# Husky's Full Stainless Automated(partial) BIAB RIMS Brewery



## husky (29/6/15)

So I needed a new project and I decided that I wanted to learn about PLC's and automation, I use the term automated lightly as this will be very basic use of a PLC and not automating the brewing process other than temp controls and a lot of indicators like temp transmitters etc. I deal with automation a lot for work and have found it interests me. It would also benefit my work if I had a better understanding of it. Like most people I learn best by doing, so I designed a brewery that I could use as my automation test pilot. I have a 3V brewery with an electric brewery type controller that I am quite happy with and did not want to change so I went for a new small batch 20-40L single vessel brewery that would be simpler in process but much more complex in design
.
The key design elements I selected in priority order:
1 - Needed to incorporate a PLC and as much instrumentation as I could
2 - Incorporate the vessel into the bench top to reduce the height and make clean up easy
3 - Have a built in cooling jacket. This is my favourite feature on my 3V brewery
4 - Minimise wort handling

With those key points in mind I came up with the following concept

single vessel
all electric(hated the gas on the 3V)
much smaller and more manageable footprint
BIAB will be via an inner mesh pot that I may even put a davit are to assist hoisting 
tangential suction/outlet
tangential inlet for whirlpool
inlet valve operation for top of pot return during the mash
Procedure will be:

pre heat
add grain 
mash using heating element and PID loop to step up temps. can return via both inlets during the mash to get good all around flow
remove basket and grain
boil using element. element is 5000w but will have ability to vary the power between 0-5000w to achieve desired boil off
Install sealed cover to pot with air filter
run cooling water through jacket to drop temp
contemplating dropping break material as base is slightly conical and then fermenting in the same vessel
So far I have the brewery 50% made and trying to get my head around the PLC side of things. Have spent a good few months learning about PLCs so far. Yesterday I finally got a basic program up and running with an analogue temperature input and some digital outputs that will be used to turn the pump on and a few other things.
I was lucky enough to be given an Allen Bradley micro 830 PLC and panel view 400 HMI. These are perfect as they can be programmed using free software. The software is pretty basic but its a great way to learn, will be able to do everything I need for this project.
If anyone has any experience programming PID's with connected components workbench let me know, this is where I'm up to and its quite involved when you have to set the loop up and not rely on an off the shelf temperature controller!

If anyone has any CCW experience at all it would be great to hear from you, otherwise this will be a bit of a show and tell. I searched the net for a very long time to get some design pointers on a small scale semi automated brewery but had no luck. Maybe this will help some one down the track. I have applied all the same design principals to this as I would any project for my work, happy to justify whi I have done things a certain way if people want to know anything in particular.

Pics of where I'm currently at:


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## husky (29/6/15)

And one last pic of the HMI screen I have come up with so far. Will create more screens with specific info to each part of the process I think.


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## Camo6 (29/6/15)

Hahaha! Is it possible to both love and hate someone at the same time?

Another awesome looking project Husky. Can't wait to see more pics and progress.

Innovators on AHB? I think we have a winner.


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## booargy (29/6/15)

You have done it again, Good work.


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## Mardoo (29/6/15)

Camo6 said:


> Hahaha! Is it possible to both love and hate someone at the same time?


I believe that's called marriage...







And Husky, your work is just...extraordinary. Really, it just leaves me in awe.

How about building yourself a jacketed, temp-controlled self-contained fermentation system - perhaps with improvements to the conical fermenter - as your next project? I'd love to see what you'd do with that.


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## SBOB (29/6/15)

>It would also benefit my work if I had a better understanding of it

sounds like a tax right off to me


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## Judanero (29/6/15)

That is seriously impressive mate.


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## breakbeer (29/6/15)

[emoji50][emoji50][emoji50][emoji50][emoji50][emoji50][emoji50][emoji50][emoji50][emoji50][emoji50]


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## husky (30/6/15)

Camo6 said:


> Hahaha! Is it possible to both love and hate someone at the same time?
> 
> Another awesome looking project Husky. Can't wait to see more pics and progress.
> 
> Innovators on AHB? I think we have a winner.


Progress will be slow I suspect as time is always an issue for me. It has taken about 12 months to get this far. I have passed the biggest hurdle now which is learning how to get the PLC up and running, now its just learning to program and it will be very simple programming for this project initially. The thing I love about the PLC is that once its running it can be used to brew while you're programming a new screen and code to try next time!
I really only posted it up here after reading the innovators thread, I'm sure more of this goes on but doesn't get posted. I looked long and hard on the net when I was designing this one but couldn't find anything helpful.




