THOUGHT OF A 2V SYSTEM.... CRITICISM AND TIPS ENCOURAGED!!

[Heitdj22]

Things I have decided on is 2 vessel (15G each) 1 pump rims tube and k-rims hybrid setup.

My kettle port locations are below.
I am going to be doing a electric setup.

In the BK, I will have a 5500W 240V element.

I will place the rims tube with a 1600W 120V element and flow from the BK to MT, which will help maintain consistent temps during the mash.

Thoughts?

 

[Jayjay1976]

Your images are too small to see. Try inserting them into your message as full size instead of thumbnails.

 

[Heitdj22]

Your images are too small to see. Try inserting them into your message as full size instead of thumbnails.

That should do the trick!

 

[Sammy86]

Why a Rims tube? You'll already have the BK direct fire right? No need for the rims when BK will heat up the water/wort during recirculating.

 

[Heitdj22]

Why a Rims tube? You'll already have the BK direct fire right? No need for the rims when BK will heat up the water/wort during recirculating.

Negative to the direct fire. THIS is all electric. heating element inside BK/HLT, and Rims tube with heating element as well. moving away from gas.

 

[Sammy86]

Negative to the direct fire. THIS is all electric. heating element inside BK/HLT, and Rims tube with heating element as well. moving away from gas.

Right, you're going to have an element in the BK...no need for a rims tube with a two vessel if you have the ability to keep the water/wort up with the BK.

 

[Heitdj22]

Right, you're going to have an element in the BK...no need for a rims tube with a two vessel if you have the ability to keep the water/wort up with the BK.

I see know what you are saying, but I am wanting to have a continuous sparge during the mash. I have seen people concerned about efficiencies due to inconsistent temperatures during the mash. This not only recirculates during the mash, but helps to keep the temps constant. So I thought to use the rims tube for the fact of consistent temperatures throughout the mash process.

Also, I was wondering your thoughts on a controller?
Ive seen:
PID
hosehead
node-red
raspberry pi
arduino
diy-panels

any thoughts on this as well?

 

[Sammy86]

I see know what you are saying, but I am wanting to have a continuous sparge during the mash. I have seen people concerned about efficiencies due to inconsistent temperatures during the mash. This not only recirculates during the mash, but helps to keep the temps constant. So I thought to use the rims tube for the fact of consistent temperatures throughout the mash process.

Also, I was wondering your thoughts on a controller?
Ive seen:
PID
hosehead
node-red
raspberry pi
arduino
diy-panels

any thoughts on this as well?

My general rule of thumb with anything in life including brewing is to K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple Stupid). Whatever you are comfortable with or comfortable learning is the way you should go.

I don't have any experience except through a friend of mine who has a Kal Clone. They use PIDs and they seem to get the job done.

I know @BrunDog has his controller as well which I would recommend taking a look at as well. He did a livestream with @highland_brewer on youtube. Here is the link :

 

[bkboiler]

this sounds painful...but my suggestion would be to get to what you feel is 90% concept wise, then start buying things and building it. As you build, you will see where things won't work or can be improved.
Then I would suggest running it fully manually a bit until you learn where things get stuck, or need some finagling.
I went through that on my recent build...
First brew on my 2 vessel I learned a lot and will help me as I start automating!
My $0.02, but if this is not your first build this advice may not apply to you.

 

[Heitdj22]

this sounds painful...but my suggestion would be to get to what you feel is 90% concept wise, then start buying things and building it. As you build, you will see where things won't work or can be improved.
Then I would suggest running it fully manually a bit until you learn where things get stuck, or need some finagling.
I went through that on my recent build...
First brew on my 2 vessel I learned a lot and will help me as I start automating!
My $0.02, but if this is not your first build this advice may not apply to you.

Got any pictures to what you built?

 

[bkboiler]

Got any pictures to what you built?

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/posts/9062417/still a work in progress, main goal was to be space efficient and use NG (since electricity is VERY expensive in my city).

Hoping to make it workable for bigger 2.5 gal batches or small to medium 5 gallon beers. I listed a few of my planned changes in that thread.

One thing I just recently thought of was to use my IC as a herms coil (some others have done this) and to lift my MT outside from under the cart before loading it full of grain. Lifting it out to clean after brew day is a pain.

 

[bnut]

Looks like a similar setup to what I use except I use a counter flow HERMS instead of the RIMS.
Ports on your kettles are the same as mine except I put the sparge on the right side the kettle. It would have been better on the left where you have yours, but it's not a big deal.

I use a Wort Hog (EBC-330)controller with two temp probes. I monitor the temp going into the counter flow and monitor the temp leaving the counter flow. The probe monitoring the exit temp controls the heating element during mashing to maintain or raise the mash temp.

When I switch to boiling I need to change over to a third temp probe in the brew kettle.

Overall I'm very happy with the setup.

 

[ajm163]

building something very similar. Just waiting on my Mashtun to complete the system (stupid "out of stock")

 

[ajm163]

if it helps here are my drawings. I was not able to get a good whirlpool through my chiller so i had to change up my origional design to add a bypass for the whirlpool

 

[bnut]

I whirlpool through my counterflow. It has a 1/4" ID for the wort, so it definitely restricts my flow. However, in practice, I found the flow to be sufficient to create an effective whirlpool.

 

[ajm163]

I have a 20G kettle i found that i could get an ok whirlpool on 6G but at 12G it was not really what i would consider a whirlpool when going through my chiller

 

[Bobby_M]

I see know what you are saying, but I am wanting to have a continuous sparge during the mash. I have seen people concerned about efficiencies due to inconsistent temperatures during the mash. This not only recirculates during the mash, but helps to keep the temps constant. So I thought to use the rims tube for the fact of consistent temperatures throughout the mash process.

Also, I was wondering your thoughts on a controller?
Ive seen:
PID
hosehead
node-red
raspberry pi
arduino
diy-panels

any thoughts on this as well?

I think you missed the point. The comment was that there is no use in having a separate RIMS tube for mash temperature adjustments because you can flow the mash to (through) the boil kettle where you already have a controlled heat source. Think of the boil kettle as an oversized RIMS tube. When you called it a "K-RIMS", this is actually what K-RIMS means. It's a kettle-rims.

To do it you would definitely want to lower the whirlpool port because that's where the wort flows in from the mash tun and you don't want it splashing.

 

[bkboiler]

one thing I wanted to add to my previous post, is that I'd do a full volume mash for 2.5 gallon batches and the HERMS would be pumped full of "service" water that would be discarded before the boil.
For 5 gallon batches, the "service" water would essentially become the sparge water at the end of the mash.
My IC is stainless and I'm outfitting it will all stainless fittings and silicone tube, so should be good!