Beer Forum

How fast can your systemincrease the temperature of the mash/water? How much wattage (aimed at EC systems) is your system?

My RIMS system is 1500W's and will do 1F in 1 Minute

Trying to get an idea of the performance levels and if step mashing can occur with the 1F/Minute rate......

Thanks!

Last summer I decided to try a step mash/protein rest with my HERMS system while brewing a Hefe. It took ~30 minutes to raise temps from 122 to 150 which equates to your 1F/min. Unfortunately, the beer ended up with very little body/mouthfeel that I attributed to having too much conversion occuring as the temps slowly rose. As a result, I will never step mash in the same way again. If I do it in the future, I will just start with a thick mash for the 122 rest and have hot water ready to quickly increase the temp and thin out the thick mash. I hope that change in process will give me the protein rest (if desired) and avoid the over conversion during the slow temperature increase.

I have the same wattage as your system and observe the same performance, 1 degree F per min. Obviously going to a 240v supply will bump the wattage, but it may not necessarily bump the temperature increase performance since flow rate has a strong influence in the amount of heat you can add to the wort before you overheat it. The PID would probably limit things in that case.

There are very few beers that require a protein rest and that would be the only time that moving the mash temperature quickly will be a factor. The only beer I perform a reduced temp rest is a German Hefe where I'm seeking ferullic acid production for 4VG in the beer (cloveyness). You do want to more the mash temp quickly through the 130 to 140F range since that is the 'head killing' range where the wrong proteins are excessively denatured. I just go ahead and add a boiling water step infusion to the mash to bring the mash temp quickly past that range.

For all other sacharification mashing temps, there is no problem with having only a 1 degree F per minute mash temp change rate.

Also chiming in with a 1500W element, about the same performance. Converted-keg mash tun. I have 220V on the HLT and boil kettle so a more powerful element could easily be added to the RIMS but haven't felt the need. Good thing to keep in mind if I ever want to do a step though.

Anyone know the temp increase rate of a large commercial brewery ala Stone or Lagunitas? I wouldn't think their ramp rate would be all that quick either with the volume they are working at.