Mardoo said:


> How about building yourself a jacketed, temp-controlled self-contained fermentation system - perhaps with improvements to the conical fermenter - as your next project? I'd love to see what you'd do with that.


Maybe one day, chucking a fermenter in the fridge is just so convenient currently. Perhaps for large batch brewing a jacketed conical on wheels with a water recirc system would be handy. Ill put it on the very long term project list. Will be finalising my 3V and this brewery before any more projects however.


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## adamh (30/6/15)

Nice work so far Husky.

I work for an automation safety company and have been working on my plans for something like this (a 3V system) using a PLC and HMI from work. We have a PID function block in the software so I don't need to learn how to write that stuff.

Will be following your progress.


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## husky (30/6/15)

More playing around with the PLC and programming tonight. Have got both the wort the temperatures coming in now and performing some calculations. I will measure the wort temp in two locations and then average them for the PID loop CV.
I have a trend running on wort temp so at the end of a brew I can save the temp profile which might come in handy if I try replicate a mash profile one day.
Will also trend the cooling water in and out temps to easily pick the point where no more cooling is occurring, then use a solenoid valve to shut the cooling water supply off.


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## husky (15/8/15)

Finally some progress. Have 95% completed the mechanicals, just waiting for the conduits to be modified. 
Have written the PLC program to run it however this will be a continual work in progress as I am really enjoying the PLC coding side of this project. The program has a PID function and about 10 screens so far to show various things. I am focussing on temperature and have a total of 5 temperature transmitters running(3 x mash 2 x cooling water) as I want really good control of the mash temperature.
Electrical wiring drawings are done and just waiting for electrical engineer to review. Still playing around with panel layout drawings trying to get everything to fit. Next will be to collect all the electrical equipment to build the panel which I will do over the next couple of months hopefully.
Heater element has been ordered and installed and is 5kw, it will be set up to run on PID loop during the mash and have the ability to vary between 0 and 100% power during the boil to achieve what ever boil off rate I require. I have also found a small motor and VSD which I will set up to run the mill at some stage as well.
Here's some pics of the skid to date:


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## woodwormm (17/8/15)

hands down the sexiest thing I've seen on the internet for years


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## husky (22/8/15)

Started wiring the instruments, still waiting for a couple more temperature transmitters though. I will be starting to build the gear tray for the cabinet tonight and should also get time to cut the touch screen panel view into the cabinet door. Tidied up the last of the mechanical works and added a sleeve on the top that I may use for a portable davit to lift grain basket out. Starting to look more like a brewery now! Might even be up and running in a few months, still have to source a few electrical components.


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## Adr_0 (22/8/15)

Holy flippin shitballs, I need to change my undies...


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## Benn (22/8/15)

That's Fucken Crazy!


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## TheWiggman (22/8/15)

1/50 ghetto points (1 point for having a manually operated valve). Shagadelic baby. I like threads like this because I can show my wife what other people are doing and it doesn't make my hobby look as costly.


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## H0U5ECAT (23/8/15)

Husky, who did all the pipe bending and welding for you?
So far that's the hardest thing for me to find. A good stainless welder, in my circles, is as rare as hens teeth.


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## droid (23/8/15)

wow, just wow! Supercool man I love all the piping!! bit of morning glory on a sunday

Ed) could you explain the tangential inlet and outlet for me?


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## husky (23/8/15)

TheWiggman said:


> 1/50 ghetto points (1 point for having a manually operated valve). Shagadelic baby. I like threads like this because I can show my wife what other people are doing and it doesn't make my hobby look as costly.


The cooling water supply will eventually be run by a solenoid valve however the butterfly's when automated require compressed air and the actuators are quite large so manual for me!




H0U5ECAT said:


> Husky, who did all the pipe bending and welding for you?
> So far that's the hardest thing for me to find. A good stainless welder, in my circles, is as rare as hens teeth.


There is no bending required, all 90 degree elbows are sourced from stainless steel suppliers(check out geordi's website) and are welded together by friends of mine who work in the food and beverage industry. Where you located? Shouldn't be too difficult to find someone local to you who works in the food industry, the main thing is that all lines are purged with argon prior to welding and the joins are fused only with no filler wire. I have done some of the welding myself however the guys who do it for a living achieve a much nicer finish so I have had them do any welds with product contact.




droid said:


> wow, just wow! Supercool man I love all the piping!! bit of morning glory on a sunday
> 
> Ed) could you explain the tangential inlet and outlet for me?


