RIMS Wizard knockoff

[soonerpike1748]

I've been building this guy since November, and I finally got the parts and time to take it on a test drive. The RIMS wizard by sabco was my inspiration. However, the price was through the roof. I was able to build this contraption and have enough left over to purchase the brew pots in the pic.

More pics and build list to come. I owe this forum and some folks in this forum a big thank you.

Cheers.

 

[soonerpike1748]

 

[RadicalEd]

Collapsible....nice.

 

[atoughram]

Great idea!

 

[soonerpike1748]

I built this system so I can do 10 gallon no sparge batches. I was going for something simple, and I needed it to be modular since I brew outside.

Big thanks to angrymonk. I bought his 120V controller off of him 3 months ago. (link). I ended up switching the heat sink out for an external one, added a relay for the pump, and I changed a little bit of the wiring. It worked perfectly right outta the box, but I thought I'd try and get my hands dirty doing some of it on my own. Really learned a lot while doing the rewiring!

System Info:
2" RIMS tube from brewers hardware
- 4500w lwd stainless heating element
- 4" RTD prob from auberins.com
- 1/2" inlet and outlet with cam locks
stainless chugger pump
2 ft werner ladder as my RIMS tube stand
20" tall werner platform ladder as my burner/brew pot stand
14" burners from homebrewing.org
20 gal boilermaker mash tun
25 gallon brew pot from homebrewing.org

 

[soonerpike1748]

Did the propane test on Sunday. I had 15 gallons in each kettle, and got both to a boil. I'm glad the platform was capable of holding all the hardware plus 30 gallons of water.

 

[soonerpike1748]

 

[rgauthier20420]

Have you been able to do any no-sparge batches yet? I'm finishing up a RIMS tube and bottom drain keggle MT conversion so I can give the no-sparge a try. I'm wondering about your efficiency with the method.

Looks good too

 

[soonerpike1748]

Fist crack at it will be this weekend (fingers crossed!) I'm brewing a dry stout with a target OG of 1.043 @ 70% efficiency. I'll post brew day pics and how things turned out.

 

[rgauthier20420]

Fist crack at it will be this weekend (fingers crossed!) I'm brewing a dry stout with a target OG of 1.043 @ 70% efficiency. I'll post brew day pics and how things turned out.

Please do! I'm praying for good results for you!

 

[soonerpike1748]

Good news! My first brew day with this contraption is complete. Pre-boil gravity was right on the money, but my boil off rate and trub loss estimates weren't right. All that being said, I hit my gravity but missed the 10 gallon mark by about a quart.

General notes on the day:

1. Setup and clean up took longer than desired. This is probably due to me learning the system. Any recommendations you guys have to cleaning out a 20 gal Blichmann MLT and a RIMS tube, please lemme know!

2. The 120V RIMS tube did a great job at maintaining temperature. Ramping up and down on ~15 gallons of wort/grains is a little too much to ask for this guy. I figured I would need to use the propane burner to ramp temp, so this was expected. Using just a little bit of fire, I stepped up from 151 to 168 mash out in about 25 minutes.

3. See pic below on the grains left in the mash tun after I drained it. During the mash I stirred it a few times, but i'm not sure if my re circulation method is causing this hump in the middle. Right now I recirc through a loc-line. I might be "swirling" too much with my recirc causing the mound of grains.

4. With all the water running through this system, I think I need to build a guard for the chugger pump. Just as a CYA.

5. One photo shows the RIMS tube and stand broken down and in storage. The next pic is of the RIMS tube and stand put together.

 

[nosnhojm20]

That's awesome. Do you have a cost breakout by chance? I know I'm being lazy.


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[soonerpike1748]

I purposely didn't keep records of how much this build costed, or I'd have thrown up in my mouth. Here are some estimates:

Rough Estimates:

PID Controller - ~300
RIMS Tube - 250
Hoses, camlocks, loc-line - 150
Blichmann 20 gal mash tun - 500
burners - 150
werner ladders - 100
25 gallon brew kettle - 180
chugger pump - 125

 

[nosnhojm20]

That made me laugh aloud. Thanks for the ball park, and I'm sorry to ask you to relive it.


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[nosnhojm20]

Different Q., why go all out with the blichmann on the mash tun and not BK? Didn't know if I'm missing anything.


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[soonerpike1748]

I couldn't afford both Blichmann mash tun and boil kettle, so I chose my mashtun to be blichmann.

To me, a Blichmann set up as a boil kettle doesn't have any advantages than other boil kettles. The advantages lie in the mash tun IMHO.
1. Graduated volumes on the sight glass. I don't need that on a boil kettle, but it's great to have on my mash tun. Since all of my water starts in the mash tun, having the volumes on the sight glass was a big deal.
2. The false bottom is pretty great in the mash tun. I think it works well, even though I appear to have a channeling problem. I think I can fix that with a different return from the RIMS. Not needed for a boil kettle.
3. built in thermometer. Great for a mash tun, but not needed in a boil kettle. It's boiling, so I know the temp is ~212F.
4. My boil kettle is 25 gallons, so I can jump to 15 gallon batches if I want to start batch/fly sparging. The only equivalent to that is a 30 gallon blichmann which is big $$$. My boil kettle only cost me $180.

 

[AngryMonk]

View attachment 179318

I do recognize something on that picture Glad it worked for you !

 

[soonerpike1748]

1 brew day down, and another one planned. My first brew was a blond ale with an OG of 1.044. I mashed at 151F for about 75 minutes. After one week, I'm already down to 1.01 using US-05 yeast.

This next one one will be an IPA that is on the lower end of the scale. I'm considering mashing a little bit higher considering what happened with the previous brew. If I can replicate my brewhouse efficiencies, then I think I've got this thing figured out. I ended up changing my mash recirc to fix the hypothesized channeling. It has two outlets instead of one. I'll try to post a pic of the new recirc line from brew day.