New Rig

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Andrew

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OK, so I've posted a couple of pics of my new AG rig in the gallery. :D

Silly question I suppose, but when I go in there a whole lot of other detail is there for editing the album. Do only I see it, or is there something I'm supposed to do to clear it, ie have I finished the setting up of the album properly or what?

Cheers
:chug:
 
Andrew, that is one goddamn sweet set-up you have there :eek: . Where is the green with envy smilie??? Did you build that yourself or is it a bought job? Can I ask how much it all cost you? Man you you are going to make some fine beer with that!

- Snow.
ps- we can't see all the editing stuff, only you can.
 
Andrew - WOW what a system - looks like Middleton now has a micro. Am down at Horseshoe Bay next Easter - wouldn't mine dropping in for a tour so I can aspire to this stainless steel work of art. B)
 
That is an excellent system. Man Im more tha jealous.
To reiterate Snow, is that bought or homemade?
Lucky , lucky brewer.

cheers
 
Yes that is one cool system andrew! B)
Have you brewed on it yet?
 
Thanks for that Snow, I'm new to all this picture uplink stuff...

Did I build it? Sort of.... its a long story...
My Wife's uncle is a winemaker, owns a winery in the Barossa and likes nothing more than a decent beer at the end of a long day.
I say to him that I'm getting back into homebrew and does he still have a few spare S/S kegs lying around that he doesn't want (they use them for transfer/topping up wine barrels).
Sure he says, but we can do better than that. We'll get some bits through the winery and I know a bloke who welds up wine tanks, he says. Build it proper, it'll only cost about 20% more.... We'll build it up at the winery then move it to your place, you make the beer and we'll go halves in output....
I now brew in 40 litre batches, a keg for him and a keg for me. How much did it cost in total? I have no idea, I have no access to the winery balance sheets... and I'm not sure I want to.
Non brewing friend who have seen it don't believe me - they think it's some sort of drugs lab or something!

Many thanks also to Greg Lehey who set up my computer controlled fermenting system, which I then adapted to control brew temperatures also.

Free 'tours' available, but I often work odd hours, need lots of advance notice.

Cheers!
 
Hi Jayse,
two brews so far, a standard ale using 100% JWM trad malt and Thames valley 11, and a Kolsch last week.
Cheers
 
Wow Andrew just to reiterate that is a very nice looking piece of work. I would put it in the living room not the shed :p

Do you have any info on your computerised temperature system? I have a spare PC and could really use some decent temperature monitoring! What software/probes do you have and where from. Also did you buy an analog input card or something for the PC? :ph34r:
 
water cooled brewing frame? :blink
Great work! hows the thames valley II?

Jayse
 
:eek: That's an AWESOME setup Andrew! :eek:
I don't think there's an AG brewer here that's not green with envy.
Interested to know more about the PC controlled side of things.
Hoops
 
that is one amazing system!! before seeing it i wasnt sure how to spend any future lotto winnings. now i know.
joe
 
G'day all,
now that i'm back home, I'll try and answer a few questions...
Jason, if I put it in the lounge room the missus would kill me. The reason she was willing to go along with me and uncle building this rig is that it got me brewing in the shed and out of her kitchen...
Jayse: water cooled brewing frame? yup, its called 'overkill'. I can connect it to the same hoses that the CFWC uses.
The Thames yeast... early days yet, only 9 days old, but very fruity so far. Of all things it reminds me of Chardonnay in the monster tanks at about 1 week old. VERY fruity, almost pineapple like. Primaried at 18.5 deg C and now secondarying at 15.5 deg C (optimum temp for the Kolsch yeast sharing the same freezer). Ultimately time will tell and will have to get back on that one. Prior to this my favourite was 1968 London special bitter, so that's a gauge on my leanings.

