When the current HERMAN machine was being built, I was confident enough with my plumbing layout to create a final system, hard plumbed in copper. It took a lot of time and effort to create the beautiful sculpture.

But things change. Although 200+ all grain brews count for a lot, sometimes changed circumstances can radically alter the preferred layout. A couple in particular come to mind. While this machine was originally designed to automate the process of filling hot liquor tun and mash tuns with water, for various reasons that will have to wait for the next generation machine. Another change has come about through changed cleaning and sanitation practices.

For a long time I've been resisting the idea that Jamil Zainichef espouses about recirculating kettle wort to both chill quickly and whirlpool the kettle. He uses an immersion chiller, but the principle still applies to our plate chiller. A continuous flow loop is via the kettle outlet, to a pump and then back into the kettle. Our loop just adds an external chiller.

I've not been keen on this idea because years ago this method gave rise to off batches. I hadn't realised that grain was caught in the pump impeller, and that grain went off. Anything post boil needs to be biologically clean and sanitised.

Recently PBW and star-san have become available in Australia. I have been really impressed with both products, and particularly PBW. My stained kettle is now sparkling through using it. I am confident enough to try a loop through the pump, although I will take the head apart first, just to make sure.

Anyway, the layout below is the third version of the current machine. As time goes by it is getting simplified. There is now no direct connection between water in and the rest of the plumbing, although it can be patched in if needed. The 'cold liquor out' line is a flexible hose that can be used anywhere in the system, even to spray down if needed.

I've also had a three way valve for ages, and it was crying to be used at the top of the tree as shown on the diagram. Liquor is only ever directed either into the mash tun or the kettle, never both at once.

We are brewing tomorrow, so I must go and check that pump head.

I am always thinking of ways to do things better and one of the unfortunate side effects is I often don't finish a project. The current HERMAN machine is doing quite well but has lots of loose ends. It has now been quite a while since version 6 was conceived and I have quite different ideas now compared to the early planning days.

Early in the year I blogged on some rough plans I had for this year. This included ideas about a 'clean in place' brewing machine. The HERMLET project is now officially dead and buried as Leah has come to the conclusion that she cannot manage a brew day on her own. We will keep brewing together on whatever machine I have so she can still join in the fun.

I find simplicity quite challenging (I always want to add extra features) so I'm not rushing into HERMAN.next. I finally have the luxury of a fully working machine that I won't need to dismantle to build a new one. The LPG vessels and a spare March pump will form the basis for the new machine.

The machine is likely to be more compact than the current unit and simpler in its plumbing layout. Although not shown, it will be on castors. The three vessels are to be constructed from cut-down stainless steel liquid petroleum gas tanks. The top left tank is the mash tun, below it is a combination hot liquor tun and fermenter, and top right is the kettle with generous head space to prevent boil overs.

Each vessel will be tippable so that grains, trub and hop debris can be removed in place.

I have not yet finalised the plumbing route, but this one is likely to include a pump loop from the output of the kettle via the chiller and back into the kettle to counter current difficulties dropping wort down to ferment temperatures.

The spark that inspired this latest round of ideas towards HERMAN.next is the brewtroller open source control system. It is actually pretty much what I had always dreamed HERMAN might become. I mostly lack the time and concentration to achieve what these guys have done. If I were to put a spec sheet together for a brewing control system, I would scarcely have changed anything these guys have already gotten together.

So with my 44th birthday just a month away, I've already put in a request for a brewtroller with the lot !

This is not to put an end to my picaxe adventure or to curtail a future with arduino either. It is simply a recognition of quality work and the reality that it would take me 10 years to get something like that together. It frees me up to sort out that control system for the bar that I've been thinking of, for remotely monitoring fermenter temperatures, for ...

My challenge will be to stick with HERMAN 6 control. It is working quite well at the moment, but all the picaxe wiring is on experimenter board under the control panel. I must make the control board so I can say, "at least I finished one version of HERMAN!"

Wow, it has been ages since the last posting about things brewing here. Apart from Easter being a very busy time for me, most of the energy in this household has been spent looking at houses. We don't own the house we are living in, so we have been doing lots of research with the ultimate aim of finding a suitable place to call home. If all goes well it will be a great place to grow hops, and if we get acreage then we might even be able to grow some grains ...

To the project at hand: I've not turned celiac, but have a friend who has recently discovered she has this unfortunate condition. After lamenting the inability to drink beer, I couldn't help but want to provide some relief. So tomorrow we will brew our first gluten-free beer. It will be very simple to start with - simply using malted sorghum with no adjuncts, in a style approaching a hefeweissen.

The HERMAN brewing machine is ready to make beer with the replacement laptop, but Revolution Education have just released their X2 series of chips which could make a significant difference to operational speed and capacity of the machine. I'm yet to think through the possibilities, but I like to push the envelope of what is possible.

We are also in dire need to replenish beer stocks. With the house distraction a couple of parties, and a keg of Belgian wheat scoffed in an hour at a recent farewell party, stocks are seriously low. It may not be the best time to brew the gluten-free recipe, but I'm already quite late on this promise. The good thing is that Autumn has well and truly arrived which makes for much easier fermentation control. It is a good thing I have lots of fermenting vessels.