The plan is to aid the whirlpool as much as possible. It can be achieved with out the tangential outlet however my other brewery has suction line in the base of the pot so this time I thought I would try tangential. Having suction and discharge tangential and in opposing directions should benefit a good whirlpool. I have tested it with food dye in water and seemed good, wont know for sure for a few months when I give it a brew run.


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## droid (23/8/15)

thanks man


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## Adr_0 (23/8/15)

If you (still) need help with some PID stuff - including how everything is calculated and tuning - I am happy to help you out.


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## husky (23/8/15)

Adr_0 said:


> If you (still) need help with some PID stuff - including how everything is calculated and tuning - I am happy to help you out.


Thanks for the offer mate I think I have it sorted. Rockwell had a PID function block that I downloaded and have managed to get it running. The bit that ended up taking a while was the program to ramp and hold the setpoint. I have this working now so just need to get the brewery finished now so I can tune the loop. I'm now going through adding different screens to the HMI and extra functionality as I think of things that might help on brew day such as the ability to hold timers, manually enter temp setpoints, mash temp trends etc.


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## Adr_0 (23/8/15)

No worries, sounds awesome.


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## Adr_0 (23/8/15)

Rockwell/Allen Bradley are pretty solid and as you know there are all sorts of PID blocks (with preset P, I, D values or where you can input from a custom screen), timers and alarms as well. Again, awesome setup and hopefully you get many hours of giggles and many good beers. Super impressed.


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## Grainer (23/8/15)

sweet setup


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## Camo6 (23/8/15)

husky said:


> Thanks for the offer mate I think I have it sorted.


Understatement of the century!


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## Mr B (23/8/15)

husky said:


> the main thing is that all lines are purged with argon prior to welding and the joins are fused only with no filler wire.


That's interesting - do you mean its like tig with no rod?

Edit: Nah cant be, whats the process called?


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## husky (23/8/15)

Mr B said:


> That's interesting - do you mean its like tig with no rod?
> 
> Edit: Nah cant be, whats the process called?


Yep, it's tig welded but no filler wire used for the process lines. The material at the join is fused, no additional material(filler) required at the join. The frame for example where the joins are fillet welds use filler wire.


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## DJ_L3ThAL (23/8/15)

Mardoo said:


> How about building *DJ_L3ThAL *a jacketed, temp-controlled self-contained fermentation system - perhaps with improvements to the conical fermenter - as your next project? I'd love to see what you'd do with that.


FTFY.

husky, you are inspirational!


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## husky (25/8/15)

Making the most of a sudden burst of motivation, and some late nights in the shed. Gear tray being assembled as far as I can until I get up to some components that I am still waiting on.






Hopefully ends up looking like this:


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## Benn (25/8/15)

Yeah that's pretty much how I would have done it too...


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## mofox1 (26/8/15)

I need a drip tray under my chin after reading this thread...

I'm not going to call this inspirational, 'cos it's just way too far out of my league. Just seriously good shit. Good work!


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## droid (29/8/15)

Hello again, where'd ya get the heating element from mate? apols if I missed this cheers


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## husky (29/8/15)

droid said:


> Hello again, where'd ya get the heating element from mate? apols if I missed this cheers


Hey mate, the elements were made by Megawatt in Sommerville. Could have used a U bend it type from one of the other suppliers however I was very specific in what I wanted. I don't think it was that expensive either maybe $250ish can't find the invoice. I also had these guys make up some replacement keg king elements with a much better electrical connection to stop them going bang.
These coiled elements are around 45kw/m2 when operating at full power. The PLC however will be controlling the voltage to the heater so it can run lower power during the mash, will likely only use 5kw during ramp from mash to boil.

http://www.megawattheatingelements.com.au/contents/en-us/contactus.html


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## droid (29/8/15)

Thankyou, the coil type really looks the go for the kettle and whirl-pooling, cheers


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## Pokey (29/8/15)

husky said:


> More playing around with the PLC and programming tonight. Have got both the wort the temperatures coming in now and performing some calculations. I will measure the wort temp in two locations and then average them for the PID loop CV.
> I have a trend running on wort temp so at the end of a brew I can save the temp profile which might come in handy if I try replicate a mash profile one day.
> Will also trend the cooling water in and out temps to easily pick the point where no more cooling is occurring, then use a solenoid valve to shut the cooling water supply off.


