Phase 2 brewery build progress shots

Here are a couple of pictures of the phase 2 brewery construction http://picasaweb.google.com/kevin.ladue/Phase2ProgressPictures, still need to finish RTD and thermocouple wiring, power and signal wiring is done. Final connections to boil keggle and mash tun are all that is needed before wet test and calibration of software.

That's out of control.

Holy cow! Have you been learning from BrewPastor???

That looks awesome!

I can figure out what about 10% of that is.

Can you tell us more about it? You are some kind of mad scientist genius!

That looks exactly like my setup.

Kevin, you are going to have to put a full build thread together when this gets done! It has been a blast watching this technobrewery come together

I think you are going to have to look into Bobby's keg polishing thread so those keggles match all that shiny stainless

Looking really good!

That is friggin awesome.

Wow, now you only need to unhook it and move it to the brewhaus in Bee Cave.

Too sweet! Looks like a nucleer ractor

Just curious, how much do you have invested in it?

BM, your frier is the same as mine. I got it on sale ultra-cheap at Sam's Club years ago and used it for bird frying and brewing. I never see that style with the big fat round stand for sale any more, though. I wrap my stand in foil, then around the pot as well, and it can heat to a boil very quickly that way. I have mine on 3 cinder blocks so air comes in from the bottom and the panel space where the hose runs in.

My setup has a black leather recliner that got evicted from the house, rather than a lawn chair. :rockin:

Brett0424 said:

That's out of control.

Click to expand...

i agree

The system goal is to be able to load hopper with malt and let equipment take care of crush, mash, boil functions with hop additions made by hand. As to the cost, you dont want to know, less than a B3 system, but spread over 2 years accumulating components on ebay. With a flash boiler i dont have to wait on a HLT to warm up as time to temp is less than 60 seconds from cold start, step mashing is done with steam injected into flowing wort and heat transfer is high enough that it can heat wort 30+ degrees at 1 GPM flow with out scorching. Here is the schematic and the analog control schematic http://picasaweb.google.com/kevin.ladue/BrewingSystemSchematic

Yuri is somewhere plotting his revenge you know!

So you pretty much push a button and beer comes out? Like a willy wonka machine!

Buy grain, load grain, push button, add hops as necessary, fill fermenters and clean equipment?

Hey, I've got an idea - let's play name that DIY brew gadget!

One of the future goals for the system is sequential brewing by swapping out and cleaning mash and boil kettles during operation so it would be doing the next mash cycle while previous batch is boiling. Production is directed towards making as many entries as possible in as many styles as practical for sanctioned competitions with the limited time available now.

Jezz man.. That thing is insane.! Good job.

I absolutely love the grain auger. Can you give some details on it? Where did you find it?

Outstanding!! Is that some sort of PLC control system? Automation is my line of work, just curious.

Duh...nevermind, just found the schematics.

BEAUTIFUL BABY

Here is a few pictures of the auger http://picasaweb.google.com/kevin.ladue/ScrewConveyor/photo#5188941875307268178

the inner part is 1 1/4" copper with 1/4" od copper tube wound around it and soldered full length, outer is 2" od stainless steel tube. Motor is 1/8 hp tefc with 1" drive and 2 1/4" driven pulleys which delivers malt to mill slightly slower than mill can crush it. What is not shown in pictures is the capacitive sensor at bottom of hopper for the hopper empty signal to the plc hardware. I should have used the opto snap series plc hardware instead of the G1 series and saved a bunch of time writing operating software in C++ as at last test run the code was about 30Mb and the GUI portion is not complete yet. After the brewing system is completed its on to building the carboy cooling and control system that can handle 8 carboys at a a time with individual temperature control and scheduling for ales and lagers. Have enough opto hardware just need a few more solenoid valves and some 12" square copper plates to form to the carboys with 1/4" copper tube for glycol cooling soldered to plates.

Here is the final system configuration pictures showing vent hood and system http://picasaweb.google.com/kevin.ladue/VentHood, still working on software as original application in C++ had issues with GUI widgets written in C#. Resident programmer has re-written entire application in Java and is still working a few last bugs out of the GUI portion, hope to begin final system tuning and automatic operation next weekend. Next step is to finish inside of brew shed and then design and build carboy cooling system with remaining hardware so I can control 8 carboys with individual temperature control schedules.

Too sweet! What a system!

That is too cool kladue
Any chance of seeing a video brew session of it in operation?

Cheers
BeerCanuck

Wow. I'm speechless.

Can you post a BOM w/ part numbers or part names. I'm particularly interested in what you're using for the flow meter.

