Electric Brewery's

[Scott H]

We spoke about creating a discussion so people who have or people who are thinking about and/or building can share pic's info and pitfalls to avoid.

Just about finished building my bench and hopefully will have a chance to start wiring it up this weekend. Pics to follow shortly.

[Peter Smith]

yes the real thick ones at bunnings.....

[Scott H]

Good choice.

Also it wouldn't be much of a job to install another smaller Switch Board next to the existing one.

[Richard Jack]

That's what I do.

[Scott H]

So, have finnished building my bench and have decided not to worry about casters I have the space and will rarely need to move it. Most of the wiring for the power is complete just need the 32a sockets and then will start building the control panel as I get more parts. The control panel is on a 45deg to the bench so easily visible, father in law has got me some heat resistant plastic/PVC sheeting that I'm going to screw down on the top then I have some slate tiles I'm going to place under the vessels.

[Scott H]

Parts from amazon arrived this morning, hopefully should have up and running for tomorrows brew day.

[Scott H]

So, electri kettle = pretty much complete. The method of control doesn't work as I wanted so will get some PID's on my next amazon order.

Was surprised how simple it was and pretty pleased with how well it has turned out.

[Barry]

Hey Scott, looks like you're not too far from brewing – nice one.
I'm curious, what was the method of boil control you tried that didn't work? I've gone through three methods in my planning and have decided a PID in manual mode is the way even though it means an extra probe. Well I spose it doesn't even need a probe come to think of it, but I'm going to add one anyway for an alarm when it gets near to boiling.

Other things I considered were a voltage controller that I bought off eBay for $20 - if anyone wants it it's free to a good home. Then I was toying with an SSVR and potentiometer combo, very nearly went with this approach, the pot in the voltage controller was just the right size so all I needed was a $20 SSVR off aliexpress. But at the end of the day the PID won out.

[Scott H]

I was using a stove element controller (A Simmerstat, its what controls the elements on off cycle) but it couldn't cycle fast enough so my pot was ending up like a volcano when boiling as I had to have it on high, that element will be coming out of that pot soon as its only 40L, it was meant to be a 50L when I bought it but the people on trademe who sell them aren't calculating volume off the internal measurements, just like the 63L ones I will be using are only 55L.

Still a wee way away from getting the system up and running, cost is the major factor atm, I'm considering getting a couple of those pumps from aliexpress that are only good for 80C just so I can get the system running and work towards upgrades over the rest of the year.

[Barry]

For what it's worth, the stainless head 3/4" centre inlet chuggers that Karl is selling are a bloody good price. Way cheaper than what I was able to land one for.

[Scott H]

Yeah I do want to use chuggers eventually. You think there's much diff between the Center port ones and the inline ones. Are the Center port ones for verticals mounting?

[Barry]

Nah the centre inlet ones are meant to help reduce the difficulty of priming, the combination of the larger 3/4" size and the centred inlet means liquid has less trouble going into the head. That's the theory anyway, plenty of brewers have no hassles with inline 1/2" models but they really aren't that much more eh.

[Scott H]

So been a bit busy this evening.

Have pretty much built my control panel now and have installed and set up the PID for my boil kettle just need to tune it

The push buttons and neons on the top left are essentially a start stop. The red neon indicates power to the panel and the green one comes on when the supply relay is engaged. The 2 amber ones will be for the elements and the selector below it incorporates an electrical interlock similar to www.theelectricbrewery.com just not on the same scope (doesn't include the pumps) The switches with the blue neons are for the pumps which are supplied from the main relay but protected by an extra 20A circuitbreaker mounted on din rail behind the panel

On the back:

I mounted a blank electrical plate to fix the temp probe deluxe lead connections and I have cliped the probe cable to the back edge of the table to keep it tidy and to prevent it getting caught.

Just need some nice labeling done and the other 2 PIDs and it'll be done.  I may upgrade the pump switches at a later date to include them in the interlock but I'd rather put the money towards my pumps coil and additional pots at this stage.