Not sure if you've thought of it, or if it would even be an issue. 
If one of your temp sensors fail and reads minimum the element will drive to 100% power. If not monitored it probably wouldn't end well. If it fails to maximum the element would go off.
You should be able to monitor for wire breaks or shorts. AB may even do it already

Good luck and have fun 
Oh and make lots of comments in the code


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## husky (29/8/15)

Waiting for the remaining electrical components so sorted out the mash equipment today. Flexi hose in tangential return with an elbow to direct return wort over the element as well as a flexi connection to top of grain bed wort return. Plan is to use the two valves to regulate flow to each, as much as the bed will handle to the top and the rest to below grain bed and across heater. The inner basket should allow a good 9-10kg kg grain with the current length of the legs keeping it above the element.
Mounted the HMI in the control panel door as well.


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## Adr_0 (29/8/15)

Is that silicone hose your draw-off for the pump?


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## husky (29/8/15)

Adr_0 said:


> Is that silicone hose your draw-off for the pump?


Thats wort return beneath geain bed on mash only. Comes out after mash


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## droid (29/8/15)

I see a kids balance bike and a VW in your future, or maybe even now


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## Adr_0 (29/8/15)

husky said:


> Thats wort return beneath geain bed on mash only. Comes out after mash


Cool - so by the valves (look like butterfly valves used in small water pipelines) I'm guessing most will go to the top and you'll just put a bit through the silicone? When will you use the silicone hose?


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## husky (29/8/15)

Adr_0 said:


> Cool - so by the valves (look like butterfly valves used in small water pipelines) I'm guessing most will go to the top and you'll just put a bit through the silicone? When will you use the silicone hose?


Silicone hose in during the mash only to return some wort below the grain bed and across the heating element. Most hopefully above and through grain bed. When mash is finished silicone comes out to allow all pumped flow to return tangental after the boil.
It makes sence in my head but will have to see how it works in practice.


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## Adr_0 (29/8/15)

Yeah, only thing I was thinking was the short path from the return to the suction line and that you're turning over a lot of wort through the pump and element, but not changing the grain bed much - or at least getting inconsistent temperatures and rates. I think most - if not all - would need to go through the top. There will still be movement over the element as the pump draws from the bottom of the vessel. You could probably leave the silicone hose out since you have tangental flow in/out anyway. I dunno.


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## Judanero (29/8/15)

husky said:


> Making the most of a sudden burst of motivation, and some late nights in the shed. Gear tray being assembled as far as I can until I get up to some components that I am still waiting on.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


It is sad i find this sexy.


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## husky (30/8/15)

Pokey said:


> Not sure if you've thought of it, or if it would even be an issue.
> If one of your temp sensors fail and reads minimum the element will drive to 100% power. If not monitored it probably wouldn't end well. If it fails to maximum the element would go off.
> You should be able to monitor for wire breaks or shorts. AB may even do it already
> 
> ...


Thanks mate, exactly the sort of feedback I'm after as I had not considered that. I do recall in the PLC manual mentioning wire break monitoring so will try find it again, defiantly want the temperature transmitters to fail maximum range. Might even be possible to put in an alarm if the CV value changes greater than a certain rate, hmmmmm.
Agree on the comments! I have been making lots. the code evolves so much over time it's hard to remember how it is all supposed to work. I think I will go backwards and write a process description from the code once its finished, usually should be done the other way around!



droid said:


> I see a kids balance bike and a VW in your future, or maybe even now


It never ceases to amaze me what people pick up in photo backgrounds!



Adr_0 said:


> Yeah, only thing I was thinking was the short path from the return to the suction line and that you're turning over a lot of wort through the pump and element, but not changing the grain bed much - or at least getting inconsistent temperatures and rates. I think most - if not all - would need to go through the top. There will still be movement over the element as the pump draws from the bottom of the vessel. You could probably leave the silicone hose out since you have tangental flow in/out anyway. I dunno.


I know what you're saying, really won't know how it behaves until the first brew. The silicone hose may not be required at all and purely the tangential return may be enough to keep the liquid moving across the heater at a fast enough rate. The silicone will give the ability to change how the flow returns to beneath the grain bed during mash only. During the boil it will come out and the tangential be used to whirlpool. I will be putting another temp transmitter in the base of the pot central, so this should give a good idea of what the flow and temps are doing below the grain bed.


