My RIMS design

[goatchze]

So I've been dreaming of setting up a RIMS system and, after looking at a few other designs, here is what I've come up with.

My goal is to have a system that eliminates the need for an HLT. I want to minimize the space required, so I want to stick with only the MLT and the brew kettle.

One thing that I have left off in the drawing, I intend to put a globe valve on the pump discharge to be able to throttle the outlet pressure/flow. I do not intend to put the recirculation loop back to the pump suction unless it is required (I don't know what the pump's curve looks like nor have I sized the heating element).

I also intend to put in sample points at the bottom of the MLT and downstream of the CFC.

The plan of operation is this:

Step 1: Fill MLT
Valve V-2 is closed, Valve V-4 is open, Valve V-8 is set to left, Valve V-1 is set to left. I run like this until I have drawn out the desired amount of water from my water tank. I intend to have a bypass for the T controller and have the heating element on full during fill.

Step 2: Recirculate wort.
Valve V-4 is closed and V-2 is opened. The T controller is turned on and wort is recirculated at desired temperatures and times.

Step 3: Drain MLT/Fill Kettle
Valve V-1 set to right, Valve V-3 is closed. Wort is pumped out of MLT and into Kettle. Kettle set to heat.

Step 4: Sparge
Repeat steps 1, 2, 3 with sparge water

Step 5: Boil

Step 6: Drain Kettle
Valve V-3 set open, V-8 set to right. Cooling water set on (CFC). Wort is pumped out of kettle, through CFC, through aerator, and into fermenter.


What are your thoughts??? Has anyone tried to sparge like this?

 

[goatchze]

Each of the steps.

 

[Walker]

Largely ignorant here... just doing research for my own HERMS or RIMS build ideas and stumbled across this thread. I'd also like to not have a dedicated HLT, but can't think of a practical way to do it.

What you have described above would probably functionally work, but you are going to have a potentially long delay between drawing off your 1st runnings and then drawing off the sparge water, aren't you?

If you are doing 5 gallons batches, you'll probably have something like 3 or so gallons of sparge water needed, which will take over 30 minutes to heat up by 100*F (assuming a rise from 70*F to 180*F) with the commonly used 1500W/120V elements.

If you go up to a beefy 5000W/240V element, you're looking at about 10 minutes of heat-up time, but would you run the risk of scorching the wort?

I don't know what would happen with the mash quality with the drop in temp that will happen between draining the 1st runnings and getting your new sparge water heated back up. Might not be an issue... I just don't know.

But, I'm with you, man.... I am thinking about the same sorts of things. It's looking like an HLT will probably end up in my system, because I don't want to mess with 240V.

 

[Bobby_M]

The name is escaping me but there was a guy who was making an instant water heating RIMS. You definitely need a 5000 watt element to make it work.

 

[Walker]

The name is escaping me but there was a guy who was making an instant water heating RIMS. You definitely need a 5000 watt element to make it work.

Yeah, I was reading that thread a couple hours ago, but (if I recall) the issue of "will this scorch the wort" had not been addressed, just whether the in-line water heater functionality worked.

 

[cyberbackpacker]

The users name is Sizz. The thread is here:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/rims-build-129646/

IIRC the scorching/carmelization was disproved too.

 

[goatchze]

Whoa, someone replied to this thread! I had given up on it. Thanks for the link cyber, I'll definitely check it out.

My plan is to have a dual volage RIMS heater. Both times while filling the MLT I'll be running 240V (4500W). Then, while recirculating, I'll use 120V (1000ishW). I'm going to use a PID controller and only tune it to 120V service to get better cycle times. I don't know what my heat loss is going to be, but my best guess gives me a very short cycle time for the 4500W element; something like on 10% of the time versus 25% or so with the lower wattage. A better cycle time should provide better control.

If I do this (use 240V during startup) then my math says I can raise 70F water to 170F at a rate of about 1/3 gal/min or in other words I can sparge 1 gallon of water in 3 minutes. This should also keep the mash temperature from dropping, though I'm not sure if there's any benefit to this other than time.

I plan to do strike water in a similar fashion, but control the flow so that I only raise the water up to 120-130F or so (so a little more than 1/2gpm to fill MLT first time round).

I won't have to worry about scorching the wort as I'll be heating fresh, clean water aggressively but wort not so aggressively.

I'm just curious whether anyone has done a batch sprage like this with a RIMS and, if so, whether there was much eff. gain. I plan to do the dual voltage anyway (to cut my overal start up time), so it will be easy to test once I get this thing built (next month or two).

 

[Rooster_P]

Sorry to raise the dead with this post, but I was curious if this system ever was built and its results. I am currently contemplating a similar setup. Thanks.

 

[ChuckO]

Check out this thread: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/rims-build-129646/

I have built one similar to this and have had great success so far with 11 batches.