New Brewery Build

homebeerbrewer said:

Nice and shiny! Although I have a small concern. All those threaded elbows and nipples and T's. How do you plan on cleaning and sanitizing?

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Not sure how our OP plans on it but I can tell you from experience swegelock fittings RULE!!! They come apart very easily. All ya need is a wrench! Careful though, if they have the dual wedge compression rings, as klaude pointed out to me once, stuff can get behind them so ya gotta clean it out very well from time to time. Looks like it can be taken apart easily with the compression fittings to get to the pipe thread parts. Man, it's so beautiful!!!

Grimsawyer said:

Careful though, if they have the dual wedge compression rings, as klaude pointed out to me once, stuff can get behind them so ya gotta clean it out very well from time to time.

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Ha, thats an interesting point and one that I would never of though about. Funny that swagelok (the company) are really into touting their (patented I think) double ferrule system as superior to the compitition, well maybe not in this case Mr. Swagelok

Single or dual ferrule fittings suffer from same problems, material trapped between tubing and fitting ahead of ferrules. With all the threaded connections you need to know about caustic cleaning and acid rinse to try and keep the system from growing major infections in the threaded areas.

rabeb25 said:

Actually The pictures are deceiving there is a knee wall 8"deep, and the wall that insets is about 6 inches in front of that. BUT, I actually rewired the whole house and moved the panel over one stud bay to the right, which gives me my access.

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Glad to hear that. That is such a great looking setup. Scratch that, its EPIC!

kladue said:

Single or dual ferrule fittings suffer from same problems, material trapped between tubing and fitting ahead of ferrules.

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That makes more sense , bit of Chinese whispers going on there I think!

Where did you get you valves?

lazybean said:

I got a question for you Rabeb, It looks like you built the walls over an existing electrical panel.

If you did, how are you ever going to get to it?

Also NEC code requires a working space 36"x30" in front of all panels. (110.26(a))

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Yeah... I was wondering the same thing! Above is "before" and below is "after":

I think he said earlier that the knee wall and new framing looked deceiving in the picture and that there is room to access the panel.

i also thought he said he moved the panel

rabeb25 said:

Actually The pictures are deceiving there is a knee wall 8"deep, and the wall that insets is about 6 inches in front of that. BUT, I actually rewired the whole house and moved the panel over one stud bay to the right, which gives me my access.

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You're correct.

yup. I missed that when I read through here.

Sweet set-up, man....

Well another week down, and it feels like no end in sight. I got to do some work though, and take some steps backward.

worked on some more plumbing:


Started to work on the control panel, and decided to retro fit a pc in it:


Of course on the final test fit I broke the touch controller, so now I have to source another one of those

Got the brewery tv hung, it will double as a second monitor for the gauges, and also be hooked up to the house feed (cable, gaming, dvd server):



Thats about it for this week, its slowly coming!
Bryan

temp display on the TV? damn, you've got my vote.

where did you get your stainless tubing and what did you use to bend it?

Oh man, that just keeps gettin cooler and cooler everyday

Just got on the awesome train!! Killer man Killer!!!

Maltose said:

temp display on the TV? damn, you've got my vote.

where did you get your stainless tubing and what did you use to bend it?

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yes, please, do tell!

Thanks guys


I got my tubing from mcmaster, and bought a swagelok bender off ebay.

Unbelievable.............Your a true craftsman!

Holy **** batman! Impressive brother. Keep it going!

Well another week gone and passed, and we are still progressing. I !think! I got all the plumbing done, well I should say hope, because I am running out of room! All I have left is the temp sensors, but they sent me the wrong compressions so I have to wait to get the new ones.

Got my pressure sensors started, so I just need to tweak everything, but I think it is going to work as is.

Next weekend I hope to start working on electrical, High voltage first, then low voltage stuff.

Here are the pictures for this week:

Plumbing finale:


How I will fill fermenters:


Re-worked the reverse osmosis fill to use a tri-clover for easier removal:


Pressure sensor pickups for the BK and MT:




Got the HERMS hex mounted in the HLT/BK with tri-clamps for easy removal:



Thanks for all the positive feedback... Its a ton of work.. but I don't have to tell you guys that!