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## Barge (26/10/15)

How did this go? Brewed with it yet?


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## husky (26/10/15)

Barge said:


> How did this go? Brewed with it yet?


No brewing yet, still ticking away as time permits, lots of optimisation of the PLC code while I have the PLC mobile and can easily make changes and test. Might try get the PLC mounted in the control panel this weekend and finish the wiring. It should then be time for water testing. Will get some pics up this weekend of progress.


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## husky (29/10/15)

A quick update:

Mounted panel in cabinet and connected field wiring for instruments to their terminals
Downloaded current PLC and HMI programs to test out
Sorted out some minor issues with temperatures not coming into the PLC
Stood back and marvelled at my creation!

Next on the list of things to do:

Add more functionality to the brewery - Buzzers, alarms, recipes etc
Tidy up PLC wiring and add final section of duct
Add volt and current meter
Fill with water and test out the PID heating loop. Planning on giving this a go tonight.

Some pics below of the panel nearly complete and some of the HMI screens to date. The beauty of the PLC is that I can have a program that runs and be continually working on a new and improved version. Lots and lots of tinkering to be done!


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## dannymars (29/10/15)

/tipshat


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## Diesel80 (29/10/15)

This thing looks tits!
:icon_chickcheers:
Cheers,
D80


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## husky (17/11/15)

Just a quick update. Have spent a sh!t load of time sorting out the horrible inbuilt PID controller in the software package. After 3 weeks its all sorted and I have put a lot of time into updating the HMI screens and setting up heaps of trends to monitor the temperatures throughout the system.
Have successfully run about 10 dummy runs on water ramping and holding various temps and it keeps temp to within 0.02 degrees! Nearly time for a run with some grains.


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## TheWiggman (17/11/15)

You have an AB Panelview and associated I/O? Dafuq man? This is elite level stuff, short of hiring your own staff to manufacture your own hardware this is as good as it can get. Or paint it red so it can awesome faster.


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## Benn (17/11/15)

Right on Husky! I'm workin on my own Hot Tub Time Machine as well man. At this stage it's just a keg, an esky and a $10 rusty spiral burner from some e bay stoner. Watch this space!!


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## Adr_0 (18/11/15)

Looks amazing. Glad you have got the PID and SSR functioning correctly. What's the first recipe?


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## husky (18/11/15)

Adr_0 said:


> Looks amazing. Glad you have got the PID and SSR functioning correctly. What's the first recipe?


 Not sure mate, need to check what ingredients I have but I'm thinking a vienna lager with plenty of step mashing. Hoping to get a brew down in the next couple of weeks, need to find all brew gear and build a starter etc etc first.
Brewery is complete enough to run its all nice to have's remaining.All I want to complete before running the first brew is:

Run some boil off tests to determine how much power to put in to achieve 10% boil off per hour.
Set up some hop addition timers on the HMI to alarm when the additions are due
Run a caustic solution through the system
Will definitely take some pics on first brew day but it really needs a video to see what's going on, will see how I go.


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## zappa (18/11/15)

Remind you of anything?

https://youtu.be/vHk40VvFsp4


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## Benn (18/11/15)

zappa said:


> https://youtu.be/vHk40VvFsp4


I completely understood all the information presented during the entire 2 mins of of that clip.... :blink:


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## husky (30/11/15)

It's alive! After spending a good at least 100 hrs over the past few weeks debugging and improving the software I thought it was time to add some grains. I sort of cheated and ran a trial batch to make some starter wort instead of a full batch.
It went about as good as I had hoped. Procedure was:
Pre heat to 55 degrees(mill grain at same time)
Add grain
Set mash schedule(5 step) hit go and monitor the trends.
Raise basket to drain wort from grain and set heater to 100%(20A)
Boil using 60% power to achieve 16% boil off rate
Cover and run cooling water to drop temps to 40 degrees C(about 10 mins)
Whirlpool while cooling - Got first ever trubb cone!!!! woo hoo 
Transfer to fermenter and several starter jars. Dumped the fermenter on the grass and added some 1 year old yeasties to the starter jars top prepare for a real brew next week.

Overall could not be happier. Had to play with valve positions and stir a couple of times through the mash to get the balance correct b/w wort to recirc over heater and wort through grain bed. Used temp probes in the middle of the grain to confirm the temps all through the ystem were within 0.05 degrees of setpoint! super happy. Had to run reasonably quick through the grain bed to ensure it was the same temp in middle of the bed as surrounding wort which was doable. I would have been happy if it was a bit lower expecting enzyme activity would predominantly be taking place in the flowing wort anyway.

