Husky's New 3V Brewery

[husky]

For anyone interested I have also had a chance to update the process drawing. Still need to incorporate some kind of flexible hose during kettle whirlpool that will also be load out to fermenter.

View attachment 00000-5000-P02-40L Brewery Model (1).pdf

 

[Crouch]

Well ... I was feeling pretty good about my build. Thanks.

Off to get beer from my fridge, and think about my plans ... hrmmm.

Bloody awesome looking setup mate, very jealous!

 

[husky]

Bit of progress. Didn't like the idea of drilling all the holes in the control panel so I cheated and laser cut a new one. Most equipment has arrived just finalising wiring diagram.

 

[husky]

Hey Husky

I'll preface my comments by saying that Im electronic (NOT electricaly) qualified; and its been a while since I waded through wiring diagrams on a daily basis. So please take my comments as food for thought only, and certainly not gospel

I ran through your wiring diagram and noticed a couple of things (first 2 are just being picky):

• The MLT PID is missing the 240V hot supply line
• The Volt meter would also need a 5Vdc supply (I would presume)
• The power keyswitch looks to me to be switching a voltage from the wrong side of the power relay; creating a vicious circle whereby you wont be able to power the system up! (someone feel free to chime in here and point out the obvious if Im missing something! ) You look to be sending the 24Vdc negative feed from the DC powersupply through the keyswitch to fire the 240V power relay - problem being the DC powersupply is itself powered from the output of the same 240V Power relay. My suggestion would be to change out the power relay for one with a 240V AC coil and loop the hot 240V input through the keyswitch and back to the coil as well (there is a wiring update on the Electric Brewery forum for 240V wiring which shows this).

In terms of your Power Supply question, you should have plenty of power coming into your house/switchboard, presuming you only have 1 switchboard (I think 80A is typical for a single phase feed to a house?....Any sparkies?????), you would just need a dedicated 32A socket and breaker wired from your switchboard to your brewery location. You would want a "single" feed into your control box, trying to use 2 separate 15A circuits is going to get messy (and dangerous).

Im currently working on a poor mans version of the Electric brewery (a staged version so I can get it through the ministry of finance) where I plan to do just that though (do as I say, not as I do!). But in my case Im building separate control boxes for each PID and element (3500W), which will run neatly of separate 15A powerpoints.

Good luck with the build; Im as envious as everyone else!

Cheers

Baz

Thanks for the input, corrected the issues mentioned. The volt meter apparently does not require a 5v input, will see how it goes. Easy enough to add another converter if required. Have an electrical engineer looking over the drawing this week so hopefully start the wiring next weekend. Ill put a final electrical drawing up once it has been given the ok.

 

[TheWiggman]

• The power keyswitch looks to me to be switching a voltage from the wrong side of the power relay; creating a vicious circle whereby you wont be able to power the system up! (someone feel free to chime in here and point out the obvious if Im missing something! ) You look to be sending the 24Vdc negative feed from the DC powersupply through the keyswitch to fire the 240V power relay - problem being the DC powersupply is itself powered from the output of the same 240V Power relay. My suggestion would be to change out the power relay for one with a 240V AC coil and loop the hot 240V input through the keyswitch and back to the coil as well (there is a wiring update on the Electric Brewery forum for 240V wiring which shows this).

I noticed this too. I deliberately did this on my MAME cabinet and had a bypass between the incoming active and the 24V (5V in my case) power supply. To switch the system on, I need to press a small button on the back which enables the power supply, activates the relay and puts the system in standby.
I have a two microswitches running in series with the 5V line to the relay which are mounted on the back doors. That way if an inquisitive kid/Wiggman opens a door the system shuts down and everything's dead.

In your case you could consider having a similar hidden switch to stop unauthorised turning on (i.e. you'd need to depress the switch and then turn on the power to fire it up). But if you're using a key anyway, you're most of the way there.

First class system by the way. I had to wade through a lot of "awesome"s to find updates. Looks like an unreal project, first brew will be a monumental occasion indeed. With some automated valves in there and a grain mill, Bandito would would swear he's looking into his future.

 

[bazfletch3]

I noticed this too. I deliberately did this on my MAME cabinet and had a bypass between the incoming active and the 24V (5V in my case) power supply. To switch the system on, I need to press a small button on the back which enables the power supply, activates the relay and puts the system in standby.
I have a two microswitches running in series with the 5V line to the relay which are mounted on the back doors. That way if an inquisitive kid/Wiggman opens a door the system shuts down and everything's dead.

In your case you could consider having a similar hidden switch to stop unauthorised turning on (i.e. you'd need to depress the switch and then turn on the power to fire it up). But if you're using a key anyway, you're most of the way there.

