RIMS advice

[ibemopar]

Ive been wanting to build a recirculating system for my brew setup and I think I have narrowed it down to the RIMS system. I just wanted to get some words of advice from those that have attempted this...

[EagleDude]

HERMS system here, but RIMS is nearly the same concept only backwards. Provide some more specifics on what you are looking to do and perhaps someone here can help you out.

[Kbar]

Love it. Have a RIMS system. Bought the one from BrewersHardware. 1.5" TriClamp. 1500W element, and their nice Heating Element TriClamp mount with ground screw. New Mashtun has a great false bottom so I can run full flow on a 1.5:1 water to grist ratio without any compaction issues. PID controller holds the temperature well, even on these cold winter brew days. Set it and forget it.

Now, off to wire up the PID controller for the HLT - 4500W element.

[codewritinfool]

I brew on a large RIMS system that belongs to the club. It does a great job, but isn't fancy at all - the thing we've been bitten by is a stuck sparge loop and the element flashing the wort to steam. It has happened twice in dozens of brews, both heavy wheat beers, 1.25:1 ratio.

I plan to add a temp sensor right near the element as an element disable to help prevent it, but probably the best thing to do is to not have a stuck sparge to begin with. Rice hulls to the rescue or maybe a better water / grain ratio.

[mabrungard]

+1 on the Brewers Hardware RIMS tube. A beautiful piece of equipment. But, using threaded stainless steel tube and fittings would work just as well. I run a full 4500 watt element in my RIMS and have no problems with scorching. The temperature control sensor is only a few inches downstream of the element and the PID keeps the wort from getting scorched. The Auber 2352 PID with twin 40 amp SSR's works well for my 240v system. You could get by with a single 25 amp SSR if you run the system off of 120v.

Get a good pump. I use a March 809HS, but its been upgraded with the 815 impeller. If considering the March pump, go ahead and get the 815 version. Its worth it. I see the Chugger pumps look good too. They look the same as the March pumps except they have a SST pump housing.

You have to be careful about how hard (fast) you pump the wort through the mash bed. You can compact the bed if you pump too hard. I have a sight glass plumbed into the bottom of my mash tun so that I can monitor the head at the bottom of the bed. I don't let the wort level in the sight glass fall any lower than the bottom of the glass by throttling the pump discharge. This keeps the bed from compacting.

[konkers]

Hi all, new around here and just getting back into brewing. I thought I'd add another +1 to the Brewers' Hardware RIMS tube. I had a stuck mash recirc last weekend because I knocked the hose connecting my false bottom loose. Grain got everywhere in plumbing. With the BH RIMS tube I was able to completely disassemble it and rince out the grain in just a few minutes and get back to mashing. That has gone a long way to convincing me to start swapping out threads for tri-clover where I can.

Cheers,
Erik