Brunken Dastard's Big Bad Brewery Build

[jamesb]

Thanks jenki, much appreciated.

I'll have a play. I can't justify the price of camlocks to myself yet.

 

[onelegout]

Ok so the pressure's on to finish this, deadline is the weekend! Got a 25kg sack of maris otter on the way from Paul at barleybottom.com and I plan to brew once a week for the next two months

Silicone hose is here, and I've done about 50% of the control box. I've never wired anything like this up before, in fact I've never really done any 240v wiring as such... If you see something that's not right, PLEASE let me know!

Left to do:
*Finish control box wiring
*Weld in mounting brackets for pump & Control box
*Cut holes for keg fittings
*Fit the fittings to the kegs.
*Test brew with water (no grain).

 

[unclepumble]

Ok so the pressure's on to finish this, deadline is the weekend! Got a 25kg sack of maris otter on the way from Paul at barleybottom.com and I plan to brew once a week for the next two months

Silicone hose is here, and I've done about 50% of the control box. I've never wired anything like this up before, in fact I've never really done any 240v wiring as such... If you see something that's not right, PLEASE let me know!

Left to do:
*Finish control box wiring
*Weld in mounting brackets for pump & Control box
*Cut holes for keg fittings
*Fit the fittings to the kegs.
*Test brew with water (no grain).

What are your chocolate blocks rated at can't tell properly but they look like 5 amp, to me if they are they will melt with a kettle element pulling 11amps+ for a long period of time!

UP

 

[onelegout]

I made sure to get 15amp ones - picked upthe 5amp ones by accident then realised thanks for checking :)

 

[onelegout]

Ok I need some advice.

I have two choices for the thermocouple setup on this rig.

1. Buy some thermocouples that are made to go through a bulkhead and be attached with a wingnut on the other side. The problem with this is that it will only sense the temp from around 10mm from the edge of the keg.

2. Construct my own thermowell....

The idea is to have a tank connector for 8mm copper pipe, with an 8mm pipe compression fitting. The pipe would go into the tank as far as I wanted, and have an end cap soldered onto it. I would then simply slide my type J thermocouples into the pipe from the outside until they touched the end cap. The benefit to this is that I can sense it from the middle of the tank, and don't have to spend more money on new sensors.

Will this work?

 

[jamesb]

It will work, but temperature response will be significantly slower.

Let's see a picture of the thermocouples you've already got.

 

[darrenwest1]

what size cable are you using there mate for the main feed
i personally would use 2.5 mm
looks great tho

 

[onelegout]

It will work, but temperature response will be significantly slower.

Let's see a picture of the thermocouples you've already got.

cool thats what I hoped.

Here's a pic of the thermocouples I've got at the mo.

And here's a pic of the thermowell I built for the HEX coil output.

Here's the coil before I had to redo it.

I had an old IC that I had built ages ago, just bent and cut it to fit. I'm not bothered about the restriction as I need it to be restricted to make the hex work properly.
If you want to solder the coil to the back of two tank connectors, you will need to drill out a 15mm hole using a blacksmith's drill. I don't have a vice so I fitted the connector backwards into a keg. This meant that I could drill it and if it spun round it would tighten up and stop. The result was superb, it soldered together fine (be sure to heat the brass tank connector more than the copper pipe as it has to get hotter to accept the solder).

what size cable are you using there mate for the main feed
i personally would use 2.5 mm
looks great tho

I've used 1.5mm, as it's all I could get cheaply. It should be fine considering each line has a max of 13 amps running through it, right?

H

 

[Vossy1]

Looking good onelegout

Looking at your control box, are all 4 SSR's driving elements?

 

[Lurch]

Those thermocouple leads are fibreglass with a stainless overbraid. Not the best choice for the application really.
They won't take very kindly to being moved and will need to be kept dry.
A better option would be ptfe or silicon, pvc would do at a push provided it was high temp.

 

[onelegout]

Looking good onelegout

Looking at your control box, are all 4 SSR's driving elements?

SSR1 = Element 1 live
SSR2 = Element 1 neutral
SSR3 = Element 2 live
SSR4 = Element 2 neutral

Those thermocouple leads are fibreglass with a stainless overbraid. Not the best choice for the application really.
They won't take very kindly to being moved and will need to be kept dry.
A better option would be ptfe or silicon, pvc would do at a push provided it was high temp.

