Starting an Electric Brew control panel for AG brewing

[sjp770]

Seen them referred to as tri clamp and tri clover.

Ordered some orings for that type of connection and accidentally ordered Teflon instead of silicone.

I'll get my first brew out before I do anything more I think.

 

[bazfletch3]

Your next system.

Next.

?!

Some people can't be helped.......

 

[Crouch]

Some people can't be helped.......

I looked for help once ... didn't find it.

 

[sjp770]

http://www.auberins.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=430

For anyone looking to build one of these panels this looks good.

As far as progress goes I ran out of clips again today but I'm very close!

Wiring is messy and I'm missing the neutral run for the ssr's and some links on the hot and neutral rails. Also still waiting on the heatsink...

 

[Kshadlow23]

Sjp770 where did you get your box from for the electric control box
I am geting all my parts together just need a box

 

[sjp770]

Local electrical wholesaler. Its an NHP steel panel, about $120-$150. Look hard though, I found some for $30 but couldn't pick them up.

 

[sjp770]

Mostly finished the panel now. Did a test run of one element and ran two batches of boiling water through the boil kettle. I then used the water with some cold water to cycle through the lot with some TSP.

Only things to do on the panel is fix the temp probes on the first two vessels as they aren't reading right, look at why the element indicator lights arent turning on and do the amp / volt meter once I buy them again.

Here's a pic of the rolling boil

 

[Camo6]

I wired up my 'element on' leds off the switching circuit fro pid to ssr with 240v leds not realising the output was only 12v. Duh.
Build looks to be coming along nicely mate. Look forward to the completed pics.

 

[mb-squared]

looking very good. keen to see your finished project!

 

[sjp770]

Here's a pic

 

[sjp770]

Thanks Chris. Bit of a weird place to advertise, someone's personal build thread but I'll forgive you if you head over to theelectricbrewery.com and check out their labels. We have another her member that purchased that complete set from the states for $55usd delivered. Beat that and make it a standard package price and I'll add it to the first page of my thread when I go back through and itemize every cost for the setup thus far.


Otherwise... Choose your advertising spots more carefully is all I can say there.

 

[Superoo]

Thanks for the info mate and sorry for the weird placing, I thought this was the correct spot.

I'll go over to that thread and do so, and will look at the pricing.

Am just removing my post now...

thanks again...

Chris

 

[sjp770]

No probs, I'm keen to see what pricing you come up with. I do need a set of labels! Note it should be adapted for Aussie use (240v in)

Its working !!

I need to straighten up the switches too. Also order the panel meters.


Well I did some troubleshooting and fixed my element lights (I'd mixed up neutrals - hot from light one went to element output 1, but neutral went to element 2). Also the alarms weren't working as I needed to wire hot to the COM pin on each PID. Confusing as com was neutral on the timer. Might fix that when I tidy the cable up.

Here is a video with the alarm going



Only need 7m of heavy duty silicone tube now before I can brew.

 

[sjp770]

OK its brew time!

Pre boil SG is 1.040, expected 1.046, but I have no Litre markings in my vessels yet so I think that's pretty good.
Last runnings from sparge : expected 1.010, actual 1.016

Time to boil!

 

[sjp770]

So when I took grab from the dregs it was 1.062... Far to high.

Such a small batch doesn't come up to the temp probe of either the boil kettle or the fermenter..

My immersion chiller was ineffective due to the low level of the wort and the higher placement of the heater. I ended up dumping the wort into the fermenter at 50c. Its chilling down now before I oxygenate it then dump the yeast. I completely forgot the whirlfloc too..

It will be a miracle if the beer makes it! But hey, its my first.

 

[sjp770]

Got the temp down to about 25c so I went to aerate it with O2, when I touched the blow off tube it sucked up the sanitizing water into the fermenter.. not sure how much if any got it.

Anyway, no point stopping now. I bubbled O2 for a minute and the dumped the yeast. Ive set it to ferment at 18c, i'll check tomorrow if it needs a heater as well. I still need to flash my STC1000 to the plus version so I can try to heat and cool.

 

[sjp770]

Ordered the last parts for the panel. I grabbed replacement meters while eBay had a 15% off sale.

Also grabbed some rails from bunnings for the panel. Not the same as kals but stainless all the same.

 

[sjp770]

Some pics. In the last one you can see the dodgy temp probe placement.

 

[sjp770]

Fermentation has started, it was at 11c this morning and bubbling slowly. I realized I had dumped 15g of citra at 40 mins instead of 20 mins so it will be a fair bit more bitter I guess.

I'm rigging up a heater at lunch today with the stc1000. The controller I had setup was a cool only one, so I'll replace it and hopefully fermentation gets more aggressive up near 18c


Oh, and if I lost too much in the boil and my abv is too high at the end can I add boiling water to the sanitized keg, seal it, wait for it to cool before transferring to bring it down to normal?

 

[a1149913]

Good read man, usually make up lost volume into the fermenter before fermentation starts.

J