Single Tier, 3 Pump, BCS-462, Automated Rig

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JonW

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Here's my new single tier Brutus style build. I've used the BCS-462 controller for the pumps/valves/temp probes. The BCS is mounted to the garage wall and is also used to control the temp for my serving fridges (2 kegerators) and my fermentor fridge (3rd kegerator). There are 3 CAT-5 data jacks on the back of the rig that are plugged into the BCS on the wall. One CAT-5 for the temp probes, one for the gas valves and pumps, and one for the liquid SS ball valves. Check out the next post for a liquid flow diagram.

Burners are natural gas. I ran a dedicated 3/4" gas line in my garage and have a 1/2" ID gas line with QD that the stand attaches to.

The finish on the stand is a high temp powder coating. I was running it for a while with no finish, but it starts to rust pretty quick. I've only fired it up once now that the coating is on it, but it seems like it should last pretty good. The powder coat is rated for 1200 degrees.

Yeah, I know, 3 pumps seems like overkill, but with pumps now available for $100, it really just simplified the setup when using the electronic ball valves. It also lets me setup for doing back-to-back brew sessions where I can be mashing brew #2 while I'm still finishing up brew #1 in the BK. I like to do continuous recirculation on both the HLT & MLT, so this handles that nicely as well.

Updates done since original posting:
- changed to SS QD's (Morebeer ones w/ Brewers Hardware full flow barbs).
- Swapped out pump heads for Chugger SS versions.
- Moved gas control valves from rear to front for easier access.
- Added tippy dump. This helps greatly on double brew days for fast swap to batch #2.
- Changed spark igniter system to hot surface igniter system.

Current Configuration
Brew_stand_0.jpg



Tippy Dump view (See separate thread on Tippy dump here: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/tippy-dump-blichmann-mash-tun-266852/ )
Tippy5.JPG


Front view - no kettles
Brew_Stand_1.jpg

Front view - with kettles
Brew_Stand_2.jpg

Therminator/Chiller view
Brew_Stand_3.jpg

Pump/Valve view
Brew_Stand_4.jpg

Burner View
Brew_Stand_5.jpg
 
Here's what the new stand looked like for the first few shakedown brews. This is with Love controllers and all manual valves. This is also before the powder coating.

Brew_Stand_Rev_1.jpg

Herre's what my old system looked like before the new rig:

Old_Brew_Stand_1.jpg

Old_Brew_Stand_2.jpg
 
holy crap...i didn't know I was slumming it opening and closing valves with my hands on my stand...nice rig.
 
Wow, that is a beauty. I love the automation and how everything is very well thought out. Awesome rig.
 
the blingmanns have a built in sight glass. you can see it barely behind the hoses!
 
I believe he's wondering how the BCS reads volumes for automation.

Wow, Im stupid...One to many pints for me. After seeing his 2,000 posts I should have known this.

Sorry sawdust
 
Great Rig!
I love the 3 pumps for simplification. I almost went that route, kinda wish I did.
Congrats on a great build.
 
What did you use for gas control?... A standing pilot? Any safety mechanism for a blown out pilot?
 
Fantastic work! Look great!

Can I ask, what did you use to draw up this?:

17795d1289104347-single-tier-3-pump-bcs-462-automated-rig-brew-rig-v10.jpg


I need to do some similar pictures...

Kal
 
How are you measuring volume?
As GillandCo said, I'm using the sight glasses. I fill my MLT with the necessary volume I need for the strike, then I (over) fill my HLT for more than I need. When I fly sparge, I collect my pre-boil volume in the BK based on the sight glass.

I'm looking at adding some adjustable float switches that I may try and calibrate to the sight glasses. I have some ideas for making some that would clamp onto the outside of the sight glass cover area. When you adjust it up/down, you would re-clamp it at the appropriate mark on the sight glass and the float switch would be inside the kettle at the same corresponding level.

I'm big into home automation, thus the reason I went this direction with my BCS & ball valves, but I'm not interested in setting something up for hands-off brewing and really have no interest in doing bubbler systems, pressure sensors or anything like that. Currently, monitoring levels is a very minimal issue for me, but again, I may address it in the future with some float switches.


Very nice Jon. Where did you get the 1/2" stainless pipe at the bottom?
The SS tubing was bought on Ebay. There were a few places that had it in 4 - 6' sizes.


What did you use for gas control?... A standing pilot? Any safety mechanism for a blown out pilot?
The gas valves are the simple solenoid ones from Valves4Projects on Ebay. I'm using standing pilots with them. I brew in my garage, so it's fairly protected from the wind, thus no real issues as of yet with the pilots. However, I do think I will continue looking for some gas valves that I can use with an electronic ignition system.

I do not walk away from the garage much when I'm brewing, so the risk at this point is minimal.

Fantastic work! Look great!

Can I ask, what did you use to draw up this?:

I need to do some similar pictures...

Kal
I use Visio for my drawings. I sometimes use odd shapes and group them together to make things like pipe fittings and such.


Thanks everyone for the kind comments. Building a brew rig is as much fun as brewing itself!
 
I'm looking at adding some adjustable float switches that I may try and calibrate to the sight glasses. I have some ideas for making some that would clamp onto the outside of the sight glass cover area. When you adjust it up/down, you would re-clamp it at the appropriate mark on the sight glass and the float switch would be inside the kettle at the same corresponding level.

Great setup:mug:
The float requires too much engineering;)
Use a capacitive prox switch or optical sensor clamped to the sight glass and connect to your BCS and done..

Cheers,
ClaudiusB
 
Great setup:mug:
The float requires too much engineering;)
Use a capacitive prox switch or optical sensor clamped to the sight glass and connect to your BCS and done..

Cheers,
ClaudiusB

+1 Claudius, with no way to simply read the voltage from a pressure sensor that is how I would do it.

I'm big into home automation, thus the reason I went this direction with my BCS & ball valves, but I'm not interested in setting something up for hands-off brewing and really have no interest in doing bubbler systems, pressure sensors or anything like that. Currently, monitoring levels is a very minimal issue for me, but again, I may address it in the future with some float switches.

I can appreciate that. Just an FYI: If you use wet pressure sensors like Kladue does there is no need for a bubbler. The bubbler is only needed if you are measuring how much the air is compressed by a volume of liquid. If the sensor is wet there is no air hence no need for a bubbler.
 
Sure, but I just fill it to a mark on the sight glass based on the recipe I'm doing. I then put many more gallons than I need into my HLT (I use the extra during cleanup). When fly sparging, I'll adjust my valves just a bit to match runoff rates, but I'd like an automated float switch (or similar) to trigger the end of the fly sparge process so I don't have to do it on the BCS at that point.
 
I was asked for dimensional data on the stand, so here is the Visio layout I created before it was welded up.

The idea of the corner gussets was two-fold: one was to prevent heat wash from coming up the sides of the kettles and two was to allow a more flexible footprint for various sizes of kettles. When I started this, I was using the kettles from my first stand (shelving unit) which included two keggles and a 20G short/wide kettle. However, I knew that at some point I might be moving to Blichmann's, so I wanted a flexible footprint for the kettle support area.

Brutus-10-JW-V6.jpg


edit: OK, I linked the image in from an external source, so now it keeps it larger!
 
I'm also working on some alternate screen layouts. I'm trying to create an optimized layout for using on a widescreen computer or laptop so that all controls can stay in view.

BCS_Custom_Screen2.png
 
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