Am I missing something?

So I've been asking questions as I plan my system after a number of the great posts on this forum.

Today's question is if I plan to have a mounted cooling coil (removable for cleaning of course), or IC, why wouldn't I use it as a HERMS instead of building a separate RIMS tube. I've essentially built a HERMS by default right?

That would cut my need for PID/SSR/RTD in half, cut down on stainless (cost), and simplify the build which means brewing quicker. I'm not married to HERMS or RIMS yet so I have no bias. And in the future I could add a RIMS to heat water on demand and etc... with no real alteration to the existing rig. (Finished product is a Brutus 20e)

I'm thinking this through correctly right? And if I am then it just means I'm even slower on the uptake than I thought I was.

Thanks.

It sounds like the mounted cooling coil is pushing you towards HERMS already. If you didn't have that, the choice between HERMS/RIMS is even closer. In my mind you have to look at your heat source for the HLT. If it's gas, then you need to rig up gas control which is a little harder than running a PID/SSR to a tube element. The other benefit to RIMS is that you don't need to heat and maintain sparge water in the HLT the whole time.

Bobby_M said:

It sounds like the mounted cooling coil is pushing you towards HERMS already. If you didn't have that, the choice between HERMS/RIMS is even closer. In my mind you have to look at your heat source for the HLT. If it's gas, then you need to rig up gas control which is a little harder than running a PID/SSR to a tube element. The other benefit to RIMS is that you don't need to heat and maintain sparge water in the HLT the whole time.

Click to expand...

It will be an electric two vessle system so my HLT is also my BK. I intend to have a 5500 watt element so maintaining the temp should not be hard, then ramping it up for the mash out and recirc.

I didn't think about maintaining it the entire time, but not really an issue with electric I guess.

Thanks for all your info and videos too by the way, very informative for those of us trying to move up and expand.

Certainly insulating both vessels would provide some stability and efficiency.