Ok, so I read this article but there is still one thing I don’t understand. The article states that wort temps are kept up by a 1500-4000watt electric heating element. When I looked up example systems like the Brutus 10 and the Fair Wx I don’t see any heating element. It looks to me like the wort leaves the mash tun, hits a sensor and if it’s under temp the computer kicks on the propane burner. Is this what these systems are like? This seems easier to me.
Ok, so maybe me not “seeing” it was b/c it just looks like a piece of metal tubing sticking out of the mash tun?
I can’t figure out how to put the pic on here but when I look at the Brutus 10 for example at brutus, the 9th pic down shows a metal tube about 4 inches wide. I guess that’s it.
correct that is the RIMS tube. I find that HERMS is a little easier for me. I have my HLT at 180 degrees and can pump the wort through the heat exchanger til the mash tun controller kicks the pump off
Though you can have a rims without the tube if you have a direct fire mash tun and a large surface area burner. I dont have the electronics yet but this is how I do mine with my keg mt and blichmann burner. It is more of a pain than with the electric heating element since you have to monitor you flame for the entire time so you don’t scorch the bottom of the mash.
I was also talking to another member of my homebrew club that does this, but he has a turkey fryer burner and is using an old false bottom to break up the heat so it’s not in one point, and seems to have good results with it.
A direct fire mash tun is not a rims. RIMS stands for Recirculating Infused Mash System. The basic principle is removing wort, heating it outside the mash tun and returning it to the mash tun. You merely have a direct fire mash tun.
Yes that is true, but I said you didn’t need the tube that would contain the electric heating element. You do still need to recirculate, but it is not such that you have a 3 burner system and still need a 4500watt(random wattage) heating element also. Such as with a brutas 10 with 3 burners and a pump you can have a RIMS and not need to buy an additional water heater element and build a separate heating tube to recirc through to raise the temp.
As seen here http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/direct-fired-rims-208873/
Still not a RIMS. Just because you’re recirculating does not mean you are Infusing the mash. Recircing a DF Mash is simply to eliminate the stratification. You’re not adding any temperature outside of the mash tun, which is where the I in RIMS comes from, Infusing. I guess I’m splitting hairs here, I just prefer not to call apples oranges.