usrbrgr1969
Member
Working on building my single tier strut stand and debating a gas fired RIMS vs HERMS system. looking for the pros and cons of each.
RIMS vs HERMS (gas fired)
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TeamAshBrewing
Well-Known Member
Sub'd. Interested in this as well. My future build is out about 6 months.
The system I'm currently putting together will be gas fired and capable of operating in either mode. I have done a few test brews with the HERMS part operational; that is what I expect to use for most brews. Its primary advantage is that there's no real chance of scorching wort. In RIMS mode there will be less hysteresis because of the lower volume in the mash tun (it takes 11 gallons to cover the HEX coil and there's usually less than half that much in the MLT); that will be an advantage for step mashes.
DurtyChemist
Well-Known Member
Someone just posted an article about this on the front page. They said RIMS downside is possibly scorching the wort and HERMS downside is the large volume of water you need to heat up in order to do temperature changes. If you'll only be doing single temperature mashes you wouldn't really notice much difference in my opinion. IF you wanted to a multi step mash I'd think it would just be an equipment thing or personal preference. I'd go with a HERMS myself because I'd want to use the recirculation tubing as a chiller when I'm done and go with a 2 vessel setup instead of a 3 for storage similar to the blichmann breweasy.
I have a 4 vessel HERMS system. My MT is a 120qt Igloo and my HEX is a keggle with 50' of 1/2" stainless coil. To be honest, I've not been using my HERMS much. The temp rise is slow. The advantage to RIMS would be the speed you can get your temp rise. I wouldn't like cleaning the element and the scorching possibilities. This is why I chose to build HERMS. I use my HERMS on lagers mainly. HERMS adds too much time for my regular beers. I use 2 pumps, one to recirc the wort, and 1 to recirc the water in the HEX tank. It does look cool and I thought it would make this amazing difference in my beers. In the end, if I were building a new system, direct gas fired MT would be what I would make. I would say my getting a grasp on building water, controlling my mash PH, and sparging with RO has made the most impact on me brewing quality beer.
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