HERMS or RIMS for my new setup... opinions?

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sdsurf

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I'm nearly done building the frame for my new single-tier brewing rig (pics to come soon). I plan on using 3 keggles for HLT, MT and Boil Kettle with 2 March pumps to move things around from vessel to vessel. My quandry is whether to go with a HERMS or RIMS system. I really like the looks of these two:

Jeff McClain's Mossy Cup Brewing and
Page 2 but maybe modified to a single-tier with 2 pumps rather than gravity-based.

The one I modeled my stand after was this one:

Wort-O-Matic: Baltobrewer's Electric Stand

and I love the simplicity of the design, but I'm concerned that using the CFC as the HERMS replacement will not allow temperature changes rapidly enough to do anything but single-infusion mashes.

I'm also stuck as to whether to use gas burners under the boil and HLT, gas for the boil and electric for the HLT, electric for both...

Anyone have any compelling reasons to go with one or the other?

Thanks in advance!

Josh
 
I prefer electric.

It is quiet
It is clean
It is cheap to run
It is easy to switch and use with temp controllers

I like the HERMS.

You are heating your HLT water anyway, so you do not have to build a RIMS heater separate from it
You can step mash with a HERMS, people here do it
It requires one less temp controller and element.

The choice is yours, there many threads here to read, learn... both are great systems and allow excellent control and repeatability.
 
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