Clean up took about 15 minutes to flush the system and disconnect the pump to drain all the lines. Way faster than previous 1V breweries as everything could be chucked in the vessel with water and then heated to 45 degrees and scrubbed then rinsed. Might run a caustic through it every few brews but a rinse should be fine for now.

Lots of things I thought of through the brew that I would like to add but not totally necessary so I see endless scope for mini projects when time permits. I took a few short vids that I will put up at some stage but some pics below for now.

All up start to finish took 5 hours but that could easily be improved upon next time.
I now have a German lager years starter and English ale yeast on the go ready for some serious brewing over the holidays.


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## husky (30/11/15)




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## razz (30/11/15)

Nice job Braden, well done mate. A family heirloom to be sure.


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## SBOB (30/11/15)

you need to start building those benches/kettles for sale


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## husky (17/12/15)

I think I'm in love, first beer run last weekend and it was by far the most relaxing stress free brew night ever and seemed to have loads of time to do other things and play with the PLC program. Decided to do a brew around 7.00pm and was all done in the fermenter around midnight. Filled with water and set to preheat while I measured out and crushed the grain, ran a basic 90 min 2 step mash then a 60 min boil. Recipe was a Citra Pale Ale for a hot summers day.
A few changes to the brewery since the initial trial run:

Added drain line with valve off the base of vessel to aid cleaning
New procedure for transferring wort to fermenter by putting return hose on 10 min before end of boil and recirculating. Hose stays in kettle until fermenter transfer and wort id cooled
Validation that the whirl pool works well. Even with all the cold break, the hops formed a nice cone in the centre
Tweaks of the PID controller during the brew to improve temperature control. Generally holds within 0.05 degrees throughout the whole mash during the mash step, I verified this by placing 3 x thermometers in the grain bed as well.

Super happy! time to start tweaking and making mods!


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## trhr (5/1/16)

I know I really like this but I'm so confused...this sends emails but also makes beer?

I thought BIAB was an old hessian bag over a pasta pot in the kitchen?


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## husky (5/1/16)

Yeah the title is a bit deceiving as it's not BIAB anymore. I have tried to update the title but can't. It's really a 1V RIMS system I guess or Brew In A Basket!


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## trhr (17/2/16)

husky said:


> Yeah the title is a bit deceiving as it's not BIAB anymore. I have tried to update the title but can't. It's really a 1V RIMS system I guess or Brew In A Basket!


Mate, it's fantastic. Thoroughly confusing.... but fantastic.

The pot in the table is a great idea, I think I may go down this route with a brew in a basket build if I can get my hands on Lael's Brauduino kit.

I like how much safer this could be with little kids running around. No boiling pot to knock off and the basket is low and can just lift a little out for sparging.
Cover the plumbing with some lockable doors and it's nearly child safe!


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## Fents (17/2/16)

Amazing.... :kooi:


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## husky (1/3/16)

Redman9 said:


> Mate, it's fantastic. Thoroughly confusing.... but fantastic.
> 
> The pot in the table is a great idea, I think I may go down this route with a brew in a basket build if I can get my hands on Lael's Brauduino kit.
> 
> ...


One thing I don't like about my 3V is the height of everything. By building the vessel into a table it lowers everything and gives a workspace. It's also super easy to hose down. If I didn't like looking at the pipework and instruments so much I would add some doors and then no little people can tough anything hot. My brewing is confined to 7pm onwards generally so not really an issue for me.
Defiantly worth it for the extra hassle and $$ to build into a table top. Might redo the 3V one day the same way.


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## Zorco (7/6/16)

This is seriously excellent Husky!

I don't even know how to bend stainless pipe properly. You've made me realise the gulf between my dreams and my abilities.


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## husky (17/6/16)

zorsoc_cosdog said:


> This is seriously excellent Husky!
> 
> I don't even know how to bend stainless pipe properly. You've made me realise the gulf between my dreams and my abilities.


Mate, there is a massive gulf between my first crack at a brewery versus this also. Anything is possible, just takes time and money. Much much more time than money funnily enough.

