Brewing Systems

[MightyCow9]

I am going to spend some time and make my first brew system a good one. I was just curious who does what and if they have any personal experiences or problems.

I have read some stuff and I am leaning towards RIMS system with only 2 kegs, inline 110v heating element and a propane burner for the lauter tun/boil pot. Only having one burner, one pump, one element, etc seems like it would be a relatively cheap way to go.

The main negatives I have read about are that the inline heater can possibly carmelize the wort. I ten to think that would not happen unless you are pumping at an extremely low rate. But that is opinion only since I have no experience with this.

What kind of rigs do you guys have and/or what kind would you love to have?

[gwbbc]

RIMS could work fine for what you want but I would suggest a 3 keggle HERMS 2-tier system so that you do not need a second pump. Burners are cheep and if you want to minimize cost, you can go with bedframes to make the stand.

[mwedge]

I have had both RIMS and HERMS and I prefer the HERMS setup. If you go with a RIMS setup make sure you remove the inline heating element and clean it after each use. It will get lots of grain material stuck on it and it will definitely burn on it after a few uses without cleaning it. This happened to mine and I ended up having to replace the inline heating element as there was way too much burned grain and sugars on the element.

My current setup is a 2 keg setup and one burner. One is used as the mash tun and does not have a burner under it. The second keg is used as the HLT with the HERMS coil in it during mashing then it is used for the boil kettle. Once mashing is done I pump the hot water into a gott cooler to use for sparge water.

Here is a pic. (Gott cooler is not shown but it sets on the top level when used)

http://capandhare.com/forums/vbgarage.php?do=getimage&id=12

[MightyCow9]

Ok Mark, I was curious how your two-tier, 2 barrel herms worked. I guess technically you have a third barrel system, but the third barrel is only for a quick temporary storage facility. That has been a concept I was wondering about.

Because to truly use only two barrels, you would have to use a series of valves and pipes and essentially begin mixing your sparge water and your first runnings. ie dilute the whole amount and begin the recycling process between two barrels instead of just one. Then fill the boil/HLT to the desired amount. But I don't know if this is good, since you will not have the ability to add or subtract from the late runnings to keep your self at the desired OG.

Maybe like you suggested James, just adding the boil pot low is not a big deal. It definitely makes it easier to do multiple batches in one day, if I desire to do so.

Where do you guys get your kegs at for these systems?

[mwedge]

Also as note I sometime do a "Batch Sparge". With this process once I am finished with the mash I will pump over the "sparge" water and fill the mash tun to the top and then recirculate for 10 minutes or so then I will pump all of the liquid from the mash tun over to the boil kettle. This will only use the 2 kegs and not the gott cooler. The efficiency is down a bit so I have to use a little more grain but it cuts the brew day down by a little over and hour.

[gwbbc]

I will try to locate a couple of pictures. My old rig had the HLT elevated with the Mash in the middle and boil kettle at the same level as the mash. Pump re-circ the mash through a coil in the HLT then gravity feed the sparge while pumping into the kettle.

I suggest brewing with a couple of people that have various rigs to see what you like. My rig is not what you are looking to build but you are more than welcome to brew a batch with me. My stand is a single tier 2 pump HERMS.

[MightyCow9]

sounds good, James. I will send you a message later on this week. Think you would be up for a Saturday afternoon brewing, this week?

[nickpgoodman]

I have a similar system to James except I currently only use 1 pump and batch sparge, just haven't got the second pump yet so I can do a continuous sparge. What James system is missing is the beautiful green color. This is before adding casters.

This is also a HERMS system. Left is HLT, middle is mash tun, Right is boil kettle. In the HLT I have my copper coil, you can see the in and out on the side of the keg.

http://photos-g.ak.fbcdn.net/photos-ak-sf2p/v653/71/10/1332014949/n1332014949_30272342_2509651.jpg

[steve]

While Mark goes for fewer vessels, I always think more is better. Here is a pic of my two-tier recirculating heat exchange system, with separate heat exchanger made from a five gallon corny keg.

http://www.capandhare.com/forums/album.php?albumid=11&pictureid=38

Mash is in the Gott cooler, HLT is in the middle, boil kettle on the right, with the heat exchanger and single pump on the lower level. Very similar to a concept developed by Tony Verhulst, with a few minor improvements. Offers great temperature control for the mash.Vicki has a three tier version of the same basic system

[MightyCow9]

Steve I like that system. And I actually really like everyone's system. I am just thinking of my biggest constraints and working a system from there. I have lots of space consuming hobbies (golf, bicycling, hockey, beer, beer making, bowling, etc) that all seem to take up much of my garage space.

I guess I am mainly trying to figure out a system that can fit in at my house. Maybe I just need to get my butt off the floor and start cleaning the garage. If I can move half my stuff to the attic I may have more room.

So I had my two year anniversary, do you think its safe to tell my wife to leave her car in the driveway so I can have more garage space?

[kilted-txn]

So I had my two year anniversary, do you think its safe to tell my wife to leave her car in the driveway so I can have more garage space?

:eek: It's never safe to tell her that!!! ;)

[mwedge]

Yeah. Don't tell her, just do it. Much easier to ask for forgiveness than to ask for permission.

[steve]

If space saving is a must, think vertical - a tower. Or better yet, think modular. Mark's system does a nice job in a compact space.

[gwbbc]

Nick what you are missing is the second pump and hard plumbing and an airlock, oh wait add on a carboy. Red is the way to go.

See now you guys know why I stay single (yes I know there are additional reasons) but its all between me and my garage, no asking or forgiving.

[MightyCow9]

Modular is definitely something I amgoing to look into. I can get rebar for cheap, so I am going to build my frame out of that. So making a custom frame will be the cheap part for me, even if I go the extra mile. Of course casters will cost me, but I haven't decided how I am going to roll on that front yet.

[kking]

After almost 20 years of marriage, I only move her car out of the garage on brew day. You could try telling her, you're young, and you might do as well as I did on your second marriage.

[Clint]

never let them in the garage in the first place

problem solved:cool: