building an (semi) automated brewcontroller

[Wez]

Certainly is impressive :thumb: (brewery and your English!)

 

[Aleman]

I really love this . . . might have a word with a plumber friend and get a pair of gas valves for my beastie :) . . . .

Of course the bit I'm really interested in is that stirrer for the mash tun . . . . I want something similar to stir my HLT on the femtobrewery

 

[prolix]

I love it mate, keep the installments coming as wel as photos of that kit.

home made temp probes I love it!

 

[Muddydisco]

Keep it coming! the more I read the more I want one :twisted:

 

[A T]

. . . . I want something similar to stir my HLT on the femtobrewery

Are you planning on having the water well mixed before it gets into the mash tun Tony :lol:

 

[Vossy1]

Love the home made temperature probes Zwickle, very professional job :clap:

 

[ano]

. . . . I want something similar to stir my HLT on the femtobrewery

Are you planning on having the water well mixed before it gets into the mash tun Tony :lol:

To make sure you have all your liquor at the same temperature I guess.

 

[Aleman]

. . . . I want something similar to stir my HLT on the femtobrewery

Are you planning on having the water well mixed before it gets into the mash tun Tony :lol:

To make sure you have all your liquor at the same temperature I guess.

That's basically it . . . The HLT will be on a timer and PID controlled . . . I just want to make sure that all the liquor is at my strike temp . . . without waiting for it to happen 'naturally' through convection

 

[commsbiff]

Zwickel, your English is absolutely fine. I think we all understand exactly what you mean. I only wish my German was that good. You have certainly achieved a lot in your brewery, and many of us are envious! Keep up the excellent work :thumb:

 

[A T]

Yea this is a fantastic thread :thumb: and you English is as good as mine

 

[Wez]

Yea this is a fantastic thread :thumb: and you English is as good as mine

Maybe even a tad better?

 

[Screwy]

Thanks mate, I hope do not bother you all too much with my pitiful english

G'day Zwickel,

Good to see you helping out the UK boys :thumb:

Cheers,

Screwy

 

[Zwickel]

ahhh.....Screwy old mate, nice to see you here on board :

I see, we´re the "United Beer Lovers" it´s a very small world we live in, isn´t it?

@all, thanks a lot for the positive resonance, the thread will be continued very soon.

Cheers

 

[jamesb]

Are you planning on having the water well mixed before it gets into the mash tun Tony :lol:

To make sure you have all your liquor at the same temperature I guess.

That's basically it . . . The HLT will be on a timer and PID controlled . . . I just want to make sure that all the liquor is at my strike temp . . . without waiting for it to happen 'naturally' through convection

Which never happens consistantly. Which is why I recirculate mine for 15 minutes before mashing. There's a 5deg differential in my HLT.

 

[Vossy1]

Which never happens consistantly. Which is why I recirculate mine for 15 minutes before mashing. There's a 5deg differential in my HLT.

Ditto. I only recirc until the temp comes back to strike, usually about 5 mins.

 

[Aleman]

But If I stir the HLT while heating I won't need to recirculate the liquor when I come to use it . . . . I was thinking of a 12V wiper motor, with a simple blade on a shaft . . . . the femtocontroller has 12V supply out . .. . Or I can use 5V for a slower rotation.

 

[Vossy1]

But If I stir the HLT while heating I won't need to recirculate the liquor when I come to use it

You will lose heat to the pump and associated pipework though, if the liquor hasn't been recirced through it.

I was thinking of a 12V wiper motor, with a simple blade on a shaft . . . . the femtocontroller has 12V supply out . .. . Or I can use 5V for a slower rotation.
But If I stir the HLT while heating I won't need to recirculate the liquor when I come to use it . . . . I was thinking of a 12V wiper motor, with a simple blade on a shaft . . . . the femtocontroller has 12V supply out . .. . Or I can use 5V for a slower rotation.

Like it ...though about the mash/doughing stirrer yet :hmm:

 

[ano]

But If I stir the HLT while heating I won't need to recirculate the liquor when I come to use it

You will lose heat to the pump and associated pipework though, if the liquor hasn't been recirced through it.

Wouldn't that be a bit more of a predictable/consistent loss though?

 

[Vossy1]

Wouldn't that be a bit more of a predictable/consistent loss though?

Depends where you brew I suppose. My equipment can be near freezing in winter due to brewing outside. The loss could be negligable anyway, was just thinking aloud.

 

[Zwickel]

yeah, a sufficient stirrer is a very important thingy on the brewery, I call it the homogenizer

here are two parts they would do the job:

at right thats a frequency converter (230V in, 3 phases 400V out) that controls the speed/rpm.
With that, one can control the motor from almost still standing until high speed spinning.
The motor is basically used to operate a garage door, found it very cheap on ebay.
For mashing, the motor is set at around 60 rpm and later for cleaning it´s spinning at around 250 rpm, so the caustic soda is splashing to everywhere.