Hazelwood Brewday

[Clint]

This is the vintage ale I kegged this morning. Like the Summer Breeze on the day of kegging, it’s quite murky looking. It’s dark brown and is nicely carbonated. The aroma is strong chocolate and then fruit, no alcohol is obvious from the aroma despite it being over 9%. The taste is also chocolate and fruit. There is a little alcohol but it’s subtle and definitely not giving away it’s potency other than a swimmy head one third of a pint in

I gave my wife a taste and cracked up laughing as she took one sip, then another, then smiled and took another sip. She likes it and wants a small glass later this evening. I’m going to take that as an omen. Wow, I’m starting to feel it now after half a pint.

I’m actually a little excited about this and starting to doubt it will ever reach a “vintage” age.

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Wasn't this sort of behaviour mentioned somewhere....?

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

Wasn't this sort of behaviour mentioned somewhere....?

It was

 

[Clint]

It was

Go sit on the naughty step....of the brew shed.
Contemplate the error of your ways...and reward yourself with SAISON! (or pilsner or pale or anything!).
Hooray!

 

[chillipickle]

Sending him to the brew shed Naughty step?
Like throwing sheep to the wolves

 

[Cheshire Cat]

Sending him to the brew shed Naughty step?
Like throwing sheep to the wolves

Like throwing wolves to sheep surely.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

Like throwing wolves to sheep surely.

One wolf - they’re all mine!

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

In posts #933 and #934 I noted that my shed cooling system was doing a good job but after several hours had started to frost up.

I noted my solution will be to introduce a “defrost” feature into my temperature control panel and that I’d most likely hack an electronic timer. If you’re interested, you can follow this little project here.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

First a short recap. I built a control panel for my brew-shed using ITC-1000 controllers (the whole build is covered in this thread from somewhere around post #300 if you want to know more). The key bit of information is that these controllers use a simple open/closed switch to switch on heating or cooling. I use the cooling switch to open/close valves that direct where coolant is sent - to the fermentation cabinet, to the brew-shed, or to the beer python. If neither the shed or fermenter want cooling, coolant always goes to the python.

The idea. My plan is to insert another open/closed switch in line with the controllers that during the defrost cycle will open and effectively stop any request for cooling getting through to the valves. This would mean the coolant is directed to the python and the heat-exchangers will gradually warm and defrost.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

How to effect this switching? Well I’m going to need something that has a timer or clock and can open/close two switches at a pre-determined time for a pre-determined duration each day (maybe more than once each day), automatically. I think I have just the thing to give me most of what I need right here.

This simple mains timer switch is programmable. It has a clock, it has a ready-made display/control panel, it provides up to 10 on/off cycles, it has a switch, and it costs £7.49. Result!

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

This is the inside. The board on the left is the display, control panel, clock, and “brains”. The board on the right is power and switching. It looks like there are 3 or 4 things I need to address electrically and then of course I need to fit it to my own control panel.

Looking at the circuitry it is clearly mains powered - I don’t want mains power presented on the front of my own control panel which is 12v.

The on-board relay isn’t suitable, it has only one switch (I’d hoped both live and neutral would be switched), and it’s a 48v relay.

I see the “brains” board is powered at low voltage and low power. This means I need to provide a low voltage supply and the output from the controller board will not drive a relay on it’s own.

None of this is a major issue but all need to be worked through.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

A couple of simple observations: the right voltages are already provided by the power board - can I reuse this?

There is a relay already being driven by the existing circuit - can I reuse this driver circuit?

Next step, this is a simple circuit so should be easy to draw up. I can see all the components fitted at the front. I can see all the tracks on the back of the PCB.

This is my rough circuit.

For any electronics folk wondering what’s going on in the centre of the bridge rectifier - my bad, it’s a zener diode for voltage regulation but I was a bit lazy drawing the component.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

The circuit looks better redrawn.

A few voltage readings at some test points I’m interested in. Two of them when the switch is on and when it’s off.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

So from the diagram, everything to the left of the 100uF capacitor is not useful to me, everything to the right is - although I will have to swap a couple of components to account for a 12v supply and to replace the relay.

I’ve ordered what I need, add £1.60 to the cost. Goods should arrive tomorrow.

More on this project tomorrow...

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

The delivery of components didn’t arrive until mid afternoon so I started today’s effort earlier by thinking about how I might fit the unit to my brew-shed control panel and decided I would have the defrost controls fitted to the outside (shocker!) and a small board on the inside of the panel that will connect to the electronics inside the box.

I removed the boards from the timer housing and with a hacksaw cut away the part of the body housing the timer display and buttons. This is it cut from the body.

So the bits I’ll be using are these.

The two white pins with screws in are the original fixing pillars that held the body together. I just cut them off with wire cutters and will glue them to the control panel so I have a means to fit it - you’ll see shortly.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

This is the defrost control panel reassembled and completed. You can see those pillars glued in on the close-up (I hope they hold ). I also replaced the nasty inflexible ribbon cable that joined the two boards.

 

[Clint]

You'll have a tongue like a Pharaoh's sandle after that lot!

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

Next I removed the components I won’t be using - I noted above I didn’t want anything to the left of the 100uF capacitor or the relay.

I replaced a couple of components with different values to allow the circuit to work correctly on 12v.

Finally, I fitted the new relay and glued it in place, along with the wires.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

The first moment of truth. Connect the two boards together. The power & switching board has a backup battery to ensure that things continue to run predictably after a power cut so in theory the clock will run...

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

The next test, what state is the switching circuit if the unit isn’t powered...

The meter is reading resistance and as you see there is none - the switch is closed as if this defrost system was not fitted. There are benefits for both options here but the circuit being closed (as opposed to open) is the best option for me because it would effectively fail in a way that keeps me in control - I can always turn off one or both ITCs to disable cooling if I want, I still have a choice.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

Next test, connect up power and manually switch defrost off and on...

On. You may just be able to see under the “4” the word “on”. You can also see on the meter that the relay circuit is open.

Off. You might be able to see “off” in the bottom right. Again, the relay circuit is closed.