Trial Brew #4 - RIMS

[steve_flack]

Another weekend and another trial brew with the new brewery and some more additional kit. The new kit this time was a CFC built the DaaBs method and RIMS heater.

The heater is built from a towel heater in a bit of 22mm copper tubing and a bunch of compression fittings. The heater is here

http://www.screwfix.com/app/sfd/cat/pro ... 2&ts=35958

It's a tad long at around 18" but as it's only 10mm-ish thick is a doddle to use with standard compression fittings. You can see it in the pic below



Long innit?

Anyway, preliminary testing last weekend showed that it could raise 12L of water by 1C a minute and that water leaving it was only 2C high than the bulk of the water in the mash tun (so it shouldn't scorch the wort). It also doesn't have a thermal cut out (phew).

So yesterdays 'test brew' was a mild.

OG 1.032

Pale Malt 2.41kg
Medium Crystal 0.42kg
Dark Crystal 0.25kg
Pale Chocolate 0.25kg

IBU 18

Challenger (7%) 22g at the start of the boil

Safale S-04

After mashing in, the mash temp was about 64C....a bit low. After getting the pump primed etc and the recirc loop going the RIMS heater was turned on. About 5 mins later it was up to 68C. As I haven't built the temperature controller yet my finger and a thermometer took the role and I spent the next hour switching it off an on to maintain the temp. It worked a treat. Very pleased.

The rest of the brew was uneventful until I used the new chiller. Perhaps unusually I didn't use the chiller to chill the wort and run it directly into the fermenter. I used the chiller with a pump (both previously sterilised by running boiling wort through them for ten minutes) and ran the chilled wort back into the kettle. This dropped the temperature of the whole of the wort to below 50C in five minutes and below 25C in fifteen. It was much quicker than using an immersion and used about a third of the water. Result.

Also a first this brew was using my refractometer. It's fantastic. It's just so much better than a hydrometer for taking readings as you go. You know if you're on target for your gravity at any stage without having to chill a sample. An absolute bargain at £18.70 including postage from Hong Kong (which took less than five days)

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Brix-Refractomete ... dZViewItem

[Andy]

Fantastic Steve! Love the towel heater element idea

[Frothy]

Uber cool

[steve_flack]

Fantastic Steve! Love the towel heater element idea

I'll probably put some insulation around the pipes once I get everything sorted. Funnily enough it acts a bit like a radiator!

[mysterio]

How much grain can those cool-boxes hold? Where did you get them?

[steve_flack]

They're 66L igloo maxcold coolboxes. They came from an eBay seller called mnleisure

http://search.ebay.co.uk/_W0QQsassZmnleisureQQhtZ-1

They do all sorts of large coolboxes - Mine's called the Maxcold 70 and they wanted £44.95+£7.50 P&P for one. The supplier Igloocoolers.co.uk links to want £72 for one (inc postage). mnleisure were the cheapest I could find in the UK for a cooler that big... the Yanks get these things dirt cheap.

I use a thin mash becuase I recirculate (about 3L/kg) so I can get about 16kg of grain in. If you mash thicker (most people do) you could get about 20-22kg in.

[steve_flack]

They do in the states. I had trouble locating them here. I think the Coleman ones are probably better from what I've heard.

[mysterio]

Thanks for the links Steve & Daab. Seems expensive for what they are

[SteveD]

Nice job Steve. The radiator heater is a very elegant solution. I bought a refractomer from Hong Kong the other day, still in transit. Having seen one in action, the hydro will be retired - good riddance.

Those coolboxes don't seem too dear when you consider a 30L converted one goes for nearly £50, and the conversion consists of a £6.00 plastic drum tap, and a bit of copper manifold at a cost of next to nothing.

[steve_flack]

Were you using the hops to filter the trub?

I have a modified Bazooka screen to stop hops but this time I had the hops in the bag. I actually seemed to have less trub in the fermenter this time and there was no filtering by the hops....odd. Actually it was probably the cleanest beer at that stage I've had in a long time.

[steve_flack]

Hmmmm....dunno.

Because I was recirculating the wort for the whole mash the wort was very very clear going into the boil. I got a decent boil but it was a fairly low grav beer so maybe that had something to do with it. I used whirlfloc/protafloc which works better than Irish moss in my experince. I do remember looking into the fermenter thinking 'where's all the sh*t?'

[Andy]

I used whirlfloc/protafloc which works better than Irish moss in my experince. I do remember looking into the fermenter thinking 'where's all the sh*t?'

I've used protofloc in my last two brews and the amount of break material which forms is much greater than I got with irish moss.

[Seveneer]

Very nice Steve. How easy was it to fit the element to the copper pipe?

/Phil.

[steve_flack]

Really Easy. It fits just fine in a 15mm-> female 1/2"BSP compression fitting. I then used a short length of 15mm pipe and an unequal Tee (22x15x15mm) to connect to the 22 mm tubing and to provide an inlet from the pump.

[Seveneer]

Very good Steve. And it's only 800w so shouldn't scorch your wort. I like it a lot. I may well follow your lead when I get itchy fingers and decide to upgrade again.

I look forward to readig about the results of the brew.

/Phil.