Grain basket

[johnnyboy1965]

Has anyone else used a plastic bucket for a grain tube?
I'm getting bits together to make a GF clone. Probably end up with a system similar to the Brewster. I'm using a Burco Cygnet 30l urn and am in the process of building a controller using an Arduino. The only part I'm struggling with is how to hold the grain. I guess the commercial systems use custom made grain tubes. I thought about 2 options, first is to get a large stock pot and drill holes in the bottom. I think a 19l pot would do. Feel a bit bad about spending ���£20 - ���£30 on a pot then putting a load of holes in it. Option 2 would be to use a plastic bucket. I've used a modified bucket as a kettle so I know they can withstand the temperature. I'd be interested to hear from others who have used plastic. My concerns are; how easy is it to sterilise the outside of the bucket and would the paint wear off and get into the wort.

Like this. 6 years old and stiil going strong

 

[Greystone]

That looks like the sort of thing I'm after. Is there any science behind the pattern of holes?
My 25l bucket is too big to fit in the boiler. My local home brew shop does a 3 gallon bucket, about 15l I'll try that for size. My only concern is will it be big enough to hold the expanded grain. I don't anticipate brewing any really high gravity beers so will probably have a max. grain bill of about 6Kg. Is there a rule to work out how much liquid the grain absorbs and what the actual volume would be?

 

[Greystone]

Bought the 15l bucket yesterday. It fits perfectly with about 3/4 inch gap all round. Only problem is the spatter guard is just a bit too big to fit inside, annoyingly it sits about an inch from the bottom. For the time being I'll cut slots in the bottom of the bucket and use my BIAB bag.

 

[Bigcol49]

Hi!
Will your FV stand on "legs" inside the Cygnet? You could use SS bolts and nuts.
If you trim the splatter guard to fit the FV, you could cut a hole in the base leaving a shoulder for the splatter guard to sit on.

 

[Greystone]

Hi Bigcol,
The guard has (had) a SS rim with a handle. I cut the handle off but can't do anything about the diameter.
I'm using an old rack from a microwave/ grill to sit the bucket on. It's too high at the moment so I will have to bend the legs over to get the right height. The spatter guard could sit between the bucket and the rack but it would be a bit fiddly. I've seen the SS screws used on a YouTube video but that was on a Stock pot not sure it will be OK with a plastic bucket, there will be a lot of weight on a small area. Another option I thought about was to bend some thick wire (bucket handle) to form a hook and hang the bucket from the rim of the urn.
Still have to come up with a way to lift the bucket out of the urn after the mash.

 

[Tuizner]

I use a false bottom to stand the bucket on (raised clear of the pickup by SS bolts = 70mm)

Keep my handle on the bucket to lift out.

Also I use a stainless hop spider (mangrove jacks) to rest the bucket on (spider sits on the FB) for sparging....

Mind you this is with a 15 gallon pot so I do have room....

 

[Greystone]

Been a bit of time since last post. Started building controller. Based on Brauduino. Spent most of the time understanding the "sketch". I had played with the Arduino a while ago but this is far more complicated than anything I'd done before. Tried it last night on my urn half filled with water. Set control to 50 deg C. Controlled between 49.75 & 50.25. Compared with thermometer looks about right. Bit of advice for testing the system, don't use a kettle, it heats up too quickly & doesn't control very well.
Had a look at the Adrbir sketch seems to be a bit over the top. Should I upgrade to Ardbir, would it work with an Arduino Uno & 16x2 display?

 

[CptSlow]

Hey Greystone, Tuizner, I'm really interested to see how your PP plastic FV turned out as a grain basket. I am planning to do exactly the same - 3mm holes and possibly some SS mesh above them. I had thought of using a cheap SS stock pot, but it sounds like a nightmare to drill holes in them.

 

[Druncan]

Seems like I am going down the same BIAB+ route,,

My old Young's 30l FV drilled and inside a 70l (45 x 45cm) induction compatible SS pot with 5 holes punched so I can add pumps/probes or heating elements. With another hole in the lid for re-circulation.

Just cannot decide on disconnects, Tri-clamp, Cam & groove or JGuest or just barbs?

 

[Greystone]

Hi CptSlow,

Not THE Captain Slow?
Anyway I'm a way off testing my bucket, concentrating on making the controller. I need to satisfy myself that the temperature regulator is working ok before I run a mash with the setup. As I mentioned in the last post initial tests are looking good. If anyone has used the Arduino PID library I have started with kp=100, ki= 0, kd= 0 and a window of 3500 ms. I'll spend a bit of time tweaking it but it seems ok for a single stage mash.

