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I gotcha. That's what i had pictured. I'm no expert, but I think what P-J is getting at the risk is if your GFCI trips, for whatever reason, you still have 50A 240V service in your mobile cart. Seems a lot of folks are mounting an outlet in the spa panel to power everything. It's your build and safety and you need to get the blessing or sign off from whoever you trust about your design. If you mount the outlet, fed by your main, mounted an outlet in that spa panel, powered by the first outlet, you'd still have a mobile system depending on how you mount your spa panel. It creates that distance of safety that when/if your breaker trips, the power is cut at least several feet away. You can still accomplish your design and keep the breaker away from your controls. Just a thought.

I went the control box route, but it's powered from a breaker to an outlet, spa panel has an power cord to plug into that outlet for juice, and the output of the GFCI is another outlet. The control box has a power cord wired into it to power the box/components and it plugs into the outlet in the GFCI panel. When/if I move, I just need to take the spa panel off the wall and unplug it. Simple.

Power distribution is really simple and clean with a couple terminal blocks. I don't know anything about the load center for distribution.
 
jtkratzer said:
I gotcha. That's what i had pictured. I'm no expert, but I think what P-J is getting at the risk is if your GFCI trips, for whatever reason, you still have 50A 240V service in your mobile cart. Seems a lot of folks are mounting an outlet in the spa panel to power everything. It's your build and safety and you need to get the blessing or sign off from whoever you trust about your design. If you mount the outlet, fed by your main, mounted an outlet in that spa panel, powered by the first outlet, you'd still have a mobile system depending on how you mount your spa panel. It creates that distance of safety that when/if your breaker trips, the power is cut at least several feet away. You can still accomplish your design and keep the breaker away from your controls. Just a thought.

I went the control box route, but it's powered from a breaker to an outlet, spa panel has an power cord to plug into that outlet for juice, and the output of the GFCI is another outlet. The control box has a power cord wired into it to power the box/components and it plugs into the outlet in the GFCI panel. When/if I move, I just need to take the spa panel off the wall and unplug it. Simple.

Power distribution is really simple and clean with a couple terminal blocks. I don't know anything about the load center for distribution.
Click to expand...

Interesting... My understanding was that when the GFCI breaker trips there is NO power going past that GFCI breaker. If there is then that is definately my misunderstanding. I can easily add a plug to the SPA panel so that the cart can be unplugged from the SPA panel as well as the SPA panel being able to be unplugged from the main 50A receptacle. That way I can keep the SPA panel further away from the cart instead of mounting it inside of the cart. That is no big deal. I'm not in a rush and I am still researching/planning/learning and just looking for feedback.

I was just hoping to save some time by using a load center/sub panel to distribute power across the breakers instead of building my own like you said. Your right its no big deal to make one myself but for 20-30 bucks I saw some at HD/Lowes and was wondering if they would do the same job and allow me to just pop the 4 breakers right in the load center.

I got the idea for the load center from this build and I was thinking I could just apply it on a larger scale with 4 breakers but I am still researching.
http://www.instructables.com/id/Electric-brewing-system/
 
If the spa panel is in your cart and that's where the GFCI breaker is, then you still have hot wiring in the cart, even if the breaker trips. Sure, that wiring is before the breaker, but it's still there. If your cart gets wet, you won't have a way to cut all power to it unless you unplug the spa panel from your receptacle or trip the breaker in the main panel.

I believe this is why P-J's e-stop works the way it does when you have an external spa panel to trip the breaker and cut power as far away from the brewery and control panel as possible.
 
jtkratzer said:
If the spa panel is in your cart and that's where the GFCI breaker is, then you still have hot wiring in the cart, even if the breaker trips. Sure, that wiring is before the breaker, but it's still there. If your cart gets wet, you won't have a way to cut all power to it unless you unplug the spa panel from your receptacle or trip the breaker in the main panel.

