After every brew day my electric Spike 30 gal. HLT with my Herms coil is covered with a whitish coating from the high water mark down. Is this normal? We have moderately hard water and I do put 1 Camden tablet in it plus my acid addition for the sparge. I’ve had to soak the heating element in vinegar water to get it shiny again.
I am fortunate to have Lake Michigan tap water in my brewery, and I still have deposits on the heating element on my BrewBuddy setup, same as you do. I also use Camden tablets and lactic acid, and usually some gypsum. I clean them with vinegar as well. I don’t think it’s unusual.
If you and I are getting the same deposit I consider this normal.
After a brewday my RIMS tube element will have a ‘fluffy’ residue that wipes off and an underlying white deposit on it. I simply brush the fluff off under running water and soak it in B Bright. (I imagine other cleaners would work also) After the soak the white deposit wipes off.
I could probably skip the brush step but it makes me feel useful while waiting on the next hop charge.
FWIW I build my brewing liquor from bottled distilled water.
My guess is that the whitish deposits on your Herms coil is from calcium carbonate (lime) deposits from hard water. I am sure that Martin can also weigh in on this. Have you had your waster tested to see how much carbonate is in it? If it is city water, you should be able to gt a water report from the local water works telling you that. If from a well, there are places that will test it for you like Ward Labs. Full disclosure, I do not work for Ward Labs but have used them to test my well water which I can’t brew with because it is too hard and had black manganese in it.
Thanks for all the responses and it is what I figured. Here is the Pinellas County water profile here in Florida
Calcium 76.8 ppm, Magnesium 5.90 ppm, Sodium 27.3 ppm, Sulfate 61.5 ppm, Chloride 26.1 ppm & Bicarbonate 177 ppm. I use this water for everything except Belgiums and Saisons.
Thanks!
Ken
pictures of the scale and my system
dateposted-public (445 KB)
dateposted-public (445 KB)
dateposted-public (445 KB)
Ken
Here’s a photo of my element from today’s brew. I decided not to scrub to see the effect of the B Bright.
That fluff looks like Teig.
It probably is. It comes off really easy. The underlying white deposit is a bit tougher but nothing out of line.