rwmingis
Well-Known Member
Wrong! You need a flux capacitor!
"One. point. twentyone. jiggawatts!"
Wrong! You need a flux capacitor!
My advice in regards to your heat exchanger is to not over-engineer your system. I think people get caught up in the shiny stuff and forget that you make good beer with a plastic bucket.
Nice rendering of your setup - what did you use for that?
I suggest using a straight rims...
But once again - for the cost and trouble... you could get a nice custom low density element made up and do direct RIMS without all the intermediate stuff.
For a homemade jobbie Tin would be ideal... If you acid cleaned all the surfaces and fluxed it should wet on really well to.
Nothing, I just don't feel safe with letting the processor control a flame on it's own, and I'd also need a gas bottle and extra hose. Buuuuuut, along those lines, is there such a thing as heat tape where i could just wrap it around a section of coiled pipe? Might be worth a look.What's wrong with air and a small gas flame? And a well insulated chamber.
Why? HERMS is a lot more popular, I suspect because it's easier to setup. I think that with a RIMS system, though, you've got scope for much more precise control. It becomes a single control loop with much shorter τ. With a HERMS you've got to control the temperature of the secondary vessel (using the same sort of PID or similar controller on an element) and then control the temperature of the mash by adjusting the flow rate through the coil. Alternatively, you set the temperature of the secondary vessel at the temperature you want your mash, and get the flow rate as high as you can to minimise the time (it will be very slow). Too much dicking about for mine, very fiddly to control. With a RIMS, you just have a fixed flow rate and the control loop is quite simple. I doubt very much that with a reasonable flow rate you'd ever get scorching - most people don't have a problem with buckets of doom, and that's usually a small element running at 100% with only natural convection to prevent scorching. If you do find you get scorching, just determine the maximum duty cycle for your element at your given flow rate and set that as a limit in your control loop.This is what i'm starting with, I got the impression that HERMs is the best,
No, it won't...In before "but it'll have gaps between the shavings!", it'll have good enough thermal response for you to not care about.
Have fun getting copper shavings off a bench grinder with standard wheels, you could try and pick it out of the grinding wheels with a sharp object but you wont get many shavings.Im sure you can pick up copper shavings from somewhere, if not you could be a badass and make a funnel and grind up some waste copper from a metal recycler with a bench grinder.
Why? HERMS is a lot more popular.....
My advice would be just to go with a RIMS and be very anal about cleaning the heating chamber after every brew. A friend... ...started getting bad batches. They all had a smoky taste which he initially thought was a wild yeast infection issue (phenols) but he eventually traced to his heating chamber. It was almost totally clogged with scorched husks.
I like the layout of your system, particularly the heating chamber with the inlet down low on one side and the outlet high on the opposite side - that's smart. There will be plenty of turbulence inside the chamber which will maximise heat transfer. My only modification would be to put the outlet at the highest point in the chamber or slightly incline the chamber so that the outlet as drawn will be at the highest point. This will minimise the air in the chamber and eliminate hot side aeration.
Why is this not an issue with a RIMS? your circulation rate through your heat exchanger which is basically what both systems are will be just as important with a RIMS as a HERMS.LC, You're right, I don't really like HERMs as I do not like having to control the heat addition by how fast the flow is going through the coil. Too difficult when considering the variable losses through the grainbed. Both options have merits though, that's why I want the hybrid.
Why is this not an issue with a RIMS? your circulation rate through your heat exchanger which is basically what both systems are will be just as important with a RIMS as a HERMS.
I like your element below, it looks like a three phase one connected in a Star connection. If you are only running 240V single phase to it then you could play around with series/parallel connections to lower its watt/density.
I wouldn't bother with a filter before the RIMS. If your RIMS chamber is relatively free flowing, just recirculate for a few minutes without the element on until it runs clear. The grain bed will form the filter, and no husks will come through after that. Alternatively, if they get stuck in there regardless of whether the element is on to scorch and stick to them, you can put in a bypass valve. Recirculate through the bypass valve until you get clear wort, then shut the valve and run it through the RIMS.