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Just getting my RIMS setup up and running and doing a test to see what the strike water warm up time was. I've got a 20 gallon SS Brewtech insulated mash tun with a RIMS setup. I filled with 40 litres of water and set to heat upto 65 degrees C. I have a thermowell maybe 6 inches or so from the bottom of the vessel so was monitoring the temperature there too.
During warm up I noticed the temperature from the lower thermocouple was reading about 10 degrees warmer than the RIMS thermocouple. I was running the pump at full blast with all the valves open so just left it like that. At around 60 degrees as measured in the kettle and upto 10 degrees less as measured in the RIMS the pump started making a noise which I thought was cavitation, so throttled the pump valve right back until the noise subsided.
At this point the temperature in the kettle remained constant and the temp in the RIMS tubes jumped right up to >80 degrees C. It all settled down after 5 or 10 minutes and the RIMS and kettle temperatures started to agree and the temp slowly crept upto the set value of 65 degrees C.
Just wondering what I've learned from this exercise:
1. should I have the pump throttled back all the time
2. would sugary wort be less susceptible to cavitation at 60 degrees C?
3. What should the flow through the RIMS be normally...slow or fast?
Its an insulated mash tun and holds temperature well, the previous owner reckoned it only lost a degree over 60minutes so really the RIMS will just be used for recirculation so not much energy expected to be needed to maintain mash temp (PID controlled). I could heat up the strike water in my HLT and start at the right mash temp but would be more convenient to just heat up in the mash tun.
Any other tips, recommendations or advice for a RIMS newbie?
Thanks.
During warm up I noticed the temperature from the lower thermocouple was reading about 10 degrees warmer than the RIMS thermocouple. I was running the pump at full blast with all the valves open so just left it like that. At around 60 degrees as measured in the kettle and upto 10 degrees less as measured in the RIMS the pump started making a noise which I thought was cavitation, so throttled the pump valve right back until the noise subsided.
At this point the temperature in the kettle remained constant and the temp in the RIMS tubes jumped right up to >80 degrees C. It all settled down after 5 or 10 minutes and the RIMS and kettle temperatures started to agree and the temp slowly crept upto the set value of 65 degrees C.
Just wondering what I've learned from this exercise:
1. should I have the pump throttled back all the time
2. would sugary wort be less susceptible to cavitation at 60 degrees C?
3. What should the flow through the RIMS be normally...slow or fast?
Its an insulated mash tun and holds temperature well, the previous owner reckoned it only lost a degree over 60minutes so really the RIMS will just be used for recirculation so not much energy expected to be needed to maintain mash temp (PID controlled). I could heat up the strike water in my HLT and start at the right mash temp but would be more convenient to just heat up in the mash tun.
Any other tips, recommendations or advice for a RIMS newbie?
Thanks.