Bryan

That looks like a ton of work just to try keeping clean. Very impressive setup, way to go!

put that browser in full screen mode! Awesome build.

Wow!
I've been lurking around here, just reading and learning, but I've got to come out and say beautiful work!

This is something you expect to see in a Beer Co CEO's mansion.

I will be in Minneapolis for 3 1/2 weeks starting the middle of September. Can I add the Drunken Parrot to the breweries that I plan on visiting?

freakin awesome buddy

Well another weeks bites the dust, and I am not seeing any end in sight. This week I was supposed to get the wiring started but.. I didn't. I didn't get a chance to go pick up the wire, so I was stuck working on what I had here. Plus I found some plumbing issues that need to be fixed. So I put together my pressure sensors, and re-did plumbing this week.

Nothing much has changed, but here is an overall of the brewery:


Pressure sensor work:


Re-done pluming and Pressure sensors installed:


Overall:


Bryan

Wow, impressive. I tried tracing you pluming to imagine the operation and got lost. All in all way to go, definitly one of the coolest builds I've seen here

We are not freaking worthy :rockin:

Spent this weekend on control panel wiring. Got everything set in place, got the controller wired up, along with all relay boards and whatnot (low voltage stuff), got the 220v 50 amp service all in the box along with the relays. I went with SSR's on both hot legs of the 220, and got it all wired back to the controller. I still have to wire up the valves, pressure sensors, and temp sensors. I am trying to come up with a good clean way to do so. I lost my 120v distribution block so I have to wait for the another one to ship before I get the 120v in the panel. Its amazing the hours that get eaten up in this panel.. I probably have 20+ into to nothing. Also got my elements into the BK, but thats about it for this week.

Control Panel as of Today 8/8/10:


Crawling to the finish line....
Bryan

This rig is beyond impressive.

I'd like to know more about your pressure sensor setup.

Looks like a classic bubbler setup, aquarium pump for air source, metering valves to regulate bubble rate, and freescale pressure sensors. The challenge will be how to scale and zero the readings in the software, and apply density correction formula to result to compensate for SG and temperature. Curious as to whether it will be built around a labjack driver for the usb interface card.

kladue said:

Looks like a classic bubbler setup, aquarium pump for air source, metering valves to regulate bubble rate, and freescale pressure sensors. The challenge will be how to scale and zero the readings in the software, and apply density correction formula to result to compensate for SG and temperature. Curious as to whether it will be built around a labjack driver for the usb interface card.

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Holy ****e Batman!!! I feel like I'm watching the "Big Bang Theory!" Did you pull the absurdness off the top of your head?!

I am also curious about the cleanup. When you're done brewing, you're "brew day" is only going to be like 1/3 of the way done. Awesome set up though!:rockin:

I spend about 50 hours a week managing industrial instrumentation installation projects and have built a PLC control based brewing system.

Well Finally have an update:

I was having crazy problems, which I won't even get into. I was VERY close to scrapping the project(which is why there have been no updates). But as of today, I can open and close valves, and turn on and off pumps. Still working on pressure sensors, but as of today 95% of the plumbing is complete. All I have left is an auto-fill valve for the reverse osmosis. I have been running water tests and it looks like it *should* work.. the brewery that is!

Plumbing as of today:



Brewery:


Have a few lbs of homegrown hops calling my name for a harvest ale.. so hopefully I can get stuff sorted out soon.. Inaugural brew day of October 2nd slated.

I expect you have been having problems with trapped air in the plumbing causing the pump to cavitate and quit pumping when you start up.

That is beautiful!!!! Can I come up for brew day?

kladue said:

I expect you have been having problems with trapped air in the plumbing causing the pump to cavitate and quit pumping when you start up.

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No actually it is/was sensor issues, the pump is working great.

HopHead24 said:

That is beautiful!!!! Can I come up for brew day?

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Certainly!

What kind of difficulty did you have with the temperature sensors?, I am looking at an ARM based automation platform with the 1 wire sensors.