Fully Automated Brewing System Design

[pimpsqueak]

I'm going home to make a cardboard mockup of my new BIAB setup. Complete with large circle of cardboard voile and cardboard hydrometer.

 

[yardy]

you should fabricate some papier mache malted barley first.

 

[manticle]

Not normally a laugh out loud kind of person but you hit it with that one Yardy.

 

[Bandito]

Yea, will definetely do away with the marga. The crush has always been rough and crappy. I have previously tried to find threads on running other mills from drills but couldnt find any. Found some now though. Although they do seem to push the boundaries of what a drill can handle, looks like I will need a quality drill instead of the cheapo I already bought for to drive the marga. Will do some research on which mill and drill to get. Thanks!

L_bomb, I've never been a fan of the whole side door MLT the bigger brewerys use. First I have heard of a mechanical cleanout in one though . The mash stirrer will help to break up the spent grist, and I think it will need to be rewetted with water to help it come out.

If I could go back in time, a better design would have been to make it like one of those rotating drum compost bins that are a barrel on its side with a door. The door of a MLT wouldnt even need to be sealed, so just a flap. To empty just rotate it so the flap that extends all the way accross the barrel is down. Absinthes' method of rotating his malter would probably work to rotate it. That would be pretty sweet! Google search for drum compost bin

False bottom for the ones in the left picture could be fixed on one side only so as it rotates to discharge its grist the false bottom flaps open allowing it to be cleaned underneath. The one on the right looks like its made for mashing - nice big wheelbarrow and all, but is just from the top hit on the google search. So tempting to go this route but no..... Mabee someone else will make one.

Thats actually pretty awsome!

 

[BjornJ]

Hi Bandito,
I use a Crankandstein mill, it is easily run by my cheap cordless drill.
They start at $79 for the non-adjustable one.
I get the same efficiency with this one as I did when buying ready-cracked malt.

http://www.crankandstein.net/index.php?mai...;products_id=12



I made a base plate and the side and top plates from pine, probably just as easy to build it into your design in some way.

thanks
Bjorn

 

[beerbrewer76543]

For my crank and stein mill I built a hopper the full width of the rollers. I ended up taping up the feed to the rollers to reduce the area by about half. This drastically reduces the load on the cordless drill, which was stuggling a bit with the full width feed

 

[BjornJ]

good point.
I have a 25 mm hole drilled in the top plate and screw-in a 2.25 litre PET soda bottle in this hole.
Fits perfectly, and with the bottom of the PET bottle cut off it fits a kg of grains.

Only getting the malt on the centre 3-4 cm of mills make it easier to run for the drill and still more than fast enough.


thanks
Bjorn

 

[QldKev]

I remember when PlaySchool also made that space ship

 

[Malted]

I found some more prototype construction material

 

[Jazzafish]

Snip

L_bomb, I've never been a fan of the whole side door MLT the bigger brewerys use. First I have heard of a mechanical cleanout in one though . The mash stirrer will help to break up the spent grist, and I think it will need to be rewetted with water to help it come out.

Have a look at lauter tun rakes. Found this one via google. Basically, rotating one way will cut the sparge while rotating the opposite way pushes spent grains out the hole.

 

[Jazzafish]

Actually, the rakes in my post seem one way... but googling lauter rakes will get the creative juices flowing.

 

[Bandito]

Actually, the rakes in my post seem one way... but googling lauter rakes will get the creative juices flowing.

Thanks for the search term Jazzafish, and all the ideas fellas. Here is what my mash stirrer was going to be - just a vertical stainless rod as the drive shaft and then other rods welded to it along the length at 90 degrees to each other. Will probably change that now.
And yes I already have two bog rolls saved

What do youz think about the rotating drum MLT? Anyone seen it used anywhere? This forum? Other forums? It looks wrong, but it would eliminate the butterfly valves in both the MLT and kettle. Sideways brewery?

