About Me

It all started innocently enough. I was a transplant from Sacramento, California, living in rural Mississippi (Iuka, Mississippi to be exact, pronounced eye-you-ka) working for a major aerospace company in 1991. I saw a catalog on a co-workers desk with homebrewing equipment in it and I became intrigued. Being a Mechanical Engineer and avid beer drinker, the connection to homebrewing was almost instant. Needless to say, the catalog went home with me that day and my life was forever changed.

I started brewing with extracts like most homebrewers and managed to brew some decent beer off and on for about 3 years. Then came a series of job changes starting in 1994 as I visited such scenic locales as Frederick, Oklahoma and Winchester, Tennessee. During these bleak times, homebrewing was infrequent and mostly absent from my life. Then of course came marriage, another job, and finally a move to my current (and hopefully last) locale, Knoxville, Tennessee.

After purchasing a home, I started to get the homebrew itch again. In late 2000, 5 years after brewing my last batch of beer, I finally broke out the equipment and brewed again. It was a British Pale Ale extract kit and it turned out fantastic. I was back!. I quickly formulated a recipe for a Nut Brown Ale that turned out like sour pond water. Oh well, try again. This time I tried an IPA. Another batch of pond water. After the second bad batch in a row I decided to make some changes. I moved from the kitchen stove to a full 5 gallon boil in a converted keg on a propane burner. This turned out better, but still not very good. This time around, I really had doubts about the quality of the ingredients I was using. One more try, an extract kit for American Pale Ale. Same result. Instead of getting discouraged - I got pissed. I swore I wasn't going to brew again until I had this stuff figured out.

While I was in the middle of brewing pond water, I found my local homebrew club, the Tennessee Valley Hombrewers. I began attending meetings where I met some folks that brewed all-grain. After seeing how easy it was, I decided that all-grain was the way to go and that my next beer would be an all-grain brew that I brewed on equipment that I designed and built myself. This decision started a project that really had no intermediate steps. I pretty much let go with both hands.

In the Winter of 2000, the design process began in earnest. Somehow, I ended up at Marty Tippin's web site where he described a mashing technique using a pump to recirculate. Needless to say, I was intrigued. The next site was Keith Royster's where he described the details of a RIMS (Recirculation Infusion Mashing System) set-up. After thoroughly studying these two sites, my mind was made up. This was for me.

The design evolution of the HERMIT was quite dramatic. My first design was very much a monster. It didn't take long for me to realize that it was very impractical and VERY expensive. So like any good engineer, I sat down and wrote a specification for my new brewery - just the bare requirements. It turned out that the brewery could be everything I wanted with only a fraction of the stuff I had originally designed.

So, with my specification developed, I initiated a design and construction project that took approximately 6 months. The result is the HERMIT. The name was based on an acronym from HERMS which stands for Heat Exchanger Recirculating Mashing System (see the Design Logic section). I brewed my first batch on my new system on May 12th, 2001, an American Pale Ale. It was beer! After 4 batches of pond water I had finally made beer! And the angels sung and the trumpets blared and all the little children danced in the streets! Needless to say, I was pretty proud of myself.

Which brings us to the present. Since it's maiden run on May 12, 2001, the HERMIT has undergone a few changes. Most of them are documented in the following pages, but I'm still trying to capture all the new stuff. There have also been some operational issues but they have also been minor and were mostly user error. The lessons I learned along the way I have tried to document on this site and in the Lessons Learned Section.

In the Design Logic section, the design approach to the HERMIT is discussed in detail, including the basic specification with which I started. I also have a section discussing the HERMS Design Specifics of the HERMIT and a HERMS based system. I also discuss the Limitations of a HERMS type system and why, if you're looking for a system to specifically do step mashes, you should carefully consider the pros and cons before embarking on construction. If you have any questions regarding the equipment or the design approach I took, please feel free to e-mail me.

My biggest accomplishment to date has been the starting of my own company, Innovative Homebrew Solutions. I am currently selling homebrew equipment, but soon hope to have the website be a one-stop shop for recirculating mashing systems (RMS) information, including a discussion forum, detailed plans on homebrew projects, and more. It's a huge task and it will take some time, but I think it will be well worth it and a great benefit to the homebrew community. Our flag ship product is The Hop Stopper. This is a redesigned version of my Pancake screen that I describe on this site. I also have Sight Tube kits available which are very inexpensive and easy to install and use. I also have a host of Stainless Steel fittings for sale. If I don't have what you need, I can probably get it. Just drop me a line.

The best part about the homebrewing community is the free exchange of information. If it wasn't for my friend John Peed and all his insight into all-grain brewing, I don't think I would have ever taken the leap to all-grain. I also can't give enough credit to the great folks in the Tennessee Valley Homebrewers, the HomeBrew Digest, and the other homebrewers with sites on the web who took the time to give helpful information to a complete novice (me). For me not to do the same would be almost sacrilegious.

Check out the links page on this site for a list of very helpful and entertaining sites.