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Unfortunately, no good pics. Does this sketch help? Basically you just use your chiller instead of a HERMs coil to exchange heat with water. Another advantage of this set up is that you don't have to keep a whole bunch of water in the HLT just to cover HERMs coils. You need just enough to cover...

No, it's nothing like a RIMs. There is no direct heating of the wort during mashing. It functions exactly as a traditional HERMs, only instead of a coil in the HLT you have an external heat exchanger (plate, pipe in pipe, shell in tube). Pump water on one side, wort on the other. I call it...

Don't know if you can tell what's going on in this picture, but on the right is the BK/HLT. On the left is the MT. Pump the wort on the tube side of the heat exchanger. Pump the water from the HLT on the shell side. The only way a two vessel arrangement will increase your mashing capacity is if...

Why not consider a no sparge two vessel/two pump set up? Unless you're doing back-to-back batches, do you really have a need for a dedicated HLT? I use an external exchanger instead of a HERMs coil. My BK doubles as the HLT and I pump water from the BK to the water side of the external...

Just to make sure no one gets confused by this statement, batch size does matter when considering the time it takes to chill a batch. The rate of chilling will be the same between batches, but the larger the batch the longer the chill time.

On my current rig I boil 12 gallons with 1500 watts as measured by my panel mounted meters. Would I try to ramp from mash out to boiling at that volume with only 1500 watts? No. But once you get there it doesn't take much to keep it boiling. Don't be concerned with boil vigor. Instead focus on...

I bought version 1.0 of the Unibrau a few years ago. Sold it to a co-worker and it's still going. The only thing that crapped out on me was the little pump it came with. Totally different pump being used now. Edit: Forgot this was my thread :) Looks like it's coming up on three years ago that I...

Bowing out. Not sure it's large enough for a ten gallon batch.

I've seen these for sale new and, because I wasn't convinced 12' was long enough, I've bought all the stuff to DIY a really long one. How fast can you chill a typical batch size for your set up?

Very interested. What's the length?

I'm not following. You're setting your HLT temp 10 degrees higher than desired mash temp, but you're wort is coming back to the MT 10 degrees higher than you want? The solution sounds simple to me. Don't run your HLT so warm. Where is the control temp that you're using to drive the heating...

I don't get the impression that the bag is sitting on the element, not do I think there's a trub pile the elements are sitting in, but rather the liquid surrounding the element is being scorched. I don't believe a barrier as you describe is really going to help in this situation.

Yup, that's exactly what I would try. Your ramp speed will be lower, but it'll be better than scorching.

Not sure where you're located, but I thought this was a good deal. It'll get you up and running very quickly. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/index.php?threads/646439/

A few suggestions. Run your pump for a few minutes before turning on the elements. This should pick up anything that's settled in the bottom and put it in the grain bed. Since you have an ezboil, adjust the mOut to something less than 100%. You're elements are most likely firing full blast...

Very good question. I have only one data point, and that's @Die_Beerery. If I recall correctly, with boil off in the 4-5% range he had DMS issues. The way the steam is removed from a system like this may have an impact on the % that you can get by with. It'll be interesting to test to lower limits.

You boiled off 0.5 gallons from an 11.5 gallon initial volume? That's 4.3%, and definitely pushing the lower limit of what you need to drive off DMS precursors. Safe range is typically 6-8%. If you don't mind, please chime back in when you've had a chance to taste the final product. I'm very...

Good responses above. But also, 3500 watts might not be enough "umph" for some people.

So it ended up not working? The little switch I sent you a link for works great, and I just use lights to tell me which probe the controller is lined up to. Here it is in action. Hard to see, but it's flipped over to the right, which is the HLT/BK.

Absolutely. Think of it this way. Would a kettle full of hot water cool faster sitting in a room with zero air movement or with a fan blowing on it? If you don't circulate the heat transfer coefficient will be greatly reduced. This is because with no water movement on the outside, the...