Aah ok, thanks I'll see how it goes with them and change 'em if I need to. How do you mean 'don't take very kindly to being moved'? :)


Great news today!
Yesterday I brewed the first batch on the brewery! :)
I came across a few problems, most notably:

One of my PIDs does not work - the buttons for changing the settings don't work (although it just occurred to me that it could have a lock setting on!)

When lautering, bubbles are getting into the pipe going out of the mash tun. I really can't seem to work out why that is, but can only assume that it's coming from one of the fittings. Surely if everything's watertight, it should be airtight as well? :S

 

[Aleman]

Looking good onelegout

Looking at your control box, are all 4 SSR's driving elements?

SSR1 = Element 1 live
SSR2 = Element 1 neutral
SSR3 = Element 2 live
SSR4 = Element 2 neutral

:hmm: :hmm: That doesn't seen right to me.

My configuration is to have the SSR switching live only and the neutral line simply loops between the inlet socket and the outlet.

It probably will work, but is unnecessary redundancy . . .however when one of your PID's fails you will have a spare :lol:

 

[onelegout]

Yeah I had heard some horror stories of SSRs failing to on! Thought it best to have one on each leg, just to be on the safe side : )

I'm going to see if I can fix the second PID this afternoon, if that doesn't work I'll be looking for a new pair.

One thing I really want to add to the system is a pipe going from the side of the stand, straight down into the waste water drain, as it would be much easier to be able to have a hose fixing point for waste water.

After that, I've got to make some kind of hop strainer (had to use an old one I had lying around), a false floor, a sparge arm, and a return manifold. Lots more to do, but I was successful in making 7.5 gallons of hefeweizen! can't wait for the first taste of this one

 

[Vossy1]

Yeah I had heard some horror stories of SSRs failing to on! Thought it best to have one on each leg, just to be on the safe side : )

By using 2 SSR's aren't you increasing the chances of one failing ?
Has it been tested...thinking aloud, the PID only has so much voltage output to switch the SSR's, if it does

 

[onelegout]

The way I look at it, it's just insurance that if one fails to 'on', the other will still be switched by the PID and therefore turn the element off. I have seen quite a few other people using this system, and it seems to work fine for me : )
I just saw some pics of your setup, I'd like to put a cooling fan in the control box, does yours work off 240v? I thought most fans that size ran off a 12v supply like pc fans?
I'm going to make some changes to the brewery in my lunch hour, and hopefully brew again tomorrow, this time I'll take photos as I won't be so hung up on worrying if it will work

 

[Vossy1]

The way I look at it, it's just insurance that if one fails to 'on', the other will still be switched by the PID and therefore turn the element off. I have seen quite a few other people using this system, and it seems to work fine for me : )

I just saw some pics of your setup, I'd like to put a cooling fan in the control box, does yours work off 240v? I thought most fans that size ran off a 12v supply like pc fans?

Unfortunately it's a 12v fan, I've put a 240/12vconverter in the box just for the fan
I think you can probably get 240v fans but I haven't looked for them.

I'm going to make some changes to the brewery in my lunch hour, and hopefully brew again tomorrow, this time I'll take photos as I won't be so hung up on worrying if it will work

Tinkering with ones gear is soo much fun.....you'll get bored when it's all running smoothly :lol:

 

[bolty]

Just as an idea, could you use a bathroom extractor fan to do the cooling? They run on 240v.

 

[corby_brewer]

Just as an idea, could you use a bathroom extractor fan to do the cooling? They run on 240v.

i have one of these which im about to remove from the bathroom. If you local to northampton you more than welcome to it.

 

[onelegout]

Thanks for the offer! unfortunately I'm not local and I think it might be a bit overkill. Toying with the idea of running the fan off a 9v battery, I'll do some experimenting and see.

 

[darrenwest1]

what size cable are you using there mate for the main feed
i personally would use 2.5 mm
looks great tho

I've used 1.5mm, as it's all I could get cheaply. It should be fine considering each line has a max of 13 amps running through it, right?

H[/quote]
mmmm 1.5 will take a max of 15a but thats a short bit of cable and as your likley to be running it for any length of time i would keep a eye out for some 2.5 tq cable as its heat proof
its used on immersion heaters
it will be fine but 2.5 would be better