Haven't brewed since my last post however seems I now have some mini kegs from a recent BB to fill so a burst of motivation has seen me delete the level switch and replace with a pressure transmitter. I plan to use this to calculate the volume at any given level, temperature and gravity. Initial testing if very accurate however the accuracy drifts by around 0.5L at boil temps but close enough for my purposes.
Hopefully do a brew soon and will take a vid of it in action.


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## husky (2/7/16)

Finally put down brew #2(Bling Bling clone) on the new rig after making some automation changes and just generally playing/tweaking over tha last little while. I have trialed several level measurement devices and settled on a pressure transmitter which has been good fun learning about. Managed to take a couple of videos during the mash and the boil today so below are some pics and a vid.
All in all a good brew day. There was nearly 300g hops in the boil and I was surprised at how well it formed a cone during the whirlpool.


https://youtu.be/JtnpH1gfhq8 - quality seems a bit dodgy, will put up a better one tomorrow














Will put up a vid of the boil step tomorrow.


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## husky (2/7/16)

Having some issues getting the video up, hopefully these work. A couple of short clips showing the mash and boil steps.


<iframe width="640" height="480" src="" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>




Buggered if I know why they wont embed, anyone know how?


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## Zorco (2/7/16)

60 seconds......... lap dances are longer than that and just as teasing.

When you have it perfected, i'd love to see a mill to fermenter video.....


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## altone (8/7/16)

Dammit man that's just showing off!! 

I have 3 questions..

1. Does it make better beer than my old urn and bit of curtain?
2. Can we buy tickets to see it in action?
3. If you can halve the footprint can I place an order?

Awesome piece of bling gear.
I'd love something similar but smaller if the accountant would 
give the go ahead (snowballs chance)


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## husky (26/8/16)

boddingtons best said:


> Dammit man that's just showing off!!
> 
> I have 3 questions..
> 
> ...


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## droid (27/8/16)

You know shits real when you'd have to include a day or 2 of training with the sale of this thing!

Awesomness mate, inspiring stuff. Maybe I can cut some of that stainless sheet I have sitting in the shed for a bench-top cover on my own afterall h34r:


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## husky (27/8/16)

droid said:


> You know shits real when you'd have to include a day or 2 of training with the sale of this thing!
> 
> Awesomness mate, inspiring stuff. Maybe I can cut some of that stainless sheet I have sitting in the shed for a bench-top cover on my own afterall h34r:


No chance it will ever be sold so shouldn't be an issue!

A few minor updates:

Added a pre chiller to the jacket water. Should help to get lagers and all summer brewed beers down to pitching temps straight out of the kettle. Plan is to run tap water through the jacket until temp his 20 ish and the divert through the pre chiller which will be sitting in a bucket of water and ice. Small glycol chiller on the to buy list one day.
Added a shelf for putting sanitisers, refractometer etc during brew day to keep them out of the way when not used, frees up some bench space.
Made a polycarbonate lid for the vessel to see what's going on inside during brew day. Hopefully condensation forms and allows some vision inside. Last brew I had the aeration stone poked through the lid and turned out it wasn't submerged as someone forgot to measure correctly. This should stop that happening again.
New PLC program with heaps of extra functions that I can't wait to try out!
Made up two new wort returns to try out. Last brew with just a return hose I got a pretty poor efficiency in the high 60s as the return dug out a section of grain and channelled the flow. The new ones should more evenly distribute the return.

To Do:

Add a seal beneath the polycarbonate lid to give an air tight seal. The plan is to seal it up at the end of the boil and have a sanitary air vent to allow clean air only in as the wort cools and shrinks.
Add the buzzer and current/voltage displays to the control panel. I have been lazy and left them sitting inside the cabined for now.

The missus just popped out future brewer #5 this week and has requested a celebratory Vienna lager so hopefully I'll get a brew done in the next week or so! Yay!


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## husky (30/8/16)

In an effort to make full use of the fact I'm chilling in the kettle I wanted to remove the cooled wort and transfer to the fermenter leaving the break material behind. Currently the pump suction is on the base of the tank so lots of break enters the fermenter. I contemplated adding a racking arm similar to what you would find on a stainless fermenter but instead decided to try vacuum transfer out the top of the tank.
I wasn't sure if the plastic fermenters would hold vacuum so to test it out I had to hunt for the rubber seal and fermenter lid hoping it hadn't been thrown out as I cling wrap these days.
Anyway attached is a short vid below showing how well it works. It makes use of a vacuum sealer and should allow me to lower the tube into the wort until it starts sucking up break material and then stop, much more control than the current method.


