Rims System Questions
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Justin
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Ok, I'll have a crack at this one. Although I don't have a RIMS that is irrelevant as this is a sparging question 
.
A1. I'd use the H shaped manifold. Here's why. I don't like the Phils sparger whirly gig-at all, by dribbling the water through those sprinkler systems if cools the sparge water unnecessarily. By having a submerged manifold like the H shape you remove one more step for temp loss. Higher sparge temps at the grain bed should mean better efficiency. Have you ever measured your grain bed temp while sparging in the top few inches? It's usually quite cool by half way through the sparge. FWIW I have never bored a hole into my grain bed by having a simple manifold sitting directly on top of the grain bed.
Also, although this may not be applicable to you with your RIMS because you wort will be clear before hooking up the manifold, (I'm not certain how you are running it) but you can't recirculate to clear your wort through a Phils sparger-hot water only. Grain pieces will clog the holes. So you need a H manifold in the tun to deliver the wort back to the grain bed during your mash, people use the H shaped manifold because of the 1/2" holes, so if you already have a manifold hooked up and sitting on the grain bed why bother changing it over to the Phils for the sparge?
Finally you wouldn't want to recirculate constantly during the mash through a Phils-I'm not saying you do this, but just saying in case you do- 1. because if will constantly splash your wort for the whole mash leading to HSA (if you buy into the HSA thing) and you'll be loosing temp from the sparge ring to the grain bed which really goes against what your hoping to achieve with the RIMS-ie temp stability.
A2. If I remember what your system looks like you have the pump on the outlet of the tun and you gravity feed your HLT onto the grain bed. In order to check your runnings you need to either get to the end of the hose in your kettle and take a sample there-or you could put a T piece on the outlet of your pump with a ball valve and use that to draw a sample from during the sparge. I hope you follow that. If you take a sample directly from the MT outlet you'll lose prime on your pump.
A3. Yes, unless your batch sparging which obviously you are not. Fly sparging with a pump is no different to fly sparging with gravity, you still need to feather two valves (MT outlet and HLT outlet) to balance your wort out and your hot liquor in. If you need to measure how fast your sparging measure it off the HLT (either by sight guage or directly at the outlet). If your level in the tun is going down then you are sparging at a rate faster than the HLT is flowing, if it's rising then obviously you are sparging at a slower rate than the HLT outlet.
Hope it helps.
Justin
.A1. I'd use the H shaped manifold. Here's why. I don't like the Phils sparger whirly gig-at all, by dribbling the water through those sprinkler systems if cools the sparge water unnecessarily. By having a submerged manifold like the H shape you remove one more step for temp loss. Higher sparge temps at the grain bed should mean better efficiency. Have you ever measured your grain bed temp while sparging in the top few inches? It's usually quite cool by half way through the sparge. FWIW I have never bored a hole into my grain bed by having a simple manifold sitting directly on top of the grain bed.
Also, although this may not be applicable to you with your RIMS because you wort will be clear before hooking up the manifold, (I'm not certain how you are running it) but you can't recirculate to clear your wort through a Phils sparger-hot water only. Grain pieces will clog the holes. So you need a H manifold in the tun to deliver the wort back to the grain bed during your mash, people use the H shaped manifold because of the 1/2" holes, so if you already have a manifold hooked up and sitting on the grain bed why bother changing it over to the Phils for the sparge?
Finally you wouldn't want to recirculate constantly during the mash through a Phils-I'm not saying you do this, but just saying in case you do- 1. because if will constantly splash your wort for the whole mash leading to HSA (if you buy into the HSA thing) and you'll be loosing temp from the sparge ring to the grain bed which really goes against what your hoping to achieve with the RIMS-ie temp stability.
A2. If I remember what your system looks like you have the pump on the outlet of the tun and you gravity feed your HLT onto the grain bed. In order to check your runnings you need to either get to the end of the hose in your kettle and take a sample there-or you could put a T piece on the outlet of your pump with a ball valve and use that to draw a sample from during the sparge. I hope you follow that. If you take a sample directly from the MT outlet you'll lose prime on your pump.
A3. Yes, unless your batch sparging which obviously you are not. Fly sparging with a pump is no different to fly sparging with gravity, you still need to feather two valves (MT outlet and HLT outlet) to balance your wort out and your hot liquor in. If you need to measure how fast your sparging measure it off the HLT (either by sight guage or directly at the outlet). If your level in the tun is going down then you are sparging at a rate faster than the HLT is flowing, if it's rising then obviously you are sparging at a slower rate than the HLT outlet.
Hope it helps.
Justin
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