new system build and need input

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allclene

Beer, What a beautiful thing
Joined
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Ok fellow brewing inthusiasts. I finally decided to get more automated and upgrade to a whole new system. I have a programmable pid and am having a base made now for a 3 keggle cooker side by side style cooking system. I plan on using pumps ect. And automating everything possible on this thing. If any of you have any suggestions it would be appriciated as i finalize my build designs and start assemblying this piece of artwork.
 
Although it is enticing to try and automate everything possible in your brewery, I think there is a practical limit. The farther you remove yourself from the process, the more things can go wrong. Don't get me wrong, my brewery is a lot more complicated than most (but not NEARLY as complicated as many that I've seen), but I intentionally left a lot of manual things in both for simplicity and also to make sure I was paying attention during brew day.

Additionally, when you reach a certain point, maintaining your equipment becomes a greater task than actually processing beer through your brewery (brewing, racking, kegging, drinking, etc.). That's where I draw the line. Find your happy medium and choose your automation wisely.

You can check out the Brewer's Reference link below for a detailed look at my brewery.
 
Im thinking it would be wise to keep some things manual. Im thinking of automating temp control for step mashing with a timer and sparging etc. Also anyone have the hookup on some decent quick disconnects, electric solinoids, pumps, and a burner. And if anyone has input on using stainless piping and best way to connect it all together.
 
tnlandsailor said:
Although it is enticing to try and automate everything possible in your brewery, I think there is a practical limit. The farther you remove yourself from the process, the more things can go wrong. Don't get me wrong, my brewery is a lot more complicated than most (but not NEARLY as complicated as many that I've seen), but I intentionally left a lot of manual things in both for simplicity and also to make sure I was paying attention during brew day.

Additionally, when you reach a certain point, maintaining your equipment becomes a greater task than actually processing beer through your brewery (brewing, racking, kegging, drinking, etc.). That's where I draw the line. Find your happy medium and choose your automation wisely.

You can check out the Brewer's Reference link below for a detailed look at my brewery.

Your link didnt show up. Is your brewery a brutis 10 clone? im kinda leaning that way for this one. Ive hunted through these threads for days now and found all sorts of nice ideas but noone has any detail on parts etc. Hardly. Like where a good place to get thermocouples for the pids?
 
Update so far.
Have the brutis 10 clone stand being welded together and should have it next week maybe (he kinda slow welder). So far have one pump and am ordering the other two on payday next week. I also have 4 allen bradley pids so am gonna choose which one i'm using for the build.

If anyone needs one and is willing to trade for pumps or other parts let me know. They are all the same have 4 slot chasis with processor, power supply, and 3 input and output modules with the programmer all in a case. I also have some programming software on floppy that i'm gonna transfer to disc.

I got various stainless valves and hose barbs ect. In mail last week. I have decided to somewhat polish my keggles just not to mirror finish I like the brushed stainless look. After I figure out the solder or weld aspect of my fittings on the keggles I'll get that finished here also. Once the frame arrives, I'll start posting pics.

I still could use input on what kind of disconnects, solinoids, counterflow cooler, ect. To use so let me know your thaughts. Please keep in mind I'm on a budget.
 
Although it is enticing to try and automate everything possible in your brewery, I think there is a practical limit. The farther you remove yourself from the process, the more things can go wrong. Don't get me wrong, my brewery is a lot more complicated than most (but not NEARLY as complicated as many that I've seen), but I intentionally left a lot of manual things in both for simplicity and also to make sure I was paying attention during brew day.

Additionally, when you reach a certain point, maintaining your equipment becomes a greater task than actually processing beer through your brewery (brewing, racking, kegging, drinking, etc.). That's where I draw the line. Find your happy medium and choose your automation wisely.

You can check out the Brewer's Reference link below for a detailed look at my brewery.