<iframe width="480" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/WcXvJWwToF8?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> 


Anyone know why youtube vids wont embed into a post anymore?


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## gezzanet (30/8/16)

Looks like it's there on my iPhone and opens ok


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## feralbass (31/8/16)

What a great post.Just started making a 68 ltr stainless steel pot this week, (3 mm 316), (welded the barrel yesterday, 2 of the fittings tonight, base will go on tomorrow afternoon) I want to do a manual boil this weekend. You have inspired me to take this further. Now I'm on the search for a controller. Cheers, John.


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## husky (15/10/16)

Just as I was planning to ramp up brewing for summer I have busted my shoulder.....
While I'm laid up at home I have put some time into working out how to finish my fermenter project and doing some pressure testing. I had it made years ago but never finished it off or tested it. So far have pressure tested to 1.5BAR and it holds pretty good with a very slow leak to 1 BAR over a week which I still need to find.
Plan is to:
Steam sterilise @ 1 BAR by adding a 2000w heater in one of the top 4" tri ports
Weld a gas and liquid post to a blank cap and replace when sterilising complete
Fully sealed system using vacuum transfer from kettle into liquid post with a gas purge first
Pressure ferment in fridge
Add a yeast harvester @ bottom
Attempt to serve straight out of the fermenter(who knows, might be ok?)


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## Mardoo (15/10/16)

What are you using as a vacuum pump?


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## husky (15/10/16)

Just my hops vacuum sealer($90 Aldi job). It's really only to pull liguid out of the kettle and into ferm, wasn't planning to pull full vacuum the fermenter although may try at some stage since the sight glass is full vacuum rated and the fermenter is small and 2mm so may handle it.


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## husky (19/3/17)

Life sucks a bit at the moment as I haven't had any time to play with the brewery. Have done a few brews on this system now and I really enjoy using it.

Some updates most of which have been sitting in the shed waiting for time to install:
- Purchased a new bigger 6" HMI panelview which I was going to install but now thinking of saving for another project. Will install anyway at some stage to see if it's much better.

- Set up a cooling water pre chiller. Basically an ice tank that will circulate chilled water through a heat exchanger to pre chill the tap water going to the cooling jacket. Should be good for summer lagers and speeding up ale pitch temps. Attached a vid of just the recirc, tank will be filled with ice and the other heat exchanger ends run inline with tap water supply.

- Turned my fermenter into a boiler! Actually just testing the new steam sterilise system and it worked a treat. Added 3L water and managed to get 110 deg C sterilise at just over 20kPa pressure in 10ish minutes. Have compressed air tested to 2 BAR previously. Given the weight of the fermenter I wanted to heat sterilise instead of chemical as it is impossible to shake around like the plastic version. The heater gets inserted for the sterilise and then replaced with a polycarbonate ferrule lens to be able to view the ferment after sterilise. Looking forward to using this. Fermenter is 2mm 316 stainless so the small pressure at those temps is fine. Attached a vid below showing the pressure and temp increase and then the relief of the built up steam. Kind of makes me want to build a small steam boiler for the brewery!

























<div style="position:relative;height:0;padding-bottom:75.0%"><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/3yvV1C0B4qQ?ecver=2" width="480" height="360" frameborder="0" style="position:absolute;width:100%;height:100%;left:0" allowfullscreen></iframe></div> 

<div style="position:relative;height:0;padding-bottom:56.25%"><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/IyAvmrMb1x0?ecver=2" style="position:absolute;width:100%;height:100%;left:0" width="640" height="360" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></div>


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## droid (19/3/17)

I am in awe !


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## husky (19/3/17)

The new HMI what will go in at some stage. Much better size!


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## Mardoo (19/3/17)

You are a sick and twisted man, something I like in a guy.


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## Glomp (19/3/17)

He is obviously over compensating for having small genitals. He makes the rest of us look like we have chronic brewers droop.

Husky has set the standard that most of us just look on with envy and despair.

Brilliant work husky.


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## husky (19/3/17)

Glomp said:


> He is obviously over compensating for having small genitals....


Possible!

The only reason for putting this up on the web is hoping that others will have a crack at something similar. It's not that difficult, just takes time and $$(shitloads of both). I would be happy to supply drawings, PLC program and a demo for anyone serious about getting something similar made. It's a lot for such a small volume so even if someone wants a bigger version I may be able to detail something up.


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