Kbar wrote:Has anyone simply pumped Hot Liquid into a heat exchanger inside the Mash Tun in lieu of moving wort to a heat source as in RIMS and HERMS systems?
Yup. That's my new system.
The water for the heat exchanger is in a separate 20 qt vessel*, and heated with a 1500 watt hot water heater element. The sweet spot seems to be 5-8 degrees F higher than mash temp. The heat exchanger is on a separate pump (natch) which is slaved to the vourlauf pump so both are activated simultaneously. Wort from the vourlauf pump plays over the heat exchanger coil through a modified no-splash thingy. All temps/ pumps are monitored/controlled with a BCS-460.
Getting it going was interesting, but has now become routine. Mash temp precision is 1 degree F.
Charlie
* My HLT has to be refilled between mash-in and mash-out which eliminates it as a source of hot water for the heat exchanger coil.