I believe this is why P-J's e-stop works the way it does when you have an external spa panel to trip the breaker and cut power as far away from the brewery and control panel as possible.
Click to expand...

thanks for the clarification. I didn't think of the back leg of the spa panel and that makes good sense. I will be leaving the SPA panel out and away from the mobile cart then. The ESTOP will still be in the mobile cart and easily accessible on the front.
 
My father stopped by to help me carry the brew stand and hood back down to the basement after painting as well as hang the hood! we did some smoke testing and that 6" vortex sure can suck!

 
I had long tri clover ferrules welded in to my BK and HLT today. i was a little nervous but for no reason. the welder did a great job and they look fantastic. I will be using the brewershardware.com element adapters with this.
weld1.jpg

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Looks like your welder did a very nice job. Interior surface of the kettle looks pretty darned good.

I'd like to learn how to TIG someday. Maybe I'll bribe the sanitary welding guy at my plant with a couple mini-kegs.
 
yeah it turned out really great. Smooth as a babies bottom. I was describing what I wanted him to do as most people just weld the inside ferrule to come in to the kettle a bit and he was like no no no. i'll just weld it to the edge and grind it off to match the radius of the kettle. I was like OK GREAT! Glad I found him.

Kick's Metal and Art in Kenosha, WI if anyone needs a welder. Tell him David sent you. He is looking for work.
 
Nice welds! Looks like you found someone with some experience working in the dairy industry.
 
I have been making some progress slowly but surely. Few new pics of the control boxes after I have cut most of what I need. I will be staining and sealing the cart this weekend. I wired up the element cords and tri clover adapters.

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Finished wiring up the pump outlets, pump switches, PID switch, subpanel mounted to chassis and 50a cable installed.

Continuity testing was a success.

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Shot at 2012-06-24

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Shot at 2012-06-24
 
Tonight I wired up the first control box. Set the Auber 2352 for PT100 RTD and she is reporting what seems an accurate temp! It's alive!!!

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Shot at 2012-06-28
 
Whew!!! All electrical work has been completed! All continuity testing was successful. I don't think I have any issues with wiring. Couldn't find a single issue with the multimeter. Will need to do further testing but the hard part is finally behind me!!!

I need to tidy up all the wiring inside the cabinet with zip ties, etc so it isn't a mess. Can't wait to do some test runs with water in my kettles!

I know that some people don't agree with putting wiring inside of wood however I don't see an issue with it. Everything is insulated and as long as the wiring is correct and everything is tested it should not be an issue. I went this route because I had already purchased some equipment from Auberins and I like stained wood and not metal. Personal preference... I plan to put up a splash guard between the kettles and the equipment just to add a little bit of extra safety. Time to celebrate with a homebrew!!!

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Ran autotune on the BK and HLT today. Did a 1 hour test boil in the BK! Checked out evaporation rates and condensation buildup. Everything working great! HLT climbed and held steady at 170. BK went from 90F to 210F in about 25 minutes. Looks like running PID in manual mode at 100 gives me a nice rigorous boil with the 4500w element in the 10 gallon vessel starting with 7 gallons of water. Little bit of water buildup inside the bottom of the fan. I might have to drill a hole in the bottom and lay a little drip tray or something.

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Finished designing the plumbing. Ordered the 2nd pump, CFC, lots of stainless QDs, clear silicone tubing, 3-way ball valves, etc.... Waiting for parts to arrive.

I am happy with how the design turned out. HLT will feed the MT with gravity. The rest is pump controlled.
plumbinge.jpg
 
Mounted the RIMS tube with a U bracket just below the middle tri-clover for easy removal. Created some pump covers for protection. Just waiting on the rest of my parts which should arrive tues/wed. Hopefully I will be performing a test brew with water next weekend, documenting the entire process, tuning everything, figuring out dead space, volumes, evaporation, etc....

