Brunken Dastard's Big Bad Brewery Build

[unclepumble]

1 SSR for the live one for neutral, :nono: sorry but that's plain silly, you have twice as much to go wrong and It will take you twice as long to fault find should one fail, and you are just putting extra strain on your PID output therefore thats more likely to fail than the ssr's Just use 1 per element to switch the Live.

As long as the SSR'S are securely fitted to a heat sink they should last years


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[onelegout]

The reason I used one on each leg was this advice from Phil Robbins' site.

You'll see that I only break/make the live feed to the element with the SSR. To be sure that the element is completely isolated you could (and arguably should) also break/make the neutral with a second SSR.

The SSRs are fitted with small heatsinks made for graphics cards/old processors; just items I had lying around. I'm going to fit a fan to ensure good airflow over the heatsinks : )

 

[unclepumble]

If you have decent electrics your neutral is tapped into earth, therefore should provide no potential.

You should still only need to switch the live, if you need anything to be dead when working on it, unplug it first.
The only time the element will become dangerous is in a fault condition, if you get a fault condition, it won't make any difference what you have switching.

If you want true saftey, RCD protect the lot and earth bond all your vessels and the brew stand.


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[onelegout]

Ok but having both live and neutral switched isnt a huge problem at the mo is it I really dont fancy redoing all that wiring lol!

The two mains rings that the control box is plugged into are both RCD protected, and the keggles and brew stand are all earth bonded together and to every one of the plugs earth lines, so if anything went wrong element wise it should in theory trip the RCD on the fuse board... I think! Is that right?

 

[darrenwest1]

yes that is correct

 

[onelegout]

cool that's good to know I'm trying to think of how I can make the whole thing a little safer, mainly waterproofing/splashproofing the electrics. First step is to get a shroud over each element plug. For this I was thinking of just a bit of plastic guttering pipe over each plug, but I can't work out what to do for the control box.


Good news is that the second PID isn't broken, bad news is that I just spend a load of money on Type K Thermocouple plugs and then realised that the new type K thermocouples aren't watertight like they are supposed to be. I've now gone through three different sensors, all of which have been pants.

 

[Lurch]

I'm assuming your PIDs can't accept pt100s?
Anyone buying a PID for brewing should make sure that they get one which uses PT100s or silicon sensors. My experience from the industry is that unless you have a very good reason to use a thermocouple then you should go for platinum sensors. Good reasons include the need for ultra fast response (so a grounded junction or exposed thin wire) or ultra high temperature.
For our purposes here there is absolutely no good reason to use a thermocouple and they are such a PITA that they are best avoided.

 

[onelegout]

I tried to buy a PT100 probe from virtual village, it turned out to be neither a PT100 or a thermocouple. My PID's spec says it takes PT100 but I've got 11 sensors now, and have spent so much money! Can someone link me to a good sensor that can be fixed through the keg wall without hassle? Preferably a k type thermocouple as I've already spent the money on the plugs/sockets for K type thermocouples!

 

[Vossy1]

Have a nosey here
Personally I'd also say go for a PT100 for the same reasons as L. A T, and a few others use these, and A T's very happy with them. They won't break the bank and Aubers service is great :thumb:

 

[onelegout]

Aah that looks perfect for what I need. Do you know if they come with lock nuts? I can imagine that NPT threaded nuts will be hard to find in the uk...

 

[onelegout]

AWESOME!
Just awesome.


That is the only way I can describe the wheat beer that I'm sampling right now. It's the first batch brewed on the HERMS brewery, and it is so bloody delicious I'm having trouble believing that I actually brewed it. I'm 99% sure this is all because of dechlorinating the water with campden tablets, as I've never brewed beer this good before. It tastes EXACTLY like krombacher weiss, seriously I can't tell the difference between the two!

I'll be kegging this tomorrow then brewing another batch, probably a bitter with EKGs, but it depends what hops I find in the freezer (forgot to order more in!)

If the next brew is like this, I'm going to cry with happiness, thanks for all your help guys!

 

[Vossy1]

:party: :clap: ...there's nowt like that feeling :drink:

 

[onelegout]

Ok so it's been some time since the first batch was brewed, and I've had big problems with the pid controllers - today however I've finally sorted it all. The pid controller can now hold 0 gallons of water at 66*c for as long as I want, within 0.3 degrees!

Time to clean it all and get ready for brewing :)

 

[Muddydisco]

:wha: how can you hold 0 gallons of water surely it's air?? :lol:

Good luck witht the upcoming brews :thumb:

 

[onelegout]

Haha I meant 10 :) Thanks MD I'll hopefully be brewing on it soon!

So now that the brewery is functioning as it should, I can start work on getting it perfect. I will be replacing the kegs with some of those nordic stockpots from france, and hard plumbing everything in stainless, but that won't be until next spring unless I win the lottery in the meantime

For the time being I'm going to just paint the frame, get rid of all dirt and rust, clean every inch of it and brew lots and lots of great beer with it :) This is the fun bit; I've finally got it all working and can concentrate on making it look good :)

First job is to strip down the rusty steel frame, and paint it with good thick rust-proof hammerite. I decided to use hammered finish paint as it shouldn't show bumps/scratches as much as smooth paint would.

Before:

First coat done:

Tommorow I'll paint the second coat, then get to work cleaning up the kegs.

Anyone got any tips on cleaning out 10 gallon kegs and pumps?

Also, where can I get KM8 locknuts? Mine went rusty!

Cheers,
H

 

[onelegout]

Just got one of these on ebay for £15
The PID won't fit depth wise, but I'll either fix that by spacing it out with some sort of control panel fascia or I'll mount the PID in the side of the box. Not sure which way I'm going to do it yet, are there any companies who laser-etch control panels?

 

[onelegout]

Control panel is getting there :) Just got to work out how best to mount it! I might mount it in a way that it can have a clipboard bit on the top of it for brew day notes

 

[homers brew]

Awsome build mate...very thorough design process and very well done for picking up so many new skills - electrickery, and weilding in one project. :clap:

 

[onelegout]

Getting there! :)

 

[onelegout]

It Lives!

Just need to get 2 28mm (PG21) cable glands to fit the bigger holes. The pump cable and PT100 temp probe cable will go through one of them, and the other is just a spare used to plug the hole :)

H