctuate in your home. Temp control is very important during fermentation.
Kettle size. I personally picked up a 12 gallon kettle cause I know one day I’ll want to do bigger batches and you can still do your smaller batches in that big ol 12 gallon.
As far as fermenters I wish I would have went initially with plastic buckets with a good seall vs glass carboys. For one simple reason the ease of lifting them in and out of my fermentation chamber.
Reading material I found to be the most helpful so far was. How to Brew by john palmer and I also watch a ton of youtibe videos by “beer and bbq by larry” love that guy. And everyone on this forum is very helpful.
Welcome to the hobby
The best advice I could give is join a homebrew club. Homebrewers are some of the nicest, most helpful and overall coolest people you will ever meet. Another plus side is that you can check out all the members brewing system and decide for yourself which one you like best.
+1
I have a three vessel HERMS system from High Gravity and love it. But I don’t know if I would suggest it as something for the first time brewer unless you have a friend or two who can help you through the process. I’ve been brewing for over 20 years and going from a BIAB system to this was a learning curve for me. It is not insurmountable it just has more “moving parts” than other methods of brewing.
Right on. “Doing it right” does not mean you need to purchase high end expensive equipment. You can brew excellent beer on a modest budget/investment.
As a caveat I will say the I think Denny loves his Grainfather!
I certainly do! It’s a whole lot easier and just as effective as a 3 tier HERMS system.
There are a lot of ways to brew beer. Like many things in life 1+1 does not necessarily = 2. “It depends” is a common theme in a home brewery.
IMO the techniques and/or equipment a brewer chooses does not matter nearly as much as consistency. “Right” is achieving the desired result and does not equate to a certain process or piece of equipment.
I think what matters most is: do the same thing the same way at the same time every time. Apples to Apples.
Having said that, when I first began I researched various ways to brew. I found some guys doing videos on You Tube: first the guys from Northern Brewer who ‘introduced’ me to Don Osborn (http://www.donosborn.com/) who said he used a Cheap and Easy method called batch sparging and cited some guy named Denny Conn. I needed low entry cost so I checked it out. I found Denny’s site (http://www.dennybrew.com/) and worked my way back to a guy named Ken Schwartz (https://www.bayareamashers.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/nbsparge.pdf). I gravitated towards batch sparging fairly quickly because I figured I could do what I saw Don O doing on You Tube.
The basis of my current system is still underneath that original entry level batch sparge system. I started very small and worked up. Over the years I’ve added a pump, RIMS, induction heat, etc but basically it’s just batch sparging in an insulated container, drawing off the wort, boiling, cooling, fermenting, packaging and serving.
If I was starting all over I would probably get one of the all-in-one systems.
I definitely agree with the idea of the simpler system to start with for most beginning brewers who have a smaller budget and want to check out the hobby before going to their ultimate set up, but if the OP really wants to jump in with both feet and cost is not the determinative factor, then list out the factors noted here and elsewhere and try to prioritize them. Less equipment means less cleaning, but it also limits what might be significant to you as the brewer (German lagers might mean that you want to be able to step mash, for example). So, while I agree that learning to brew simply and directly is beneficial to most brewers, I think some new brewers may have different values than some of us old timers. Being open to the all in one systems for a newer brewer can make sense for that brewer.
I still have two coolers (white rectangular Igloo and orange Igloo) that I enjoy breaking out once in a great while, but I prefer my newer systems most of the time. My 10 gallon Anvil Foundry hooked up to 240V makes for a nice short 5 gallon batch brew day with step mash and mash out very easy to do. Single infusion on that set up is really easy.
It all depends on your priorities and budget. Cheers folks.
another awesome thing to do as you get into homebrewing is to get certified as a beer judge, you will learn a ton about beer, find new styles you like and can then brew, and when this covid is behind us, you get to drink beer for free at competitions!
back to your question on brewing systems, this is mine,
single vessel, simple and able to do everything I want, if you have the hookup for 240v, id get that though, as heating times with this system are a bit slow.
I think one thing that’s been overlooked is asking Biglare why he wants a 3 vessel HERMS. Knowing that might help answer his question.
Ive never been tempted to get a 3 vessel system- more stuff to clean, more stuff to break, more space taken. I was a batch sparger for a long time wiht a cooler and a keggle, I went to No sparge BIAB a few years ago and never looked back. One pot to clean, its compact and can be packed up afterwards.
After getting comfortable with the Grainfather (kind of a BIAB system), my cooler, kettle and and propane burner went into storage.
One day Denny said, It’s about the BEER, not the GEAR! and I have taken that to heart ever since. It’s not that I don’t like toys… I do. But I have been brewing for 21+ years and still use a very simple system. Plain 10 gallon SS kettle with no port, a cooler MT, plastic fermenters, etc. Sure I have a Thermapen thermometer and an Omega pH meter and a Tilt hydrometer but there are no shiny metal skyscrapers in my brewery. Most people would probably find my brewery to be a little “backwoodsy”. :D Still, I am very happy with my beers.
I hear you, Ken. I, too, had a very simple approach for the longest time, but if I were starting now, I might splurge right away for an all in one system to learn on. I also agree with Denny as to why the OP wants to jump into a 3 vessel HERMS system. As I consider it further, the 3 vessel HERMS system doesn’t require a two element system, if electric (HLT with HERMS coil and boil kettle) or 2 burner propane (HLT burner and kettle burner), but it typically involves that, which probably means higher expenses.
OP - tell us more about your brewing desires and dislikes and we can probably keep this thread going until you get around to purchasing the set up you want. Thankfully, and really because choice is so subjective, there are so many set ups for you to look at and consider; I would expect that you will find what you want. Brew On, Brother! It really is a great hobby with a great group on this and other fora to choose from.
I’ll also just mention that you came to a great place to ask for direction. So many great, experienced brewers here who like to share and help others without any judgment. AHA is the place. 
I also see that Saturday 11/7 is “learn how to homebrew day” so nice timing on that one. I’ll be making an American Pale Ale with Santiam hops so whoever wants to hang out and brew… come on over!