Checked out your system on your website (nice site by the way) and noticed you said no #@%#%^ barbs! So if no barbs what are you using to connect your tubing?
 
here are the plc pics if interested let me know

SLC 5_1.gif


SLC 5_2.gif
 
Started the software for this build and here's a screenshot of the front panel of the GUI. The pipes and pumps are blue when not in use and turn yellow when
they are being used. The burners show flames when they are on also. I was told by the welder that my stand will be ready to be picked up on Monday. Woohoo!
I will post a pic of it when I get it. I am also doing a semi polish job on my keggles and will post a pic when they are done. I still need some parts for the gas portion
of this build and some parts for the piping of the keggles.

steves brewery.gif
 
Well started laying out burners etc. on my new stand
and noticed that the keggles slide around pretty easy
on top of this thing. Has anyone come up with a solution
to this? I was thinking of welding little tabs on outside
edge to keep the keggle from sliding off edge if
bumped be accident. What's everyone elses thaught?
 
After checking pricing on stainless tubing and fittings, I've decided to go with copper for the plumbing on this thing. If anyone has better idea let me know.
 
Started the software for this build and here's a screenshot of the front panel of the GUI. The pipes and pumps are blue when not in use and turn yellow when
they are being used. The burners show flames when they are on also. I was told by the welder that my stand will be ready to be picked up on Monday. Woohoo!
I will post a pic of it when I get it. I am also doing a semi polish job on my keggles and will post a pic when they are done. I still need some parts for the gas portion
of this build and some parts for the piping of the keggles.

Looks awesome.
Can you provide some more info on the plc's and the software?
What did you write the software in?
 
I wrote the software in labview. The plc is an allen bradley. They were used as demo models and come in a case with switches etc. built in. They are spc 5's.they have processor, power supply, programmer, and 3 slots of I/O. I have a serial port adaptor that allows me to hook it to my PC and run the labview software that controls the plc functions as I see fit so it's pretty flexable. I have a couple more plc's I want to trade off for some parts for this build. I'm still needing 2 pumps and 3 thermalcouples.
 
OK, started maching up the plumbing and pump locations etc. I got all the welding done except for the last burner.
So far only have 5 of the 6 casters on it due to the home depot ran out of them. The next step will be to finish the
plumbing mach up so I can tear it down and paint it. Here's a picture of the progress so far.

plumbing.gif
 
Here's an updated view of the software. As you can see, the pipes change color when showing the flow of the liquid and the burners shut on and off to indicate flame is on.

Da Brauhaus.gif
 
So far I have most of the piping done for this rig. I also made some home made sight glasses and have to say they look good. I will be mounting them after I polish the keggles. I have a piece of diamond plate coming for the bottom shelf on this thing. It should be here monday. I will be ordering the other pumps by this friday hopefully. I will post more pictures as this progresses along. Here's a picture.

sight glass.jpg
 
Well considered using the copper clad home made sight tubes but then I made the mistake of looking up clear piping on the internet. Now I got a stick of half inch thick walled acrylic tubing coming to make my sight glasses out of.

By the way who ever came up with the idea of polishing keggles is demented! I spent 2 hours on one keggle and am just now to the point that I can use the polishing compound on it. I must be nuts!
 
Ordered the pumps and they should be here by Tuesday. Received the acrylic pipe and made my new and improved sight glasses. Here's a picture (thanks to my lovely wife for modeling it for me). All total they only cost me a fraction of buying just one on the internet. I picked up the rest of the materials at lowes when we were down in the valley to finish the polishing projects so I guess I will be polishing for a few days! When the pumps arrive and I get them installed i will post another picture of the progress.

sight glass.jpg
 
Was checking out this hop basket for my cooker to keep my BK pump etc. clean. Has anyone every used one? Would like some peoples opinion on this thing before I commit to buying.

hop strainer.jpg
 
Got one of the sight glasses installed. Here's a picture. I know the keg is not done being polished yet I'm working on it.

keg.jpg
 
got the pumps in so far and mostley plumbed. Here's a picture. I finally sold another slc so I will be ordering the valves for this thing. I just ordered some more couplers to install for the other two sight glasses and I also ordered a hop basket for the BK (me likey!). Started setting up the slc for the a dry software run so I can tweak the software in. Last night I ran some water through the system and checked for leaks so far so good! Pumps ran like a champ. Well still got plenty to do so will keep you posted.

plumbed.jpg
 
allclene said:
Was checking out this hop basket for my cooker to keep my BK pump etc. clean. Has anyone every used one? Would like some peoples opinion on this thing before I commit to buying.

