How High-tech Is Your Brewery?

[floppinab]

at left is the mash tun and lautering tun all in one and at right is the HLT.

Hey zwickel, just to confirm I guess you are controlling mash temps with the stirrer and burner switching on and off??? This right??? If so how finely can you control mash temps (i.e. what's the hysteresis)

 

[Zwickel]

Hey zwickel, just to confirm I guess you are controlling mash temps with the stirrer and burner switching on and off??? This right??? If so how finely can you control mash temps (i.e. what's the hysteresis)

yes its right. The inertia is the hysteresis. for example, I set the temp at 52C and the burner heats up to 52 then stops the gas valve. The heat overhangs about 0,5, means the temp overshoots til 52,5C.
Now it takes about 20min the temp comes down to 52. In case the temp gets lower than 52 for more than 15sec. (stable signal) the burner starts again.

In the end, there is a hysteresis depends on the mass.

edit: the stirrer is running all the time, the relais switches it only from forward to backward.
So I can set the time for forward run and for backward run. Mainly I set the Stirrer to 5min forward run then switch for another 5min backward run.

@WJ
dont worry, as long as I was brewing manually the danger to burn the house down was even more.
Im going to do a special brew for your visit, Im alredy prepared

Thank you all mates for your positive resonance, Prost :beer:

 

[fixa]

Can't win a war, but those damn germans can brew!!!

Go that man!!!!!

 

[Doogiechap]

I showed mine off recently but coulden't resist the urge to pimp it again .
The controller has some more images here so won't get too indulgant. Darren will love this. I Filled up my HLT to the brim for a big batch and didn't allow for 2 things.... Expansion of the water when it heats...and a leaky gate valve that kept on slowly filling my HLT via my filter..... You can all see where my controller is located... The long and the short of it was OVERFLOW :angry: . I tripped my earth leakage breaker, and lost the ability to control my temps. Thankfully my temps had pretty much made it to what I needed to sparge so I didn't write off the batch but lets just say that my brow was somewhat furrowed . I cleaned, dried the controller and alls well. I will work at waterproofing the area... I loved using it. It basically controls my Herms and HLT temps and switches everything electrical on and off. My ball valve count falls short of Tony's by about 5 . I love playing with this sort of thing as much as actually brewing. My brewday is certainly much more relaxed with this sort of setup.
Cheers
Doug

 

[sqyre]

I reckon i'm gunna win the "High Tech" award...

I came across a new Space age high-volume pump at about a Tenth the normal pump size.

I was so impressed i bought 7 of them!!!! and a steal at $100 each!!

The bloke down the pub who i bought them off said just mount them to the bottom of the tank and when you want to pump the water out just turn the switch...

And it must be high tech cause theres no power lead..must be some sort of mini power pack somewhere in it..

The only thing is the bloke said its not the strongest pump as it wont pump any higher than the highest point you fill the tank...buts thats ok i will just make sure the tanks full when i use the pump.

Its amazing!! it so small and compact !!! If you didn't know better you would say it was just a ball....... valve...........

.......................... :blink: ................................uh oh.......

Iv'e just goto duck down the pub for minute....................... :angry:



Sqyre

 

[Zwickel]

Can't win a war, but those damn germans can brew!!!

maybe therefore? who knows

 

[Pumpy]

Can't win a war, but those damn germans can brew!!!

Go that man!!!!!

Easy Fixa ,

they came second !!

Pumpy

 

[head]

for all you guys with solid state piping on your stands.......How do you get around the cleaning dilemma? Especially when it comes to getting the old Malt out for disposal? Just the old scoop and rinse method or am I missing something?

 

[Zwickel]

for all you guys with solid state piping on your stands.......How do you get around the cleaning dilemma? Especially when it comes to getting the old Malt out for disposal? Just the old scoop and rinse method or am I missing something?

just wanna tell ya how I clean my system:

as soon as the lautering is finished and the boil in the HLT begins, I empty the mash pot, fill it up with caustic soda, start the stirrer and heat it up to 65C. Leave it til the boil is finished.

After the wort is cooled down, filled into the fermenter and the yeast is pitched, I pump the hot caustic soda through all the pipes, hoses and heatexchanger Ive used into the HLT. There Ill leave it for a while.
After the used caustic soda is drained, I do the same procedure with citric acid, to wash out all remaining CS.
Finally Ill rinse everything with clear water.

