The Cajun RIMS

NOTE: A recent promotion entailing much travel has severely restricted the amount of time I have for these endeavors. (Not really complaining!) I intend to complete this page, but thought some might benefit from what information is here already. Keep in mind as you peruse its contents that it is a work in progress. Hell! I haven't even had time to complete the building of the Cajun! Scott has, though, and says it's a hoot!

-p
7/2/97

Why? Why am I doing this?

As those who know me can tell you, I am, and always have been of the mind that NO-ONE should have to go through what I went through to find information in order to improve their brewing. Recently, these endeavors have taken me and my faithful sidekick, Scott Henry, on the road to RIMS. This page is a "documentary" of that trip. It will continue to grow and evolve as more of this RIMS is developed. But I PROMISE you, faithful reader, that you will be able to do what we've done simply by following the directions laid out on these pages - all the information is here.

Prattle

First, let me say that "RIMS system" is redundant. RIMS stands for Recirculating Infusion Mash System. So saying RIMS system is just like saying Recirculating Infusion Mash System system. See what I mean? If I say that once in these pages, send me a note saying what a dolt I am. Then I'll fix it.

Credit where credit is due...

RIMS, contrary to what anyone else might say, is an invention by Rodney Morris. To him goes the credit for endeavors such as these. Others have built on the theme, but the original is still the starting point of this journey.

One of the actual components used in the Cajun system was inspired by another's page. This would be the return manifold, which was stolen lock, stock and barrel from Keith Royster. Thanks Keith!

The Cajun heating chamber looks a lot like that of Kerry Hauptli. I can't say it's exactly like it because ours is cobbled together, while Kerry's is a clean, commercially-viable product. Still, the similarity is striking! I saw a photo of Kerry's chamber on Keith Royster's page. Thanks again, Keith! We also added nifty in-line temperature wells. This allows you to use bimetal thermometers today, then insert thermistors, thermocouples or whatever in the future to upgrade to electronic controls (cool, huh?). (Scott went beyond this and came up with a rubber-stopper removable job - we'll add photos of that later...)

Finally, Dion Hollenbeck and Evan Kraus show pictures and have brief discussions of their systems on their sites. These helped form some of the ideas we used here as well. Dion's page also has a discussion regarding the proper type of heating element to buy. Thanks, Dion and Evan!

C.D. Pritchard has a veritable butt-load of really cool information on a really cool RIMS implementation. I have yet to get the time to go through his very extensive page! You may find it interesting! (Thanks, C.D.!)

More prattle but about to start...

The kettles, bottoms, burners and pumps used in my system were purchased from Pico Brewing Systems a couple few years ago. Scott's weren't. You can even build one using a Gott-style cooler-based mash tun. Doesn't matter. Only the plumbing will change. We'll talk about how we've "designed" the Cajun to allow for some plumbing flexibility.

After having read through this, if you have questions remaining, tell me! I'll answer you as best I can AND ensure that the information is added to the appropriate area.

Now! Enough preliminary crap! Let's get started. We've a lot of ground to cover...

• First, we'll build the RIMS heating chamber. This is arguably the heart of RIMS...

Cumpulsory Legal tripe...

You, by using the really cool stuff I've published here assume all responsibility for the consequences of said use. The author, his faithful sidekick, O&E Online, any of the people named here on these pages or even those who might have sold me (or you) stuff to build The Cajun RIMS cannot be held accountable if you so choose to electrocute yourself (or others), burn your house (or garage) down, are poisoned by the components, shear the proteins in your wort or make bad beer.

The user assumes all responsiblities when using this information. No warranties - explicit or implied.

So there.

Back to the homebrew page...