Mashing with RIMS

[MTBrewer]

Hi all. I've been using a RIMS tube the last few batches with pretty good success. I have a 10 gal Igloo mashtun and a 1800 W copper RIMS and March pump.
I've been trying to research how everyone actually mashes using a RIMS tube. All the searches I've done pretty much talk about how to build a RIMS tube and the pros/cons.
What are the steps you take when using your RIMS tube. Do you add all your water at the beginning or do it in steps? Do you still sparge? What kind of water ratio works best?
Any input would be appreciated.
Thanks!

 

[acidrain]

My set up is a little different than yours, so use what you can from this:
I pre-heat my MT with the calculated strike water. For my keggle, I add .62 F per lb of grain to my strike water, which is 1 gallon per 3 Lbs grain, plus 1/2 gallon for tube, hoses, and pump.
Stir in the grains, check temp, and let it set for 5 or 10 minutes.
After a short rest, I stir again and start the RIMS.
I have had problems in the past with compacting, so stirring often and keeping an eye on the flow is important. You'll see that once flow is reduced to a critical point, the PID won't be able to control the temp and it will overheat and scorch the wort. The scorching occurs not because the wort is overheated, but because the sugars will caramelize on the element causing off flavors.
Anyway, my RIMS (5500 watt 240 vac run at 110 vac) can easily step mash at about 1 F per minute rise.
I batch sparge, so I drain normally (already vorlaufed), measure what I've collected, and make up the difference for my pre-boil volume with two equal sparges. I know how much wort I can drain from my hoses and RIMS, so I subtract that knowing what I'll end up with all said and done.
I'm getting about 80% mash efficiency pretty consistently.
Hope that helps... watch the flow!

 

[MTBrewer]

Thanks for the information. I never even thought about the volume in the tubing and RIMS. I've been hitting in the 70's for efficiency. I have an Auber PID and it works great keeping the temp around 1 degree of the setpoint.

 

[GoodDogShelby]

I have been using my RIMS set-up for about a year now. I have a 1500w 120v element in a SS tube. I use a 10 gallon industrial cooler.
Here's the process I've settled on:
1) Heat strike water in HLT.
2) Transfer strike water to MLT.
3) Set the RIMS controller to Strike temp.
4)Recirculate strike water through RIMS to get system to desired strike temp (I usually loose a couple of degrees in transfer)
5) Reset RIMS controller to Mash Temp. Dough in and wait 5 min for bed to settle.
6) Recirc for remainder of the Mash checking MLT outlet temp and RIMS outlet temp (they vary by 3-4 deg consistantly)
7) Heat sparge to sparge temp in HLT.
8) Turn off RIMS and drain wort into BK.
9) Reset RIMS Controller to Sparge temp.
10) Add sparge water, stir, wait 5 min to settle.
11) Recirc through RIMS tube at desired sparge temp for 10 min.
12) Drain to BK.

This has worked well for me and I've been getting about 82% efficiency.

 

[GoodDogShelby]

A couple of more thoughts:

1) I use 0.25 to 0.5 lbs of rice hulls to keep the grain bed nice and fluffy!
2) I recirc onto a plastic plate sitting on the top of the grain bed.
3) I added tri-clover fitting to my RIMS tube so that I can remove and clean the element after each brew. I did about 20 brews before doing this. I never noticed any flavor issues but would notice an occasional booger that I suspected came from the element. When I removed it to clean after 20 brews, it had a nice thick coating of cooked proteins. That convinced me to add the tri-clover

 

[CreekBrewery]

I've had my RIMS for a while and here's how I do things.
1) Add water to my mash tun, turn on RIMS, add water to mash tun until it's at the amount specified by beersmith. This way I'm not counting the water in the hoses, pump and RIMS. The PID, Auber, is set above the strike temp which is calculated by beersmith.
2) Get everything setup while my strike water is heated by the RIMS.
3) Shutdown the RIMS, dough in and then let the mash rest for about 5 minutes.
4) Set RIMS to mash temp and SLOWLY begin the recirculate.
5) At the end of the mash I turn up the RIMS temp to mash out. Once the temp is reached I shut off the RIMS and drain.
6) Add strike water and recirculate slowly with RIMs on for 10 minutes, repeat if needed

Things I've learned
- If I don't slowly recirculate my efficiency goes down. From what I've read the wort is just getting sucked through the grain bed so you don't get as good of a conversion.
- I bought loc-line from BobbyM for my return into the mash tun and love it! I just adjust the return height for each mash.
- Calibrate your PID temp to the return into the mash tun. I didn't have a huge difference in mine, a bit over 1F, but I think it's the most accurate.
- An SSR to control the RIMs I think is a must. It allows for quick cycle times of the heat so the PID can work very accurately.

Here's a video of my setup in action.

 

[MTBrewer]

Thanks for the replys. This gives me some good ideas to move forward. I'm hoping to order a loc-line from Bobby soon, been looking at them for a while. I checked my last eff from earlier this month and it was about 72%. Basically following the same steps that CreekBrewery listed except I didn't circulate the strike water through the RIMS.

 

[1fast636]

Wow I love the simplicity of it think once I finally roll the ball on making my rims this is around the way I will set mine up