Introducing Brewton

Australia & New Zealand Homebrewing Forum

Help Support Australia & New Zealand Homebrewing Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
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.
 
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.

ImageUploadedByAussie Home Brewer1434190577.344476.jpg
 
Great thread Angus, your work on brewton has helped me with my single vessel system. Keep up the good work.
 
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.
 
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
 
Have you been reading my project plans Darren? :ph34r: :D

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
 
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
 
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.
 
angus_grant said:
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.
 
angus_grant said:
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.
The advantages of doing it yourself rather than purchasing a control unit
 
First trial brew tomorrow night using automated step mash controls. Have run a few trials and all seems to be working OK.

Another run of my "menthol pale ale". Slightly smoked...
 

Latest posts

Back
Top