Now, about the computer stuff, lots of interest there. If interested, grab a beer and read on. If not interested, well, grab a beer anyway!
I run three old computers (a pentiumII 350, a Pentium 133, and an AMD k6 350). The AMD runs a laptimer program for a monster 26 metre long 4-lane 1/25 scale vintage slot car track from the 60's in my shed - but thats another story...beer and slots go together well, ask any bloke who lives within 500 metres of me...
One pentium runs the fermenter temp controller system, the other pentium runs the rig temps.

1. The rig. I bought from Oztronics a temperature logger kit http://ozitronics.com/kitlist.html#k145 ($34.50+GST)and 3 extra temp sensors, ( http://ozitronics.com/kitlist.html#ds1820 $12 each+GST) making 4 in total, for HLT, mash, sparge water outlet temp, and herms outlet temp. The software to run this is on a windows '98 platform is free on the 'net from Oztronics.
You solder up a small bord that hold a chip and stick it in a small plastic box from Dicky Smiths, attach to the serial port on your old computer, and using security cable also from Dicky Smiths, solder and heatshrink the DS 18S20 temp probes and connect to the box. I hope to post a pic of this circuit soon as if you can't understand circuit board diagrams its a bugger to work out what bits to solder where.
I put the temp probes in 1/" brass or stainless tubing (available from model hobby shops) and crimp the end to stop liquid from getting in and shorting the circuit. And away you go. You can read and log data from your brew rig as you brew. A screen shot is in my pic gallery ( my mash temp over 90 minutes is varying by 0.12 of a degree, must look in to fixing that... makes you sick huh?). I hope to eventually take the .log data from these probes and read it fro VB code and make decent use of it.

2. The computerised fermenter controller.
This is a bit trickier. It uses the same temp controller package as explained above sending data to the serial port, but you also need kit 74 or 74A (assembled, best bet) (http://ozitronics.com/relay.html#k74) from Oztronics to take the temp data from the fermenter(s) and use it to turn relays to turn your fridge/freezer and heater on/off. I run a chest freezer for cooling with a brewpad (remember those) inside it for heating.
Here is the nasty bit. The software to run this is excellent and free, its from Greg Lemis. But its not in 'Windows'. It uses a platform called FreeBSD to operate from. Hence the separate computer to run it from. Greg loaded the thing up for me one afternoon over a few beers. Its beyond me really, but its brilliant, rock solid no crashes etc, and works a treat. For more details visit his site at http://www.lemis.com/grog/brewing/temperature-control.html
I can completely control my ferment temps to within 0.15 of a degree. For example, I can auto set my sytem to ferment initially at, say, 23 degs for 12 hours, then gradually drop to 18.5 degs over say, 2 days, followed by 18.5 degs constant for the next week.

If anyone has a digital camera ( I dont) and can make there way down here at the right time I could do some more pics...

In the meantime I still have 1.2 metres of 300mm diameter 2mm thick 316L grade stainless steel tubing left over. The uncle wants to cut it in half, get some spun cones from WEMS welded to it and turn them into 2 mini- homebrew unitanks but I dunno...

Cheers!
 
:eek: Thanks for the explanation Andrew. I don't know whether I was more gobsmacked before or after it... simply awesome!
 
Awesome Andrew.
Computers, brewing and stainless steel.
Need say no more.

Doc
 
Sweet, will be thinking about upgrading to this baby soon (well the temp monitoring part at least) :)
 
Can't help myself ... ordered all the gear today ... hoping to be a digital brewery in the near future! :p May even have a crack at a program to run my brewery as much as I can. Just need some automated valves and I won't even have to be there!

Cheers Andrew.
 
Onya Jason!

If like me you don't really understand the circuit diagrams that come with these kits, use a picture of the finished board from Geg Lehey's site to make sure you solder the capacitors etc in the right way around...

And if you use soldering flux, use some lighter fluid or something the clean off the residue so it doesn't rust....and use a low powered soldering iron... and...jeez, have I ever learnt from mistakes with this puppy!

Cheers
 
Jason,
Can you give us an idea of the design, parts used, prices, sources etc.

Cheers
Roach
 
Hey Roach, most of the details are on page 1 of this thread.
Cheers
 

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