Introducing Brewton

[angus_grant]

Well tonight saw the maiden batch of beer out of Brewton. A S.M.A.S.H (single malt and single hop) beer with Barret Burston Ale malt and Citra hops. Smash made me think straight away of "Hulk Smash!!!" straight away so we have a Hulk Citra. It was going to be Hulk Cascade but I realised they were at Anna's parents place and I had come Citra in the fridge so used it instead.

Everything went very well. I had to improvise the sparging a little bit as I hadn't really worked out a proper pot rest, but Grant (zapper on this forum) had come over to grab 2 spare pot lids and helped me arrange things.

I ended up with about 24L of 1060 wort. Calculates out to 79% brewhouse efficiency according to the numbers from BrewMate. I'm quite happy with that. Up 9% from my BIAB efforts. If it is repeatable then I'll be happy for a while with those numbers. Not quite ready to chase efficiency gains down the rabbit warren yet...

Mashing setup.
I've got a towel on top to help trap in some heat. My PID code worked really well, although I might have to make some adjustments to the code when mashing out as the higher the temp gets, the bigger the gap between target and actual temp.

Recirculation during mash just started. You can see that it is very cloudy and barely able to see the top filter plate.

It's getting a little bit clearer now
It's getting a little bit clearer now
It's getting a little bit clearer now

Man that wort is clear. Beautiful!!

Extremely ghetto malt pipe stand. I had forgotten about this aspect and thought of something on the fly whilst mashing.

Citra in my hop sock.
Man, Citra smells good!!!!

Malt pipe after sparging. It was a bit of a tight fit with 5.5kgs in the malt pipe but I reckon I could fit some more grain in there. Maybe another 400gms or so. I think 6kgs would be pushing the friendship.

10gms Citra cube hop
yum yum.
I'll probably keg hop this as well.
ha ha....

The workstation.
Someone on AHB suggested it looked like R2 D2 and I think he is right. Maybe I should go for a name change????

24 litres of Hulk Citra!
Angus smash!! (when it is kegged and carbed....

 

[lael]

Congratulations! Must be satisfying to brew on it!

 

[Dan Pratt]

Week done, you made your rig and brewed your beer. You must be stoked. I'm glad you changed it from pilsner and cascade to ale malt and citra, make sure you dry hop it too.

 

[angus_grant]

Yeh, I'm sure everyone knows how satisfying it it when you plan and build something for 2 years. Already have a list of things to fix and upgrade.

Top voile filter is very thin and already has some splits in it. Might try and scrounge some more stainless mesh from somewhere.

 

[angus_grant]

The spare piece of mesh I have is slightly too small to cover the holes in the top filter plate. Was good to do the sparge on though. Distributed the water quite nicely.

Last runnings off the sparge were 1025. What's the recommended min gravity runnings?

Yeh, I got confused between the malts. I think cause it's bb ale malt and bb pale ale malt (it's not actually called pilsener malt). I do loooove citra keg hop.

 

[Dan Pratt]

When my sparge is finished I tend to get about 200mls into a tub that it rest on while the boils gets going, that is usually about the 1020 range +\- 5 gravity point from brew to brew. Make me wonder how much more sugar I could get from it but I have my preboil target volume and gravity made.

 

[angus_grant]

Yep, same Pratty. I calculated my sparge to end up with required pre-boil volume.

I didn't get much more liquid out of the pipe after setting it aside and didn't think to test it. But last bit of runnings coming out of pipe when resting on main pot was 1025 so probably a bit more sugar to extract. I'd like to increase my end-ferment volume so I can do some bottles to set aside as gifts for friends. So maybe increase my sparging to extract to 1015 and see what volume I end up with.

Would then need to do on the fly hop calculations to account for changed batch volume. Or just chuck some in and wing it. Ha ha.

 

[angus_grant]

he he, started ferment last night and I think I have set myself up for a cleanup. I only worked out last night that I had used a 25L cube so in fact had about 26L or wort.

Put it all my 25L fermenter so I have about 4 cms head-space for my US-05 ferment. 25L of wort at 1060 seems a bit higher than 79% to me when my batch volume was set to 23L.

Oh well, I've been meaning to buy a new 30L water barrel (Bunnings, SuperCheap, etc) for fermenting in. The one I currently use has a lip just above the tap so some yeast sits there and gets drawn into the filter I use. Just need to make sure it fits into my little bar fridge.

 

[angus_grant]

Code orange, i repeat code orange.
Krau-splosion imminent.



This is only 24 hours after pitching

 

[angus_grant]

So I guess I haven't done an update to this thread in a while. I ended up getting the largest stainless steel fry pan splatter guard I could find to replace the voile filter. The guard is not quite large enough to sit over my malt pipe, but seems to have held properly through another 3 brews.

