RIMS Sparge

[tmurph6]

Haven't posted here in a while, but I'm building a new house and get to build an electric brewery out in the garage!

Currently what I'm looking at is using a 3 kettle system with blichmann g2's, with the boil kettle having a 240v boil coil. I'd like to build a RIMs system and buy the 240v blichmann rims rocket to take advantage of having a hopback and rims tube all in one. My problem is I'm having trouble figuring out how to sparge.

If I'm mashing and recirc'ing through the rims rocket, I won't be able to simultaneously heat water in my HLT due to 1. I won't have a heating element in it the HLT, and 2. even if I did have a heating element in the HLT, I'd likely pop the 240v 30A breaker with 2 heating loads occurring simultaneously. I do have the ability to pull hot water off the tankless water heater into the HLT, but if I sparge with that water, I won't have control over temperature, I'd just be sparging withe whatever temperature water is coming out of the water heater. How do y'all do it?

 

[Ozarks Mountain Brewery]

if you have 3 pots and 2 pumps you can sparge from the hlt to the mash tun with 1 pump then from the mash tun to the boil kettle with the other

 

[dyqik]

Heat sparge water in the boil kettle, transfer to HLT. The RIMS system will not be pulling much current during the mash (heat the sparge water before you do a mash out step if desired), and it should be fine.

Then sparge from HLT through the RIMS rocket to the mash tun (use the RIMS to reheat the sparge water to 168F if it's dropped in the HLT, if required. Even if it's not, it helps cleans out the RIMS system), while running off to the boil kettle.

 

[Ozarks Mountain Brewery]

I heat up my sparge water to boiling then let it set while I mash then after mash out use the rims while pulling the water over to the mash just to be sure

 

[BrunDog]

What amperage circuit are you planning on building? Also, I don't recall the wattage of the boil coil and the rims rocket, but you could switch the rocket to 120V during mashing and that might give you enough headroom to power both simultaneously. Alternatively you could use a switching circuit which would only allow your HLT / Boil element to be ON when the RIMS element is OFF. Another alternative could be to pre-heat the sparge water and do direct sparge. This is how I built my rig, though I heat from ambient using a high power element.

 

[schematix]

I've got a 3 vessel blichmann electric system. Heating element in the HLT and BK. RIMS rocket for MLT. Need 2 pumps if you want to execute a single brew per day.

I'd stay away from the rims rocket though. It is a beyotch to mount and is comparatively expensive.

See link in my signature for how I did mine.

 

[tmurph6]

I'm running a 30A, 240V circuit in the garage for the system. If I'm able to run the 240v RIMS rocket and a boil coil simultaneously, that makes it easy. Anyone tried it? If so, I'll just buy a boil coil for my HLT.

 

[schematix]

Do you already have an existing circuit you are trying to use? I put in a 60A breaker for mine. Luckily my panel is close though.

 

[tmurph6]

Existing. It may just be a situation where I either buy a 120v rims rocket, buy a 120v HLT or buy both as 240 and balance it. The switching circuit sounds interesting, I'll do some more research on that. Thanks for the suggestions all, it's been real helpful!

 

[schematix]

You could do a 120V HLT and also supplement with gas. I used to do that when I brewed in my garage. The 120V would take about 4 hours to get to 170 degrees so I'd just put it on a timer so it'd be ready in the morning. Used to do back to back 10G batches and that much power was needed for reheating. Allowed mashing in first thing in the morning though which was nice.

 

[BrunDog]

If you are not married to a RIMS rocket, I can't help but tell you to consider going HLT free like I did in my 2 vessel rig. There is a video somewhere in the middle of my build thread - maybe give that a look for ideas.

 

[augiedoggy]

if you have 3 pots and 2 pumps you can sparge from the hlt to the mash tun with 1 pump then from the mash tun to the boil kettle with the other

This is what I do with my 30a 240v powered brew setup... I heat the hlt with a 4500w ULWD element while I use my rims which is 1800w and 2 pumps which are 24v dc and use less than 1 amp at 240v.... I have one of those "useless" amp/volt meters in my panel to show me how many amps I'm drawing at any given time and the highest I seen it spike momentarily is 28 amps... most elements draw less than they are advertised as .. one of my 4500w elements for example is really only 4026w... you might find the same results when measuring the elements.
If I were you I'd buy a regular rims setup and take that money saved and hire an electrician to install a 50 amp service if your concerned.. Theres nothing wrong with blichmanns stuff unless you have other uses for all the extra money they demand for it. Just pointing out you can build 3 electric breweries or more for the cost of one blichmann setup and it really doesnt do anything different or better than the stuff its based off of. If you have the extra dough then sweet but its not needed otherwise.