Fully automated brew with my home made Brew controller

[Tytonegro]

Hello brewers,

The 24th of September I posted on the first test run with my brew controller for a single pot RIMS setup.
That test was mainly about the temperature controller. It lives here:

http://aussiehomebrewer.com/topic/82695-test-run-with-my-home-made-brew-controller/

The program is evolving quickly and a few weeks ago I did a completely automated brew. I made 15 liters of Belgian Golden Strong Ale. For this brew I used a multi-step mashing scheme and a boil with 3 hop additions. Maybe the number of mashing steps is a bit over the top, but it gave the program something to do ;-) All mashing temperature steps and timings were under program control, as well as the boiling and the timing of the hop additions.

The controller worked almost flawlessly. But I need to do some more work on the brewing hardware. I'm still not completely satisfied with the pump/spray head and I definitely need to install the thermowell that recently arrived.

As far as circulating the wort is concerned, I was wondering if the wort might take up too much oxygen that might cause the wort/beer to turn out darker then expected.

Any thoughts on that?

Have a look for yourself on my blog or on YouTube where I posted a video on this test brew.
If you don't have time to watch that, my blog summarizes it mostly.

My blog post is here: http://www.merlinmakes.cato-projects.org/?x=entry:entry141010-152440

and this is the video report:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZN2sfx9rMA

Let me know what you think,

BTW. I saw the possibility to add a poll, I thought it would be nice to know what is on your minds concerning automation, so have a go if you like.

 

[gava]

somewhat disappointed - Topic said "FULLY" automated system..

Had this with Brew troller a few years back with more automation .. https://www.oscsys.com/projects/brewtroller
Saying that this does look good and if the price was right I'd get one.

 

[mojonojo]

i still dont see what this does over the matho-controller/ardbir setup.

 

[Tytonegro]

somewhat disappointed - Topic said "FULLY" automated system..

Had this with Brew troller a few years back with more automation .. https://www.oscsys.com/projects/brewtroller
Saying that this does look good and if the price was right I'd get one.

Sorry to disappoint you. Hop additions are manually as well as cooling and/or sparging if you want or need to.
I think you can not compare it with the brewtroller. Brewtroller has/had much more possibilities. Not all are equally useful in my opinion.
There will be an option for cooling where you can add a serpentine for cooling and use the pump to circulate the wort. Once the desired temperature is reached there will be an alarm to notify you.

Aerating: put the spray head a bit higher and circulate the wort for a desired time.

i still dont see what this does over the matho-controller/ardbir setup.

I don't know the matho nor the ardbir projects that well. What I don't like about these projects is that you need a board for the controller, something for the display and buttons, a board for the relays, powersupply etc. Al together it is a lot of work assembling it and it will be messy and bulky and expensive unless you spend much time on all the construction details.

I liked the idea of having everything in one box. Simple, small and quite universal, although it is not suited for complex RIMS or HERMS set-up. I thought about that, but controlling many valves and pumps makes it very complex. At the moment I have a couple of processor lines free, so I could easily add some other features and extend the powerboard.
But then again, my brew set-up is also simple. That is what I liked about the Speidel. Simple, compact.

Other features that will be in the program are: Possibility to control your fermentation chamber/fridge. Just connect your fridge to the pump output and the heating element to the heater output. It will be very easy to 'program' the controller for sequences of many days, having increment or decrements in temperature etc.

And the bottom line: the price.

I still haven't decided about making it a commercial thing, open source, or sell complete controllers and/or kits. But the whole unit consists of two boards that are connected with one flatcable. Display, (touch) keys and LEDs are incorporated on the main board and all power stuff and in- output connectors on the second board. So assembly could be relatively cheap as well.
Probably not all people are interested in putting it all together themselves. They might be interested in a simple kit or complete controller.
But the price for a complete controller should be below 200 euro (~ $280)

I hope this answers a bit your questions and/or remarks. Feel free to correct me or suggest improvements. That's why I'am here to hear your thoughts about it. So, thanks!

 

[lael]

I think its great that there are lots of people building controllers. It inspires improvement and each person brings a slightly different approach that others can learn from and improve on.

Keep going! Great progress so far!

 

[gava]

I believe it's the perfect thing to compare it with, Both are automation brewing equipment..
Some of the brewtroller options seem "wank" factor i.e. the bubbler water level function.. but after using it that was awesome..
I wasn't dumping on your product, was just disappoint that it wasn't a fully automated brewery, I was interested how you were going to mill grain, mash, hop additions and dump to fermenter.

Although saying that, I wouldn't get a fully automated system, I sold my brew troller setup since it had 'taken' the fun away with all the automation. If you like you can get the brewtroller to do everything. I thought this would be awesome until I thought about it, Why would I spend all the $$, I could use that cash and go down the bottle shop and get a slab. The $$ i was looking at for setting it up could give me a slab a week for a few years.(probably not these days though)

Sorry to disappoint you. Hop additions are manually as well as cooling and/or sparging if you want or need to.
I think you can not compare it with the brewtroller. Brewtroller has/had much more possibilities. Not all are equally useful in my opinion.
There will be an option for cooling where you can add a serpentine for cooling and use the pump to circulate the wort. Once the desired temperature is reached there will be an alarm to notify you.

Aerating: put the spray head a bit higher and circulate the wort for a desired time.

I don't know the matho nor the ardbir projects that well. What I don't like about these projects is that you need a board for the controller, something for the display and buttons, a board for the relays, powersupply etc. Al together it is a lot of work assembling it and it will be messy and bulky and expensive unless you spend much time on all the construction details.

I liked the idea of having everything in one box. Simple, small and quite universal, although it is not suited for complex RIMS or HERMS set-up. I thought about that, but controlling many valves and pumps makes it very complex. At the moment I have a couple of processor lines free, so I could easily add some other features and extend the powerboard.
But then again, my brew set-up is also simple. That is what I liked about the Speidel. Simple, compact.

Other features that will be in the program are: Possibility to control your fermentation chamber/fridge. Just connect your fridge to the pump output and the heating element to the heater output. It will be very easy to 'program' the controller for sequences of many days, having increment or decrements in temperature etc.

And the bottom line: the price.

I still haven't decided about making it a commercial thing, open source, or sell complete controllers and/or kits. But the whole unit consists of two boards that are connected with one flatcable. Display, (touch) keys and LEDs are incorporated on the main board and all power stuff and in- output connectors on the second board. So assembly could be relatively cheap as well.
Probably not all people are interested in putting it all together themselves. They might be interested in a simple kit or complete controller.
But the price for a complete controller should be below 200 euro (~ $280)

I hope this answers a bit your questions and/or remarks. Feel free to correct me or suggest improvements. That's why I'am here to hear your thoughts about it. So, thanks!

 

[lael]

OT: Gava, how far did you get with your brewtroller system? Do you have a build thread?

 

[gava]

Lael : Not fully automation at all, planned for a Hop dropping rotating disc and ball valves but after realising how lazy that is i dropped that idea.

What I had was bubble level to auto fill my HLT and start heating my strike water, auto filling MLT with require water level...
mash time, step mash etc...
auto chilling (manual opening taps form BK though)

http://aussiehomebrewer.com/topic/57759-brewtroller-e-herms-build-pictures/

Cheers