I ended up giving my PID system a thorough workout with the dunkel weizen I brewed for the QLD case swap. 5 different temps in the step mashing, and the beer worked out better than I had any right to expect for my first DW. After talking to Parks and a couple of other guys I am going to extend the 72 rest to 15 minutes to add a bit more body in. If that doesn't improve things I will have to add in a 67 or 68 degree rest in the mash schedule.

So my next task is to programme in mash schedules as I manually set the temps and manually timed the rests for the DW. Tedious when I know I can programme this stuff in and get software to do it. Just to find time with a 2 year old and a 2 month old... Oh, and knock out a robust porter and a heffeweizen for winter. I don't really subscribe to brewing certain beers for certain seasons.

 

[Pirate323i]

I love your final design of the bottom filter/seal.
What sort and size of bolts did you use? Hex head or Philips pan/csk head? I am thinking of doing the same but cutting slots in the pot instead of 35 million holes...
Your setup is really looking great!

 

[angus_grant]

Honestly can't remember what type the bolts were. I would assume stainless Phillips head. I don't really need to crank down on the nuts for the bolts coming through from the seal. It is more just to get the stainless mesh to form a good seal against the bottom of the malt pipe to prevent grain escaping during pump rest.

Qld Kev has cut up a Big W pot (or at least some smaller pot) in the manner you are talking about. You could go through his posts and find it. I think he put photos up in the mammoth braumiser thread.

 

[LiquidCurrency]

Code orange, i repeat code orange.
Krau-splosion imminent.

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1396873313.581009.jpg

This is only 24 hours after pitching

What's happening here angus?

 

[angus_grant]

Some yeasts require a lot more headspace (empty space above your wort) because they form a massive krausen (foamy stuff above wort) during active fermentation.

Apparently Wyeast 3068 is one of those yeasts. It actually ended up puking out the glad wrap for a good 18 hours or so. Required a bit of clean-up and some sanitisation on the outside of the fermentor and inside my fridge.

Oh, and in answer to Pirate: I used stainless steel M4 bolts from Bunnings.

 

[Pirate323i]

Cheers!

 

[matt211181]

Thanks for the great info here Angus - I love your method of doing away with a separate bottom filter plate and just drilling holes in the inner pot's base......and the sealing of the malt pipe to the main kettle base is genius!

Just a couple of questions regarding your top filter plate. I think you're using a Whitworth's Veggie tray? (https://www.whitworths.com.au/main_itemdetail.asp?item=3175&search123=tray&intAbsolutePage=1)

Do you find that the tray bends at all when pumping? How thick would the tray be? It also looks like you don't have a separate cross-bar or anything bracing the tray or to pull down on the malt pipe? Are you just screwing a wingnut down on the central rod and this pushes the tray down onto the top edges of the malt pipe, and this seals the base and the top filter?

Great build!

Cheers
Matt

 

[angus_grant]

Yep, just using a SS fry pan splatter guard and whitworths veggie pan as top filter assembly.

No bracing or cross bar required. The splatter guard has never looked liked bending. I have a chugger and have run it full tilt with grain bill. I would guess 2mm or maybe 3mm.

Just a SS wing nut on the threaded rod clamping down on malt pipe sealing top and bottom

 

[matt211181]

Awesome. Too easy!

 

[angus_grant]

Well the single veggie tray has started bending. I have since got another veggie tray and sandwiched the mesh from a fry pan splatter guard between the two as the top filter. An idea I pilfered from xredwood's brau-build.

This works really well but I think I may have to invest in a metal plate or something to lock the malt pipe down as the trays are bending. Probably more to do with clamping force than upwards pressure from the pump. I cut up some silicon tube last batch to help seal so hopefully this will seal better and require less clamping pressure.

I also confirmed that my system will not do 6.3kgs of grain in the malt pipe. Wort foutains, stuck recirculation, blowing my bottom pipe seal 3 times, etc, etc. Back to 5.75kg max grist until I get my extended malt pipe working.

Work also continues on the mashing software to automatically read temps from the beer.xml mash schedule. This is probably 4-5 hours away from done. It's very hard to wrangle 4-5 hours away from family time. I'd love to have it done by Xmas but the Xmas break should give me enough free time to really knock it out..

 

[sgtpinky]

I just want to reply to this bit for other people reading this thread. An alternative approach if you want to use a spare laptop is to use an Arduino (or whatever), which is just a USB serial COM device, and then send/receive data to/from the Arduino with any software you like (Python, Java, .NET, C++,...) using a standard serial library.

It does work pretty well in managed languages like Java and .NET because you can quickly knock up a decent GUI in Swing using Netbeans or Eclipse, for example. It gives you the ultimate flexibility because you can have more complex programs, display temperatures as analog meters, whatever you want once you have the data.

There are people who are running brewery system using the Netduino (and Arduino) so the horsepower is there. It was more the hoops I was having to jump through to get temp reading (using beta firmware to get 1-pin working) working, and then an LCD display working, and then I would have had to run a network cable to brewery system to have uploads to database. Or try getting a wireless network card working. So solving problems instead of moving forward.

 

[angus_grant]

man, long time between updates.

