Have been brewing K&K's for a while now but it's mainly been a matter of "through it all in at 20-24c and hope for the best". After reading this site i have decided that my tax return (only good thing the ATO has going for it) should/must be spent on setting up a good brewery.
I have purchased a couple of second hand fridges from ebay and already have 2 heat mats from brewcraft so apart from temp control i should be good to go. Being a sys-admin i am picturing a PC controlled setup with web interface so that i can monitor/override it from work/home/holiday. I have a little Jaycar 4-relay ip board which i have been playing with but don't think it's quite up to the task of turning a fridge on/off (sparkies... tell me if i'm wrong).
I have had a look at the BCS-460 but it doesn't seam to be expandable enough (when i make the move to AG i would like to just expand on what i already have). So i am after ideas or suggestions for any other ideas.
Secondly once i have all the temp control covered and working i would like to move into flow control for my water and finished brew. My idea here was to have solenoids control water running into my fermenter/kettle/sink and from fermenter to secondary/bulk priming whatever. However i can't seam to find a cheap supplier of solenoids small enough to deal with food grade substance (did find some very nice ones but i'm not quite to the point of needing 10,000+ litres an hour). Anyone got any good ideas for suppliers or ways i might be able to control my plumbing via the computer.
Sorry if my post seam like i'm just trying to take everybodies ideas, my philosophy is "why reinvite the wheel if i don't have to"... after all it cheaper to learn from other peoples mistakes or misfortunes.
I have purchased a couple of second hand fridges from ebay and already have 2 heat mats from brewcraft so apart from temp control i should be good to go. Being a sys-admin i am picturing a PC controlled setup with web interface so that i can monitor/override it from work/home/holiday. I have a little Jaycar 4-relay ip board which i have been playing with but don't think it's quite up to the task of turning a fridge on/off (sparkies... tell me if i'm wrong).
I have had a look at the BCS-460 but it doesn't seam to be expandable enough (when i make the move to AG i would like to just expand on what i already have). So i am after ideas or suggestions for any other ideas.
Secondly once i have all the temp control covered and working i would like to move into flow control for my water and finished brew. My idea here was to have solenoids control water running into my fermenter/kettle/sink and from fermenter to secondary/bulk priming whatever. However i can't seam to find a cheap supplier of solenoids small enough to deal with food grade substance (did find some very nice ones but i'm not quite to the point of needing 10,000+ litres an hour). Anyone got any good ideas for suppliers or ways i might be able to control my plumbing via the computer.
Sorry if my post seam like i'm just trying to take everybodies ideas, my philosophy is "why reinvite the wheel if i don't have to"... after all it cheaper to learn from other peoples mistakes or misfortunes.