Here is a list of sensors and valves used,

2Ea Honeywell S87D Ignition Module
2Ea Parker 24VAC solenoid valve
2Ea Honeywell Q345 Pilot Burner
5Ea Belimo B208 Ball Valve with LR24-SR-3-US actuator
1Ea Stec SEC 4400 Mass Flow controller / Boiler burner
1Ea Stec SEC 4500 Mass Flow controller / Kettle Burner
2Ea Malema M-10000 paddle wheel flow meter .13 - 1.3GPM (water to boiler, wort from wort pump)
1Ea March AC-2P-MD (Boiler Feed Pump)
1Ea Little Giant 3-MD-MT-HC (Wort Pump)
1Ea Swagelok SS-63XTF8 with M141DC actuator (wort flow diverting valve)
1Ea STI pressure transmitter 0-2 PSI (Water tank level)
2Ea Heisse Pressure Transmitter 0-2 PSI (mash tun & Boil kettle Level)
1Ea Mamac Differential pressure transmitter (False bottom pressure drop)
4Ea PT 100 Platinum 100 ohm RTD's (Mash, Boil kettle, Chilled wort, Coolant temps)
4Ea Type J thermocouples (Wort to steam/wort mixer, wort from steam/wort mixer, boiler inlet, boiler outlet temps)
1Ea Efector Capacitive level switch (grain hopper empty switch)

wow that's nuts.. I didn't see any water hookups, how are you getting water in and out?

Water, O2, and propane supply connections are on lower right hand side of panel under mashtun, CFC is glycol cooled and lines have not been run to other side of brewing area where chillers are. Wort exits CFC through O2 injector under mash tun and drops into carboy on floor, gravity flow as no pump was used in that wort flow path.

Seriously....just when I think I am getting the hang of all this crazy jargon....you come out with a thread like this...filled with words I have never even fathomed.....

Back to the damn drawing board....

Oh, and a pretty stellar rig at that!

its02003 said:

Seriously....just when I think I am getting the hang of all this crazy jargon....you come out with a thread like this...filled with words I have never even fathomed.....

Back to the damn drawing board....

Oh, and a pretty stellar rig at that!

Click to expand...

tons is over my head

I started all grain with a gott cooler mash tun, 7.5 gallon enameled pot, and a 5 gallon bucket with a dip tube and valve. Then i built the old steam rims system http://picasaweb.google.com/kevin.ladue/OldBrewingSystem and worked the bugs out of steam injection to recirculating wort. Now I have just about completed the automated steam rims system that should make it possible to do other brewday chores while the computer takes care of all the steps. This is not a technicaly difficult project for me as this is the type of work that i have done for quite a few years. The most difficult part has been the software code needed to operate the legacy (Old) Opto 22 plc hardware, still having a problem with GUI values not updating while I/O is running in the Java application, point binding looks right but points update once only.

Here are a couple of the control program GUI's that will be in use for this system Picasa Web Albums - Kevin - Brew System GUIS

You should consider buying a membership to the site. If you did, you could see the private thread on the GUI I'm finalizing now for my HERMs system...

What I/O hardware are going to use, and how many points?

LabJack U3-HV

16 Flexible I/O (Digital Input, Digital Output, or Analog Input)
Up to 2 Timers (Pulse Timing, PWM Output, Quadrature Input, ...)
Up to 2 Counters (32-Bits Each)
4 Additional Digital I/O
Up to 16 12-bit Analog Inputs (0-2.4 V or 0-3.6 V, SE or Diff.)
2 Analog Outputs (10-Bit, 0-5 volts)
Supports SPI, I2C, and Asynchronous Serial Protocols (Master Only)
Supports Software or Hardware Timed Acquisition
Maximum Input Stream Rate of 2.5-50 kHz (Depending on Resolution)

Do you plan on purchasing the interface modules or are you trying to engineer the necessary interface circuitry to use thermocouples or rtd's to measure temperatures.

What you are trying to automate is more advanced than what my app is designed to do, but it is somewhat similar. My app is specific to mashing and the boil.

I am not using thermocouples. Instead, I'm using the highly accurate temperature probes LabJack is reselling which read 10mv per degree - makes calculation very simple. The app controls six solid state relays.

I am now working with a friend who is an electrical engineer to create a specialized amplifier to properly be able to read a PH electrode as its output impedance is extremely high.

Ph probes generate a voltage in response to solution Ph (Hydrogen Ions), but you need a temperature compensation circuit to compensate for voltage increase with temperature. Watch for a Ph probe with built in pre-amp as that would save a lot of time and engineering, still would need temp compensation to correct probe output that would work with rtd's. Most of the Ph & ORP probes i have worked with use 100, 1000, or 3000 ohm rtd's for built in temperature sensor.

Thank you for the info. I have talked with one other engineer who has pulled this off, but I am not an electrical engineer - although I can write one hell of an algorithm... so I am confident I will be able to tackle this. I'm not ready to publically post the app but I'll PM you a few screenshots.