 

[unrealeous]

...you have cought me 85% into the project, and am way beyond the point of no return. There is not much left to get, from here on its prety much hooking up 12V circuits. Do you really want me to abandon the project that on the current schedule will be assembled and ready for full scale testing in 42.5 days?

40 pages and it doesn't seem like we are anywhere near having a design that is going to work...

You said you were 85% through the project back in August clearly that was just marketing department working over time. Those *******s - making promises the engineering department were never going to be able to meet!

Someone might have already said it along the way but.... why don't you drop some complexity and get something (anything) working! The modular approach - Focus on one area and keep at it until it actually works.

What happened to your single vessel idea. Now that you have decided to ditch those precious butterfly valves - this could be a goer. You won't have to tip your spent grain out - you can lift it out!

 

[Bandito]

Okay, so that was august 5th. Well work got really busy the next week, and didnt stop being insanely busy until 2 weeks ago. The busy period doesnt usually start until late september or sometimes mid october. When its busy it takes the little time I have off to recover from the intense work. Earlier this year I did a 35 hour day. I got into work at 7am, and left 35.5 hours later.

The original schedule was based on this busy period. I knew that if it wasnt finnished by mid to late september that it would be march before I could do anymore on it. Unfortunately or fortunately work wise, this busy period was the longest I have seen it in ages. So the brewery had to suffer in order to keep my job and build much bigger things than a hobby home brewery.
Many construction workers jobs (up to 100) rely on me finnishing my jobs ontime - and I'm damned if I'm going to put my hobby above other peoples livelyhoods.

When the work is there you have to step up and give it your all. I dont appoligise for that - its called life. I have to wear it, and even my boss bugs me with 'so when is this thing going to make beer?'

Havent decided to ditch the butterflys, just thinking about wether a redesign might be due.

What happened to your single vessel idea.

Zizzle did that already.

 

[Zizzle]

Zizzle did that already.

So are you aiming to be completely novel and avoid all tried and tested methods and designed?

 

[tavas]

Thanks for the search term Jazzafish, and all the ideas fellas. Here is what my mash stirrer was going to be - just a vertical stainless rod as the drive shaft and then other rods welded to it along the length at 90 degrees to each other. Will probably change that now.
And yes I already have two bog rolls saved

What do youz think about the rotating drum MLT? Anyone seen it used anywhere? This forum? Other forums? It looks wrong, but it would eliminate the butterfly valves in both the MLT and kettle. Sideways brewery?

I think you will have issues sealing the door properly on a rotating drum. Having worked in mining for a few years, it is sometimes difficult to seal doors on mills or other equipment with a curved surface. I suggest looking at an end door.

Concept is sound, you will get good mixing between liquid and solids. How are you planning on separating the solids?

 

[rwmingis]

Good to see you making progress Bandito. Looking forward to seeing some more photos of the setup.

They're right about the mash tun, don't make it too tall and skinny as it affects how the grainbed develops and works.

Check this guys setup http://www.williamswarn.com/, he may have beaten you to the "Fully Automated Brewery" but not to the "Fully Automated Brewery Complete with Mash"

BB

 

[MHB]

Interesting bit of kit, cant see them running out the door at over $5K, for that I could put you into a 50L Braumeister, a stainless conical fermenter and a pretty tidy keg system would just find it difficult to make first class beer in seven days, but it would be all grain rather than kit.
Big ups to them for being innovative
MHB

 

[yardy]

my boss bugs me with 'so when is this thing going to make beer?'

good question.

 

[WitWonder]

Okay, so that was august 5th. Well work got really busy the next week, and didnt stop being insanely busy until 2 weeks ago. The busy period doesnt usually start until late september or sometimes mid october. When its busy it takes the little time I have off to recover from the intense work. Earlier this year I did a 35 hour day. I got into work at 7am, and left 35.5 hours later.

You worked 35 hours straight ... for the man? Lol, time to get a new job buddy (or go into business yourself if you do something that special that only you can do it)