Category Archives: RIMS

Inkbird IPB-16S Prewired Digital Homebrewing Controller w/Pump Control [RIMS, HERMS & more]

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Highlighted Features

🙌🙌【Plug-n-Play Easy Operation】The electric home brewing controller is an all-in-one machine and no more installation is needed. Just plug in and set up the system according to your needs.
🙌🙌【Precise Control】PID digital controller provides accurate temperature control at the range of -50~125℃/ -58~257℉, and the accuracy of the temperature is ±0.1℃ or ±0.2℉.
🙌🙌【Independent Pump Function】The Pump Function is special designed for home brewing customers and it can be operated separately, just access your pump and press the “Pump” button when you need it.
🙌🙌【Safety】The controller with overload protection has adopted high quality metal case and aluminum cooling plate, 6.5’ power cord and 2 prong plugs to ensure the safety of your electrical appliances.
🙌🙌【Working environmental temperature】-10～55ºC/14～131ºF（not freezing or condensation state）

Inkbird Heating or Cooling PID Temperature Controller IPB-16S Pre-Wired Digital Home Brewing Controller Independent Control Pump Thermostat – affiliate link, note that multiple variations of this product may be available, as such a different version may appear at this link

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Hands on Review: Blichmann Engineering RIMS Rocket

This review is by Homebrew Finds Contributor Brad Probert. Brad is an engineer, expert homebrewer and experienced reviewer. Grab a link to Brad’s website at the end of this review.

Blichmann RIMS Rocket

I heard the term ‘RIMS’ long before I really knew what it was. The decoded acronym ‘Recirculating Infusion Mash System’ didn’t help much, either. In hindsight, the acronym has all the info in it to describe what it is. It’s a system to control mash temperature by adding heat to your recirculating wort. You use a pump to draw wort out of your mash tun, push it past a heating element, and then return that heated wort back to your main mash tun. Connected to a controller, a temperature sensor monitors the temperature of your recirculating wort and turns your heat source on or off based on the measured temperature, as compared to your target temperature. And since this heating element is outside of your mash tun, a RIMS can be used whether your mash tun is a plastic cooler or a steel pot.

Connected to a RIMS Controller and Mash Tun

Blichmann offers two levels of RIMS. The first is a 120V system that has a 2000-Watt heating element, and the other is a 240V system with a 3500-Watt heating element. The 120V system is designed for up to 10 gallon batches, and the 240V system is up to 20 gallons. To get an idea of the heating potential, Blichmann provides a formula on their website to calculate the heating potential.

°F/minute = 0.0068*(Wattage/gallons of wort).

So with 6 gallons of wort in your mash tun, the 2000W/120V system can heat at about 2.3 degrees/minute. The 3500W/240V system on the same 6 gallons can heat it 4 degrees/minute.

The heating element sits inside a stainless steel canister that holds about 0.75 gallons of wort. With the heating element’s large corkscrew design, it has a lot of surface area to transfer heat to your wort without scorching. There are 1/2″ NPT fittings on the inlet and outlet of the canister. On the outlet you need a Y-fitting so you can install a temperature sensor to monitor the temperature of the wort as it exits the RIMS Rocket.

The heating element connects through Blichmann’s custom heating element connection. The large, robust connection ensures a solid electrical connection and grounding to the housing for safety. You disconnect your cable to make cleaning and storage easier, so you don’t have to drag the cord around like a tail. And although not waterproof to dunk in a bucket of water, it has a good-sized splash shield to protect the connection from the splashes that come with the wet sport of brewing.

Smooth Machined Inside of Housing

The inside of the housing is machined and designed to be free of crevices or cracks. This is important since mash recirculation is practically guaranteed to have some level of grain particles passing through that you don’t want to get stuck. The heating element built into the base seals to the main cone of the housing with a large O-ring. And it is held together and tightened with a circular band clamp with a threaded nut/bolt combination. This clamp makes for fairly easy disassembly to clean inside as often as you’d like.

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Hands on Review: Brew-Control Electric Mash Tun/RIMS (Recirculating Infusion Mash System) Tube Controller

This review is by Homebrew Finds Contributor Brad Probert. Brad is an engineer, expert homebrewer and experienced reviewer. Grab a link to Brad’s website at the end of this review.

Brew-Control 120V Controller

Electric brewing systems are great. I’ve been a convert for a few years, loving the ability to control temperature precisely/easily during mashes, and the “set it and forget it” aspect that helps support multi-tasking with other household duties while brewing. Of course the thing that makes this all possible is the brew controller. It does all the hard work in the background so you don’t have to think about it.

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120v Electric Mash Tun/RIMS (Recirculating Infusion Mash System) Tube Controller with 20A twist lock outlet and pump control via Amazon, the unit reviewed in this post
Brew-Control’s on Amazon | Search Brew-Control for “electric controller” for additional controllers and configurations

Tom Hargrave of Brew-Control has been brewing since 1977, and designing and building electric brew controllers since 2012. He openly admits that it took about 3 years and a dozen design iterations until they were producing a quality product. They now offer several different controllers, depending on how you’ll use it. There are boil controllers, which have a simple adjustment dial to adjust output power from 0-100% and on/off pump control. Mash controllers that have a PID controller where you set a target temperature and the PID adjusts the output to match your target temperature. BIAB Controllers that combine both the boil controller function and mash controller into one unit. And other combinations of controllers that add in control of more pumps and more heating elements.

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