First class system by the way. I had to wade through a lot of "awesome"s to find updates. Looks like an unreal project, first brew will be a monumental occasion indeed. With some automated valves in there and a grain mill, Bandito would would swear he's looking into his future.

Nice little touch! I never thought of that

 

[husky]

Geez time gets away, motivation seems to come in waves and it turns out its much more time consuming than I anticipated. Hours of just sitting in the shed changing my mind 100 times before settling on a minor detail!. Getting closer so time for some updates anyway. Progress since last post:

• Electrical design finalised. Sourcing cable hopefully wiring up over Christmas holiday
• Conduits complete. Should be a full washdown brewery, tried to use IP rated instruments and sealed all cables. Gas burner will be only non washable and im regretting going gas already so may convert to electric at some stage
• New flow plate valve arrangement

Plans over Christmas:

• Wire panel
• make pump shrouds
• Design HERMS heat exchanger to replace the RIMS
• Source electrical junction box's to wire heating elements
• Re think how I get water into HLT
• Design some means of CIP. Thinking separate pump and spray ball mounted to removable lid
• Make spent grain tray to aid removal from base of mash tun
• Put down first brew. Ha....... not likely!

I have also managed to score a half descent PLC so contemplating making a second control panel in the future and learning some ladder logic. Will see how the brewery works first.

 

[MastersBrewery]

Getting close now! It's not that I want one the same, but I'd love to brew on it, just once! Can see the thought, work and quality that's gone into this.

 

[Mardoo]

Looking at your build I have only just now realized how tiny my dick is

Extraordinary work. I've never even realized one could do something like you have. My hat's off to you.

If you're building that system you'd WANT to dither endlessly about details. In your case that seems a virtue.

 

[Yob]

out of interest Husky, what do you do for a crust?

 

[Mardoo]

Fitter and turner comes to mind

 

[TheWiggman]

I'm thinking male gigolo. Just one of those bastards where all facets of his life every male is envious of.

 

[husky]

out of interest Husky, what do you do for a crust?

Process/Mechanical engineer. I design, build and install process in food and dairy on a daily basis. Usually on a much bigger scale, it's turned out to be quite challenging converting all the same practices and standards to such a small scale. Would be a piece of cake to design the same brewery for 20,000L compared to 20L.

 

[husky]

Ok so im in the shed tonight playing with gas for the first time. Some thinks ive noticed:

• Its going to heat the work quicker than my electric elements thets for sure
• Very distinctive smell of gas in the air. Hope this is normal
• Shame I cut a hole in the bench for the heater as to maintain a blue flame at the pot it needs to be a lot closer than I anticipated. Could be because I have the gas cranked right down so the flame is not rolling out past the shroud that I put on the base of the kettle
• Not as noisy as I was expecting either.

Just running a test to see how long it will take to boil then going to run the water jacket to see how long it will take to cool.

 

[lael]

Is that actually just a 20l system?

 

[husky]

Is that actually just a 20l system?

If I say yes are you going to tell me its overkill?
Its designed to do 20 or 40 batches. Since these days I enjoy brewing it more than I drink it, the size suits me well.
I'm more likely to do lots of different small brews than large volume keg filling brews.

Chilling testing underway:
5 mins tap water @25 degrees through kettle jacket gets me below 80 degrees in 5 mins which I'm happy with, I believe its around here that isomerisation should stop. Its been going nearly 20 mins now and I'm down to 45 degrees. Will take a while to drop from here with tap water so currently investigating a chilled water or ice bath set up. Overall very happy with tonight's testing!

 

[lael]

haha, if it looks *that* good, how could it possibly be overkill?

 

[husky]

Stopped water chilling at 40 mins with the kettle down to 35 degrees and only exchanging 1.3kW by this stage(186lph cooling water at 22 degrees into jacket and 28 degrees out). The 2mm stainless steel wall is very limited in terms of heat transfer. Still way better than the old 19L Big W pot in an ice bath for hours on end to chill since I can now recirculate during cooling to maintain uniform temp.
Using gas I noticed all the kettle surrounds, legs shroud and jacket gets bloody hot when boiling. 30 seconds into chilling and all surfaces can be touched again.
Played around with flowrates through the chilling but all up to get from 100 degrees to 35 only used around 150L chilling water that all went on the garden. Will likely be used for cleaning on brew day.

 

[djar007]

That seems like a while to cool husky. What is the temp of the water going into the jacket? Beautiful pics btw.

 

[DU99]

:icon_offtopic: Should get a pressure washer with the auto syphon feature....