Hi Druncan,

Can't really offer advice on connectors, I've just graduated onto silicon hose and jubilee clip (barbs). I guess it's down to budget. From what I gather tri-clamps are best for cleaning but are more expensive. By the way will you be using an induction hob to heat your pot? Not sure if you have an Aldi supermarket on Tiree but they are selling a 2KW induction hob.

 

[Greystone]

Hi Druncan,

Just checked Google Earth Didn't realise how remote Tiree is. I thought it was nearer Oban. Is that the island with the great beaches?

 

[Druncan]

Hi m8, yes that's Tiree! Remote and Pretty beaches, but no trees. Bit of a pain when you need a 1/4" BSP T piece tho :lol:

Yup they are a bit too price. Got a buffalo 3kw though, it's the mutts!

 

[Greystone]

Just getting back on track after a few family issues. Built the interface for my controller using veroboard. I am using the basic Brauduino sketch to run the system, as mentioned before I thought the open Ardbir was a bit OTT. Don't need to choose between gas & electric or different languages. I've done a couple of test runs but found a few anomalies: I set the no. of stages to 1 but when run it only does a "Mash-in" after which it asks to "Add Malt?" when I press yes it goes straight to "Remove Malt". Does this mean that I have to select 2 stages for a single mash and set the Mash-In to zero if I don't need it? The other thing I noticed was that the pump runs during the boil. I expected it to stay off after the mash had finished. Any advice greatly received.

 

[Fil]

Just getting back on track after a few family issues. Built the interface for my controller using veroboard. I am using the basic Brauduino sketch to run the system, as mentioned before I thought the open Ardbir was a bit OTT. Don't need to choose between gas & electric or different languages. I've done a couple of test runs but found a few anomalies: I set the no. of stages to 1 but when run it only does a "Mash-in" after which it asks to "Add Malt?" when I press yes it goes straight to "Remove Malt". Does this mean that I have to select 2 stages for a single mash and set the Mash-In to zero if I don't need it? The other thing I noticed was that the pump runs during the boil. I expected it to stay off after the mash had finished. Any advice greatly received.

Yes

    if(i==(nmbrStgs-1)&& autoEnter){   // at the end of the last step pauses to remove the malt pipe before the boil
        remove_malt();
        if (!(autoEnter))break;

If only 1 stage is set numbrStgs=1, But the For loop hasnt completed a cycle so 'i' the loop counter hasnt incremented and is still 0 , 0==1-1 evaluates as true

bug?

 

[Greystone]

Thanks for the reply Fil. I had a play with the system today and it looks like the Mash In stage is fixed. The stageName char is in a list so any setup will start with mash in & end in boil.

char* stgName[] ={
"MashIn","Stage1","Stage2","Stage3","Stage4","Stage5","Stage6","Stage7","Stage8","Boil "};

I had a few glitches which seem to be related to crap in the eeprom. First the default value of the Stage1 temp was 4096 (0FFFh) then it didn't alarm to add hops. I had to set the temp to zero before setting the Stage1 temp because the set values were in increments of 0.19, 0.34, 0.59 & 0.84 instead of 0.0 0.25, 0.50 & 0.75. I changed the number of hops then returned it to my original setting of 3. It then worked ok. Is there a bit of code to clear the eeprom? I thought the data would be cleared if I selected NO at the resume stage.

 

[Fil]

throw a few debug statements into the code to trace activity and watch values while you run through a few brew scenarios perhaps.

I only had a quick look and im quite rusty these days, but i did spot a couple of 1 line semicolon terminated for loops, which make an easy trap for indented code edits which will be executed without the conditional test.

for clearing the eeprom i would look at the example sketches for eeprom support . it was jabbas brewery programming thread over on Jims where matho first shared his project (in the uk) that introduced me to arduino etc so Im far from expert.. .

 

[foxy]

I just had a thought.... dont come along often.

Couldnt I just use a PP fermenting bin as grain basket? similar to the peco boilers... drill some 1mm holes in the base

One system I made up, I did just that, worked a treat.

 

[Greystone]

Hi Fil,

Bit annoyed that there is no debugger in the Arduino SDK. My previous experience with micros was with the Microchip PIC family. Their SDK includes a useful debugger. As the Arduino is essentially a type of PIC I would have thought that they would include some way of monitoring the contents of registers, variables etc.
I suppose I'll have to use the serial monitor.
I'll have a look at the thread on JBK.

 

[nigelnorris]

SS baskets are about a fiver on AliBaba, do you reckon if we all club together we could raise an order for about 10,000?

 

[Greystone]

My PP Seems to have stood up to two mock up mashes without any signs of degradation. Even left it in whilst testing the boil. My only concern is whether any chemicals will leach out.