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.

[Adam Sparks]

Anyone have a recommendation on a multimeter that is rated for the current I need to measure? Preferably one that isn't over $100…. Or is that even possible?

[Peter Smith]

Watlow PID with ethernet option...... and 15amp internal relay at 240V

NO-ARC relay, Form A, 85 to 264VAC, 15A @ 122°F (50°C), resistive load, no VDC, 2,000,000 cycles at rated load 

I have been reading up on Arduino for some automation  but still wanted full front panel control, these are the dogs bollocks, including no spark 15A relay so no need for SSR up to 3600w element. out of the box its a pretty cool pid, but then you add in the ability to connect to it by ethernet ....    and suddenly all sorts of cool stuff occurs.   They are not priced like a sestos but a different level of automation / functionality / data logging would be available.  And yet they still fit nicely into a manual operation panel.

usd$129 on ebay

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Watlow-EZ-Zone-Temperature-Controller-PM6C1...

[Barry]

Only 15A directly though? I'd still need it to drive an SSR with my elements.

Looks great, refreshingly simple front panel unlike Sestos and Auber, the user interface on those is balls. Fiddly, cryptic, hidden and difficult to use.

[Peter Smith]

Yeah still has SSR drive, but for some applications 15A is going to be enough, this is as simple to wire up as an stc-1000. Comes with built in serial interface to windoze, Ethernet is extra.   Not entirely sure that there interface is "noballs" though this has got to be better then hacking an Arduino into your panel... as neither the Sestos or Auber allow any form of remote operation, thus no automation.   that crafty trout setup got me interested in the remote brewing fermentation monitoring thing.  Then I started thinking not full automation just ability to humanly control the system remotely, so you could get home as the sparge finished....   in a recir system the visual need to decide to stop vorlauf doesnt exist and a decent $20 webcam could solve that anyways.

Is there any issue in mashing in at 15C at 6am, then bring the mash temp up to 66C via a series of "protien" like steps remotely,  only turning the HERMS recirc pump on at 4pm so by 5pm you are mashing, automated sparge, get home to a manual boil process.....

any issue with grains sitting in 15C water for like 10 hours?

[Adam Sparks]

I can't comment on the long mash time but I do know that you could risk losing valuable proteins on the way up to mash temp. It might be better to think of incorporating a mixer so you can add the grains dry to the mash tun before you go to work, then activate all the robots.

Honestly though, while in practice it sounds feasible I have no doubt you will lose some hair trying to fine tune everything and not to mention the extra cost and work involved in a build like that.

The way I see it, if you can prepare your grains the day before, then delay the hlt and hard plumb everything then clean in place. You can probably get a brew done in 4 hrs (incl cleanup) Maybe you can shave off another hour with automation but is it worth it? Components and computers fail all the time!

[Peter Smith]

Found this last night , there is no limit to brew-hacking

and this home made williamswarn on trademe is so 8Wired, love it http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=762527986

[Scott H]

Yeah I prob wouldn't recommend it.

I would get your system running first Pete and see what the ramp times are before committing to something along these lines.

[Brett Mason]

Hey all, I've written up some details of my electric keggle HLT build, I've found reading over peoples other blogs/threads really useful so hopefully it's this is useful to someone thinking of doing the same. Electric keggle HLT build - Part 1 - RealBeer.co.nz

First big step towards the full herms system, although I don't do see myself getting it finished by the end of the year as planned. Need to get onto actually brewing some beer anyway.

[Scott H]

2nd Brew with the new system 1st with the new false bottom. Has been going great worked well both times, better flow with the new false bottom as well as an increase in efficiency, have a New Mill coming so I can dial in the exact crush I want. Still need one more 63L pot to complete the trio.

[Barry]

Sounds awesome Scott, everything you'd hoped for? Precise temps, easier process, repeatability? Easier clean?

I'm in limbo saving coin for the electrical bits for the distribution board rewire. And being away every single weekend isn't conducive to brewery progress (all that snow is too hard to resist).

[Adam Sparks]

Things also ticking along here…. Had my second brew down as well. Works a treat! I need to keep the HLT temp about two degrees warmer than my rest temp but it holds nicely. Steps quite well, at least a degree per minute maybe more. Only change I would make is the HLT pot could be sturdier. I have a heavy duty mash tun and the thicker steel is much nicer to work with. The thin steel on my HLT moves around and bends with the weight of the herms coil behind it, even with 1" washers supporting it on either side. But that can be updated much further down the track. Id prefer some stainless to ferment in before anything else.

I still haven't had a chance to diagnose whats going on with my boil element readings. Im definitely losing about ten volts when under load due to the overheads from the street, so the HLT element reading 20amps is about right. The boil reads 16 at 226V which doesn't seem right but I haven't gotten around to testing the resistance of the element yet. Its possible the readings are correct and I was sent a lower rated element but it performs so well I doubt thats the case. that reading would put the element at 3.5kw and no way Id get the quick boil on 40L of wort that Im seeing currently. Testing the resistance will let me know for sure.

Overall Im pretty happy with this rig. Having everything hard plumbed is such a luxury! No more wort on the floor, clean in place with some potassium hydroxide and then a quick cycle of starsan. From milling grain to finished cleaning is about 5hrs!

I have wired in my HLT mechanical relay to close when the timer is up, Im using the timer alarm switch while I await some new switches to arrive but Ive been too scared to use this function. Most of these components are not up to NZ standards and although they work if something failed and a fire started, or if I wired something loosely and a cable burnt up… I can't seem to escape that paranoia so I'll probably just use the rig only while I can keep an eye on it (I tried to buy two switches from Ideal the other day and it was gonna set me back over $120, I guess getting everything up to spec would be damn expensive!!

Anyway… here's some pics

[DMAC]

Crikey, shes a real beaut!

How do you like the sestos controllers? did you buy them locally?

While i'm at it, where did you get the stainless coil from?

ta

Daniel