RIMS Plumbing Schematic

This is my RIMS Plumbing Schematic. I didn't have anything to go by when I designed my system, so maybe some of you will find this helpful. The plumbing is done in all 1/2" OD stainless tubing with Swagelok or "Swagelok Type" fittings. The valves are marked with bold "X's".

After looking at a few commerical systems on the internet, I found that I liked the Sabco Brew Magic the best. But, that system only had one pump and the boil kettle was gravity fed from the mash tun. So, I had to come up with a more complicated RIMS Plumbing design.

The other thing that is different from many systems is the chiller set-up. After hearing some bad things about infections caused by plate chillers, or at least difficulty in cleaning the plate chillers (of which the Blichmann Therminator is the most widely recognized), I decided to go with an immersion chiller set-up and run ice water from my HLT (Hot Liquor Tank) through the IC (immersion chiller) and circulate it with one of the pumps while whirlpooling with the other. This set-up has several advantages:

  1. The wort doesn't have to go through an external device to get chilled as it would in a counter-flow chiller, a HERMS set-up, or a plate chiller.
  2. Only water is run through the chiller so it will be easy to clean, just drain and dry.
  3. It's easy to sanitize, just put the IC into the boiling wort 15 minutes prior to the end of the boil.
  4. I can run water from my filter housing and back-flush the IC with tap water to get the wort temp down before using the ice water. I just have to put the in hose in the out line and close a valve on the HLT. I plan on making a long hose to drain the hot tap water into the yard or into a bucket to save for watering plants. Then when the temp is as low as it can get with tap water, I can then simply swap the hoses and recirculate ice water through the IC while whirlpooling to get the wort temperature down very quickly to lager pitching temps if that is what I want to do.
  5. The IC set-up was cheap because I already had the chiller.

You can follow along with the diagrams and look back at some of my final pages to see the actual hard piping that goes along with the RIMS Plumbing Schematic.

RIMS Plumbing Schematic
Fill HLT with Filtered Water
Fill MT with Strike Water
Recirculating Mash During Saccharification Rest
Sparging While Filling Boil Kettle
Chilling with Ice Water and Running Whirlpool
Draining Cooled Wort Into Fermenter

I hope this RIMS Plumbing Schematic helps. I plan on taking pictures and drawing some kind of Control Panel Wiring for Dummies because I can't read electrical schematics at all and I can't find any kind of help online. So, I'll get some help from one of my homebrew club members and take lots of pictures.

Cheers!

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