After that procedure you may have a look into everything using a endoscope and if youll find even a little debris inside, Im going straight to serve you a huge stein of homebrew

 

[Tony]

for all you guys with solid state piping on your stands.......How do you get around the cleaning dilemma? Especially when it comes to getting the old Malt out for disposal? Just the old scoop and rinse method or am I missing something?

when i start to chill the brew the water out of the chiller is about 70 deg c. I run the first 50 liters back into the HLT (this is effective for a 2nd batch also) when its done, i scoop out the grain into a couple of buckets to dump elswhere and wheel the rig outside.

I hose the mash ton and kettle down and give them a good scrub and pump out the slush.

I then pump half the hot water through the pipework into the MT then into the boiler nad out to the drain.

Repeat with the rest

then open all the taps and drain it all out.

Works great.

you should see the shit that washes out the first time with hot water.

I have been thinking of giving it a run with some keg cleaner. leave it in the pipes for 15 min and pump out with fresh water.

cheers

 

[fixa]

Easy Fixa ,

they came second !!

Pumpy

Just like the porn star who couldn't get work... h34r: h34r:

I know... hat, coat, door..

 

[lucas]

zwickle, thats amazing stuff! can you tell me about that card you linked to on ebay, I cant read German but I gather it allows you to switch on and off 240V to 8(?) devices controlled by a parallel port?

 

[InCider]

I reckon i'm gunna win the "High Tech" award...

I came across a new Space age high-volume pump at about a Tenth the normal pump size.

I was so impressed i bought 7 of them!!!! and a steal at $100 each!!

The bloke down the pub who i bought them off said just mount them to the bottom of the tank and when you want to pump the water out just turn the switch...

And it must be high tech cause theres no power lead..must be some sort of mini power pack somewhere in it..

The only thing is the bloke said its not the strongest pump as it wont pump any higher than the highest point you fill the tank...buts thats ok i will just make sure the tanks full when i use the pump.

Its amazing!! it so small and compact !!! If you didn't know better you would say it was just a ball....... valve...........

.......................... :blink: ................................uh oh.......

Iv'e just goto duck down the pub for minute....................... :angry:



Sqyre

I just got a call from Mrs Sqyre to come over and service the grain mill h34r:

 

[Zwickel]

zwickle, thats amazing stuff! can you tell me about that card you linked to on ebay, I cant read German but I gather it allows you to switch on and off 240V to 8(?) devices controlled by a parallel port?

yeah, youre absolutely right. Thats a card connected to the parallelport, bearing 8 relais, able to switch 240V 10A.

Relais1 switches the burner1 on and off
Relais2 switches the direktion of the stirrer (in my case, but u may use it fore what ever you want)
Relais3 switches the Programm over to burner2 to control the boil (by depressing the button Extra1)
Relais4 switches the burner2 on and off manually
Relais5 switches anything you want by depressing Extra2
Relais6 switches anything you want by depressing Extra3
Relais7 is unused
Relais8 is an alarm controlled by the "Braumeister call", you may use for a siren.

The "Braumeister call" you can define by yourself at any time or any event, the siren will yell

That card you may produce by yourself as well, its quite easy.

Cheers

 

[JoePolvino]

Mine is pretty low-tech. It consists of a couple keggles and a mag pump. Part of me wants to automate more of it, but then I think it would take away from the "hands on" experience I enjoy.

 

[Franko]

I still havent finished yet,
got to start on the control panel now

Hi-tech not yet but here's hoping

Zwickel youve just given me some more ideas (oh No) and now automation

Here's some pics of it so far
Youv'e got to love brewporn
Franko

 

[mika]

Stop Polishing it and finish it Franko !

 

[Zwickel]

wow Franco,

has your equipment ever been used?
It seems to me like something for an exposition or exhibition room, too shiny to use it.

What a pity youre going to use it for brewing beer

 

[SpillsMostOfIt]

Although Zwickel has clearly blitzed the field, I'm impressed with the effort (and number of ball-valves) a lot of people have put into their kit.

Perhaps I should have named this thread:

"What Size Vehicle Do You Need To Transport Your Brewery?",

or​

"How Many Apollo Missions Worth of Compute Power Controls Your Brewery?",

or​

"How Many Kilometres of Tubing/Cable are in Your Brewery?",

or​

"How Many Hours a Week Do You Spend Polishing Your Brewery?"

(For the record, my answers would have been: Smart ForTwo with space for passenger, I use digital scales, 1.5metre silicon tube / 6metre power cord, and [redacted]).



I guess it shows that while it is clearly all about the beer, this craft provides opportunities to play with all sorts of things. All cool stuff...

 

[Batz]

Not really high-tech,but does everything I need.





Batz