Hi Guys,
First post here, but have been lurking for a while. I am in the process of building my personal brewery in stages. In fact, every time I brew, I learn something and make hardware changes/improvements for the next time. Recently transitioned from stovetop BIAB to larger electric BIAB, now to multi-kettle w/RIMS and BCS. I love the BCS concept as it will allow for continued evolution into more automation without burning bridges of dedicated control hardware (e.g. PIDs). In this planning phase, I had one question that research couldn't seem to completely answer, so I thought I would seek feedback.
What are your thoughts about going to a 2 kettle system rather than three? I would eliminate the HLT and just use a well-powered RIMS element for heating MLT water and on-demand sparge water. It would still require 2 pumps. But one less kettle and supporting hardware would make a difference in hardware, cost, complexity, cleaning (though not much for HLT). BTW the BK is 15 gallon with a 5500W element, the MLT would be 15 gal, and the RIMS would be 4500W. I already ran 240V/50A, but in concept it only needed to be a 30A supply as this could function powering only one element at a time. Anybody have experience doing this or think it would be successful or unsuccessful?
I have an undersink RO system that I use for water. Since it produces water slowly, I begin to draw off water a gallon or two at a time a few days prior to brew day. I put that in a large bottling bucket as my storage reservoir. I then transfer to my kettles (main and sparge) and treat them with salt additions there. My thought is that I would just treat the water in the bucket, then feed it to the pump to load the MLT through the RIMS tube (with RIMS heat on) until the MLT reaches the required volume, then begin recirculating with the RIMS tube on until the MLT reaches dough-in temp. Then after mashing I would pump the runnings into the BK at the same time pump additional sparge water into the MLT through the RIMS tube on the fly (pun intended). I would eventually add a float switch and just let the BCS control the flow into (or out of) the MLT by controlling the pumps on/off.
The one problem I forsee with this setup (based on this video: http://youtu.be/0AGUOCeM-WUd) is that the PID parameters for the mash recirculation would need to be very different than the parameters for the on-demand sparge water. Based upon the screenshots, I see that each output has its own set PID parameters which I do not think can be changed on the fly) , so I am thinking I would just tie two outputs together, and in the logic use the one that is responsible for the operation at that time.
Any thoughts/feedback are sincerely appreciated.
-BD
First post here, but have been lurking for a while. I am in the process of building my personal brewery in stages. In fact, every time I brew, I learn something and make hardware changes/improvements for the next time. Recently transitioned from stovetop BIAB to larger electric BIAB, now to multi-kettle w/RIMS and BCS. I love the BCS concept as it will allow for continued evolution into more automation without burning bridges of dedicated control hardware (e.g. PIDs). In this planning phase, I had one question that research couldn't seem to completely answer, so I thought I would seek feedback.
What are your thoughts about going to a 2 kettle system rather than three? I would eliminate the HLT and just use a well-powered RIMS element for heating MLT water and on-demand sparge water. It would still require 2 pumps. But one less kettle and supporting hardware would make a difference in hardware, cost, complexity, cleaning (though not much for HLT). BTW the BK is 15 gallon with a 5500W element, the MLT would be 15 gal, and the RIMS would be 4500W. I already ran 240V/50A, but in concept it only needed to be a 30A supply as this could function powering only one element at a time. Anybody have experience doing this or think it would be successful or unsuccessful?
I have an undersink RO system that I use for water. Since it produces water slowly, I begin to draw off water a gallon or two at a time a few days prior to brew day. I put that in a large bottling bucket as my storage reservoir. I then transfer to my kettles (main and sparge) and treat them with salt additions there. My thought is that I would just treat the water in the bucket, then feed it to the pump to load the MLT through the RIMS tube (with RIMS heat on) until the MLT reaches the required volume, then begin recirculating with the RIMS tube on until the MLT reaches dough-in temp. Then after mashing I would pump the runnings into the BK at the same time pump additional sparge water into the MLT through the RIMS tube on the fly (pun intended). I would eventually add a float switch and just let the BCS control the flow into (or out of) the MLT by controlling the pumps on/off.
The one problem I forsee with this setup (based on this video: http://youtu.be/0AGUOCeM-WUd) is that the PID parameters for the mash recirculation would need to be very different than the parameters for the on-demand sparge water. Based upon the screenshots, I see that each output has its own set PID parameters which I do not think can be changed on the fly) , so I am thinking I would just tie two outputs together, and in the logic use the one that is responsible for the operation at that time.
Any thoughts/feedback are sincerely appreciated.
-BD
