Starting an Electric Brew control panel for AG brewing

[sjp770]

ahh, next time hey. Should have extracted a bit more from the grain as the end sg was a tad higher than expected.

 

[TheWiggman]

Nothing wrong with adding it afterwards if you know the amount but it needs to be (or should be) deoxygenated water. The big brewers do this. Do a search for 'high gravity ferment'.
But yeah, easier to do it in the fermenter.

ED: Good details here - http://aussiehomebrewer.com/topic/40747-crown-lager-clone/?p=575761

 

[sjp770]

Cheers, that may come in handy.

Got the stc 1000 up and running, set it to 18c with 1.5 differential. (It didn't stay like the pic)

Also managed to buy some nice stainless handles at bunnings. I have the receipt somewhere but the 6 handles set me back $50 or so.

 

[rockeye84]

Hey bro, great read so far, glad its all coming together for you.

Did you get your meters going?

 

[sjp770]

They are in the post as we speak. Still waiting on one lm317 to arrive as well. I'll chase that up now, once the meters are in I'll be 100% done with the panel.

 

[sjp770]

6 days in. No infection, SG 1.021

 

[sjp770]

Two weeks in. 1.019 SG. Chilled it down and it actually tastes OK.

Will rack it off to the keg on Saturday, might crash it to 0c Friday night.

Also I have my next brew lined up! Hahahahaha I'm a bit mad and didnt think the first one would make it. This next brew will address the biggest issue in my last brew, the volume wasn't enough!

Here is the grain ready for Sundays brew, and the hops... Oh the hops

 

[sjp770]

So I've transferred to the keg and I'm waiting on force carb to calm down.

I thought the volume was off lol

 

[mofox1]

How is the Auber "Timer for Beer Brewing" going?

It looks the goods, plenty of programmable events, reset button on the front (no additional push button needed) and simple relay output.. to light up the alarm when needed.

It's US$58 to get it here ($42+$16ph), so I'll wait and pick it up when the aussie dollar recovers a bit (or next time I do some drink & buying).

Unless there are eBay alternates?

 

[sjp770]

It worked really good. I need to understand the hop additions better though.

 

[sjp770]

Beer is inside and going, however the bronco tap uses 6mm tube which by rights should be 5m long. I have it at 0c and 12psi but all I get is foam. I upgraded the old chest freezer to digital with a TLZ10 controller I had left over from a Sfiligoi fish tank chiller.

 

[sjp770]

Planning a big 40L Pale ale batch tomorrow. Need to clean all the gear first so I might fit it all in or I might clean and then give up lol.got some more beer line, a refractometer, two buckets, 3x measuring jugs today. Still waiting on the sight glasses to show.

 

[sjp770]

Quite the day.. All seemed to go well though

 

[sjp770]

Help!!

So I dumped the yeast yesterday at about 18c, and I go to check on it today and I find the STC-1000 was still set to 1.5c! It hadn't programmed it correctly. Would the yeast be dead? Can I just add a new batch of yeast in a few days if it doesn't start to ferment?

 

[mofox1]

Nah - just warm it back to 18c.

They were cooled down slowly, so they won't be shocked. Should just pick up again once they get back to their "active" range. You'll have an increased risk of another yeast/bacteria becoming dominant in the mean time, but that can't be helped at the moment.

Relax, don't worry... yada yada.

 

[sjp770]

Cheers for that. It was at 9c this arvo its warming up slowly.

 

[mofox1]

That seems to be taking a long time... Do you have a heater (belt/lamp/etc) in there?

 

[sjp770]

40w incandescent bulb. I'll look at a belt on Wednesday. Its bubbling slowing today, is there a chance I killed some yeast? What would happen if I added two packets again?

 

[mofox1]

"No yeast died in the cooling of this wort...." (well, none that shouldn't have anyway).

40w should be plenty fine... any more and you'll just get bigger temp swings during a normal ferment. I suppose I'm not usually trying to warm it up by 18*, usually just from ~12 (ambient garage cube temp) to 18.

I'd say there's no point adding more yeast. You've already got 2 packets worth in there and it sounds like it's already active anyway. Feel free to ignore me if it's not going nuts tomorrow

 

[sjp770]

Cheers. Its bubbling away at 1 bubble per second right now. 12mm tube or so