I've now brewed 22 batches on Brewton including some high gravity Belgians, low gravity mid's and a bunch of IPAs, pale ales, and porters.

I've broken the whole system down to give everything a really good clean and it was looking fairly clean.

I've installed a longer threaded rod in preparation for a larger malt pipe for higher gravity brews. Am going to troll a few cheap kitchen shops for large pot so I can convert it to a malt pipe. Am going to look at getting a washer and nut welded to the threaded rod to improve this part of the install. It's the only bit which I don't particularly like. Has a habit of leaking a bit if the rod gets moved too much. I would prefer to use a big silicon seal captured under a nut which would do away with the need for plumbers tape.

On the software side, I am finally making the changes required to do automated step-mashing reading straight from the beer.xml file exported from Beersmith. This should allow fairly easy school night brewing. I can set the software to ramp up to mash temp so by the time I get home from work I throw the grain in. I can then comfortably get the kids fed and in bed, feed myself and it should then be mash-out time.

Also looking at adding in a small web-server component so I can review mash steps and temps remotely.

I've also built myself a new prototype brewstand (out of non-structural pine at the moment-he he) so this should improve clean-up procedures and make that a little quicker. Which is the most annoying bit of all-grain brewing, let's be honest.

On an unrelated topic, just bought myself a freezer so there will be a keezer project starting as well. Looking at 5-tap coffin setup, with space for a 6th keg carbonating and hump space for CO2 and some bottles.

 

[angus_grant]

Photo of the prototype brew stand. Made from cheap non-structural pine just to nut out my design. Once I've done a few brews on it and sort the design out I'll make it out of something nicer.

Four swivelling castors aide moving the stand around.
3 layers of cork tiles hopefully provide some insulation for the base.
Holes in the stand for skin fittings to poke down through and tubes from pump to connect to cam-locks on skin fittings.

Now for a leak test seeing as I've put everything back together. Hopefully a brew tomorrow arvo/night to test software changes and new stand.

 

[darren996]

Great thread Angus, your work on brewton has helped me with my single vessel system. Keep up the good work.

 

[angus_grant]

Thanks for the feedback Darren.

Huh, I have not updated this thread in ages.

Raised the brew stand to provide more gravity when filling cubes. I found that it stalled when cube was about 70% full. Seems to have fixed the problem now. Am looking at rebuilding the top part to be on hinges so I can tip the top platform and easily drain the system. At the moment I am tilting the whole brew stand which is quite heavy. Due to the location of my heating element I don't think a pick-up tube will fit in.

I have added a web-server component to my brew software so I can remotely monitor the progress, and this has been a real benefit. Can hang out in the house looking after kids or helping out and still have a brew running at the same time. One of the best features I have added. Or even monitor strike water temp from work when I have set an auto-timer for 5PM to I am ready to mash in when I get home. Sweet feature.

I am part-way through coding up automatic stepped mash controls as defined in the BeerSmith recipe. This will automatically step between the mash steps and will fully automate the mashing process.

I can then move on to the boil side of the process. I am currently still using my iPhone for timers which is a bit cumbersome. and obviously not automated.

Finally solved an interface bug that has been fairly hard to find. I am using a background thread to fire the element during the PID phase of heating. I had a line of code in an obscure function that was only called very intermittently. This code updated the user interface from the background thread which is a no-no unless done in the correct way. I was not doing it in the correct way.

Last 2 brews have been flawless with regards to temp control so think I have solved that problem.

Did a robust porter last night and hit all numbers and volumes so think I have my BeerSmith profile dialled in.

Will add a screenshot below of the website from my iPhone.

 

[angus_grant]

 

[darren996]

I am using the ardbir for control. It is a great piece of kit, but I would really like remote monitoring, and being able to montor temps is a great feature. Would you consider a two way ball valve on the outlet of your pump. You could switch from recirc when filling your cubes

 

[angus_grant]

Have you been reading my project plans Darren? h34r:

I got a counter-flow chiller from a mate and am going to plumb in a 3-way ball valve on pump outlet to flow up through malt pipe during mashing, and through chiller and into whirlpool outlet in main pot during chilling.

Do 3-way ball valves allow flow control as well? Currently my ball valve allows choking down pump flow during start of recirc to allow grains to get thoroughly wet and then I open the flow up 10 minutes into mash cycle

 

[darren996]

The ardbir does step mashing, this is one of the main reasons I got it. It will be a great feature on your system. I have noticed a great improvement in body and mouthfell in my weissbiers. Happy brewing

 

[angus_grant]

I've been doing manual step mashing with my system. Great improvement to my beers

I'm coding up my software to read the mash schedule straight from the beer.xml file and then run through it automatically.

 

[darren996]

I dont have one on my syatem but yes, 3 way ballvalve have flow control, but check before purchasing.
have a look at the q&a section on this linkhttp://www.homebrewing.org/3-Way-Stainless-Steel-12-Ball-Valve-_p_2765.html