2 Keg Rims system

I am designing a 2 keg rims system and I need some feedback.

Essentially it involves heating water to strike temp in the bk/hlt, pumping it over to the mlt and recircing for an hour at mash temp. After one hour, pumping in "sparge" water and raising temp to ~168 for about 15 minutes. *Total water volume now in mlt* Then pumping it back over to bk/hlt for the boil.

I may be beating a dead horse with this post, but most of the others threads I have read have been full of opinions and quotes from other peoples opinions. . I'd appreciate any hard data on efficiencies and any input from people that have actually used this type of setup, not opinions on why my setup is wrong or another set up is better.

I apologize if that sounds a bit rude, but many of the threads I've read turn into nothing but arguments over trivial things.

You can certainly do exactly what you're describing. It's called a brutus 20 in homebrew speek.

If you're willing to step up to 30A electrical service you can do a two rig that fly sparges with on-demand hot water through your RIMS. Here's mine. I get ~90% efficiency for 1.050 beers. One thing to note, the on demand hot water works well, but only at very low flow rates unless I use my home hot water. Because of this, I've on occasion sparged at considerably lower temperatures (~130F) and still got 90ish% for efficiency. A couple times I've actually just ran the 60F tap water for a sparge and still hit my normal efficiency numbers. Now I usually just set my flow rates and let the temp do what it does.

I have a Brutus 20 and routinely get 75% efficiency on ~1.050 beers.

I'd appreciate any hard data on efficiencies

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...of what?
brewhouse efficiency? mash efficiency? how well RIMS works vs. something else? of what, and compared to what?
i dont see a question...

I don't have any hard data, but all of the anecdotal data I've analyzed shows that 2-vessel, or no-sparge brewing will routinely get efficiencies in the low-mid 70's. That can go higher if you are expert at milling. What you describe is a good system. Simple, and eliminates a few steps, so it should save time. The only arguments I've heard either way involve some sort of griping about what this technically is, and what to call it. I have a 3 vessel system, and quit using the HLT when my bucket heater fried. I now do no-sparge batches and love the simplicity. I heat my sparge water in the kettle, and then recirc the entire wort volume. The only sugar left in the grain is what is absorbed by the grain at the same gravity as the beer I'm brewing. That's pretty insignificant. People are leaving a lot more sugars behind when they don't use a proper dip tube, if you ask me.
Advice? Build it.

audger said:

...of what?
brewhouse efficiency? mash efficiency? how well RIMS works vs. something else? of what, and compared to what?
i dont see a question...

Click to expand...

I am looking for mash efficiency. I'm not too concerned with comparing it to anything else since it's pretty much what I'm going to use (once it's built). Knowing what others have gotten for efficiency is getting myself some advanced knowledge of what it is capable of. Forewarned is forearmed.


Thanks for the feedback, I appreciate it.

horseinmay, I agree, and that's why I didn't try to jump in on another thread. Too many people seem to get caught up in what something is called rather than what the actual problem/question is.

Since you mentioned it, what do you use for a dip tube? Is it something you made, or purchased? I am converting a keg and I would love to have a drain coming out of the bottom, under a false bottom, but I'm not sure how to make it work.

I'm in the process of building towards something similar as I switch to electric. Basically an electric boil kettle and then an electric RIMS tube for recirc.

I haven't been able to get a good idea of what kind of efficiencies to get. I imagine it's somewhat similar to no-sparge or BIAB but I haven't found any two vessel setups with RIMS.

I figure if it's one giant fail then I can always go back to three vessels but if I can keep the complexity and costs down, I'll give it a try. Probably won't be testing until late summer.

For a dip tube, I use 3/8" soft copper connected to a coupling via a compression fitting. It's pretty handy to keep some soft copper around for things like that. I leave less than 4 ounces of liquid in the bottom of my kettle.

Jon73 said:

I am designing a 2 keg rims system and I need some feedback.

Essentially it involves heating water to strike temp in the bk/hlt, pumping it over to the mlt and recircing for an hour at mash temp. After one hour, pumping in "sparge" water and raising temp to ~168 for about 15 minutes. *Total water volume now in mlt* Then pumping it back over to bk/hlt for the boil.

I may be beating a dead horse with this post, but most of the others threads I have read have been full of opinions and quotes from other peoples opinions. . I'd appreciate any hard data on efficiencies and any input from people that have actually used this type of setup, not opinions on why my setup is wrong or another set up is better.

I apologize if that sounds a bit rude, but many of the threads I've read turn into nothing but arguments over trivial things.

Click to expand...

There's an older thread here somewhere detailing a single vessel direct fired BIAB RIMS. He reported getting 70-78% efficiency, and averaging 74% IIRC. I think he was conditioning his malt and then crushing pretty fine.

Jon73 said:

Since you mentioned it, what do you use for a dip tube? Is it something you made, or purchased? I am converting a keg and I would love to have a drain coming out of the bottom, under a false bottom, but I'm not sure how to make it work.

Click to expand...

You can either drill a hole in the center of the bottom and install a weldless bulkhead, and then route the drain line out from under the keg to a valve, or flip the keg upside down and drain out of the sankey opening. A 2" tri-clamp fits perfectly on the sankey neck. I have bottom drains in my HLT and MLT, and love them. Zero deadspace, and the FB goes in and out without having to fuss with a diptube.