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Shot at 2012-07-07
 
Finished installing all the plumbing. I had two leaking connections that I have taken apart and reapplied teflon that are no sealed. I am calibrating the rims tube PID and then cleaning out everything really good. This weekend I plan to do a full test run with water to document the process and find out my evaporation rates, dead space, etc...



Uploaded with ImageShack.us
 
This is sick.... how can the same person have such a crazy sketch do such amazing work! haha awesome

Actually, I took another look at your napkin sketch and that makes more sense to me than most of the cad/sketchup drawings I've seen on here. Thanks!
 
NewBrewB said:
This is sick.... how can the same person have such a crazy sketch do such amazing work! haha awesome

Actually, I took another look at your napkin sketch and that makes more sense to me than most of the cad/sketchup drawings I've seen on here. Thanks!
Click to expand...

Yeah i think my sketches really turned off a lot of people to my build thread. I apologize for that. I just didn't have the software or photoshop know how to do something more pro or to properly articulate what was in my head. Those sketches were all drawn by my during my lunch breaks at work! Thanks for the comments! I am looking forward to brewing soon!

I had 2 slow leaks last night during testing. I hate this teflon tape. I know I am using it properly but I am having a difficult time getting a good seal on some of the couplers. I think I have it fixed now but will need to test again tonight as I found two more very slow leaks last night. All of the electronics and elements are working perfectly I am just testing the hoses, pumps, and connections at the moment.
 
Interesting brewery. Your approach to the setup with the "control cart" is unique. One thing I can't see is whether or not you are making use of that plumbing stack.

I drilled a pvc cap and fit some garden hose through it. I fitted it with a variety of quick connects: I can clean in place and pump the waste water out. I can run my CFC straight into the stack. I don't have a sink nearby so for me it was a godsend. Depending on your setup, you might want to consider it.

I have a quick connect with a plug in it as well, to keep sewer gas from escaping when I'm not using it as a waste port.

Cheers! Enjoy your brewery.
 
Dgonza9 said:
Interesting brewery. Your approach to the setup with the "control cart" is unique. One thing I can't see is whether or not you are making use of that plumbing stack.

I drilled a pvc cap and fit some garden hose through it. I fitted it with a variety of quick connects: I can clean in place and pump the waste water out. I can run my CFC straight into the stack. I don't have a sink nearby so for me it was a godsend. Depending on your setup, you might want to consider it.

I have a quick connect with a plug in it as well, to keep sewer gas from escaping when I'm not using it as a waste port.

Cheers! Enjoy your brewery.
Click to expand...

With my design I am able to use a hose from the sink to add water to my mash tun continuously, and have it cycle through all of the hoses in the system including my CFC, Boil Kettle and MLT. I don't feel the need to clean my HLT. With a simple adapter I am making next week I will be able to hook a hose on the end of the path and have the whole thing drain in to the floor drain after it is done cycling. Both pumps have to be running to perform this cleaning and draining operation but should make for easy cleaning and when I disconnect everything for drying all that will drip out should be some water that I can just quickly dry up. Once I get my last set of quick disconnects next week I will take another pic with the system in cleaning/flushing mode. It requires me to redirect just 1 of the hoses to make a complete loop of the system.

Hypothetically I should be able to clean everything in place. We'll see how it all works out.
 
I am performing a mock brew day right now to fine tune everything. Halfway through my mock mash! :)

First official brew day scheduled for July 29th with my brew buddy!

Here is a pic of the completed setup.





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Nice brewery. I'm sure you're going to enjoy brewing on it for many years to come.
 
One last quick change before first brew day. Didn't like the CFC just resting on the bucket so i mounted it to the brew stand with bolts and thumb screws for easy removal.

 
Ok I lied... one MORE change.. added an elbow at the CFC outlet so the temperature gauge doesn't stick out so far.

 
Few more pics before inaugural brew day on Sunday.

Brewing a 1.079 Rye IPA! My starter is fermenting away!

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