OK, what do I need??

[JonW]

You don't have to go electric for RIMS. Doing direct fired RIMS works perfectly fine and is the way most of my brewing friends run their rigs (myself included). It works well, is simple and has fewer parts to deal with in cleaning.

[gbrewer]

GBrewer, where did you get that nice 3 tier stand? Did you build it?

It will be a while before it is built, but I am sure I will have more questions as I go...

Don

Don,

I did build my stand. I enjoy building stands more than drinking the beer they make. I'm actually starting another stand in a few weeks. The one in the picture was somewhat cloned from a morebeer design.

[ksl177]

You don't have to go electric for RIMS. Doing direct fired RIMS works perfectly fine and is the way most of my brewing friends run their rigs (myself included). It works well, is simple and has fewer parts to deal with in cleaning.

How exactly does direct fired RIMS work? This is a new concept to me.

[JonW]

You are direct firing your mash tun with a burner under it. For starters, it's much easier to heat your strike water as you don't have to do that in another vessel and them pump it in and your (mash in) temperature losses are much less since the equipment is fully heated from the strike water. Once you mash in, you can start recirculating your wort out the bottom of the mash tun and return it to the top. In the process, you would be measuring the temperature and firing the burner under the mash tun to heat the wort that is under the false bottom. Generally, the burner is on a low setting for this.

Google it or check HBT or other sites. It is a widely used method of RIMS.

[ksl177]

Ah,
Ok, I know what you're talking about. I actually use that with my HERMS for ramp ups during step mashes.

[don.fief@comcast.net]

I fired up my RIMS system today, and I am disapointed in the heat. I used the RIMS tube from Brewers Hardware, and a 3800 watt element, but running on 110 volts. The 5 gallons of water in the tun never got over 75 degrees. I used a March pump. Do I need to run the element on 220 to get enough heat out of it? I used the 110 volt pig tail available from ECC to power the element. I did the math, and it should only be pulling about 15 amps, which is what the pigtail is rated... Any ideas?

Don

[gbrewer]

From what I remember, halving the voltage does not halve the wattage. If you start with a 3800 element at 240 volts and cut it to 120 volt, you don't have a 1900 watt element. When you halve the voltage you divide the wattage by four.

For your case, you are halving the voltage of a 3800 watt element. At 120 volts, your 3800 watt element is now 950 watts at around 8 amps.

Don't hold me to this, I couldn't find my source.

I am also curious on what your starting water temperature was? How long did it take to reach 75 degrees?

[bbrally]

My memory of electricity is that power = voltage squared * resistance.

Since the resistance doesn't change, the power will be a quarter if you half the voltage.

So you right, he's only using 950 watts.

This link to an excel spreadsheet allows you to enter all the parameters and figure out the time to temperature rise. I don't have an electric system, but it seems that 950 watts would be very slow and possibly not enough at all after heating losses are considered.

http://gnipsel.com/beer/software/calcul ... c-heat.xls

[don.fief@comcast.net]

I found a 2000 Watt 120 volt element at Home Depot this morning. I will give it a try tonight and report back... If my 240 volt 3800 Watt element was only putiing out 950 Watts at 120 volts, this may do the trick...

Don

[Broph]

how far apart is the end of the heating element from the temp probe? You don't want them to be too close.