The answer is yes! I have the 300 micron stainless mesh hop filter. It worked beautifully this past weekend using a total of 5 oz of hops for a 10 gallon batch. The only thing left in the kettle was the hot break. I think I paid $60 for mine...
 
Awsome thanks. I just ordered one yesterday from stainless brewing.
 
finished polishing one of the keggles. What a pain that was! here's a picture of it. I also got the water filter on it and ordered the wort plate chiller yesterday. I'm making progress.

polished.jpg
 
Interesting new devolopement has surfaced here. Seems that the slc I am using needs a thermocouple module and after extensive search can't find one for under 400.00 so now i have the problem of either finding something else to use or forking out the bucks. Any sugestions out there would be apriciated. Someone said to use the maxum IC's but they require a com port to be used unless I get a digital input module for the slc maybe. Any sugestions anyone?
 
ok, I finally got the diamond plate installed and the gas line layed out. Here are som picures. I am still working on the thermocouple issue. I will be polishing kegs here real soon to finish the other two and finishing all the plumbing.

dp1.jpg


dp2.jpg
 
well got the second keggle polished and ready to go. I also finished all the plumbing for the liguid side including installing the chiller and filter. Here are some pictures. after I polish the last keggle and install one more burner, I will be ready to do a manual run on this thing and make sure everything is ready to go for automation. I have decided to use a national instruments multifunction DAQ to monitor the thermocouples due to cost effectiveness. Will keep everyone updated on that venture.

chiller.jpg


2nd keg polish.jpg
 
I won the auction and got a national instruments Multifunctional daq that fits in my computers pci slot for 75.00! I also ordered a burner from home depot for 29.00. Hopefully they both will be here by this weekend and I can get this rig ready for manual trials. Will post pictures and update after I install the burner and polish the last keggle.
 
Bummer, I learned my lesson on Ebay. If you make a best offer, don't do it to more than one item for sale. I am now the proud owner of 2 Daq's. Anyone want to buy one? (haha) I got the grill and mount welded onto the final burner position today and ready to receive the burner. I should have it Monday then I will mount it and finish the plumbing. I ordered some sight glass labels and they should be here Monday also. So next on the agenda will be to calibrate the sight glasses, Figure the efficiency loss on my rig so I can put it into beersmith, and polish the last keggle. Then it will be time to do a manual run on this thing to check for any kind of improvements etc. that might be needed. Can't wait! Here's a picture of the burner mounts made.

grill.jpg
 
Got the last keggle polished! (finally!!!) I also got the gas side plumbed for manual operation and the last burner in. I ran the loss measurement on the rig for beersmith and calibrated one sight glass so far. I still have to calibrate the other two and re-plumb the last keggle and I should be ready to do a manual run on this rig. I got the DAQ installed and the software is close to being finished so the next step is automation! The thermocouples should be here this week also. I am currently bidding on a sh68 terminal block for the DAQ so it will be easier to hook it up. As for the sight glasses, now I don't remember what they are made of and can't find the website I baught them from to check. Guess we will see how they hold up under heat during the final check out before I cook any beer.

update polished.jpg
 
Well it's ready for manual trials. Got the sight glasses calibrated and all the plumbing checked out. Ran it with just water all the way thru like I was doing a beer and it works great. the sight glasses didn't melt (hoohoo) and no leaks. It ran just like it was supposed to do. So I guess it's time for a brew day and then I'll get to the automation portion. I am eyeballing some gas solinoids and some hot surface igniters at a reasonable price and designed a circuit to run them with the DAQ I got along with the thermocouples. So that will be my first automation portion of this build. Here's a picture of the fully functional manual version.

manual mode.jpg
 
Cabel showed up for the DAQ card and I got the schematic done for it. I am going to have to build some circuitry to be able to use the DAQ to its fullest. Here's a schematic.

Brauhaus.jpg
 
Oops upladed the older version of schematic. Here is the new version.

Brauhaus.jpg
 
I got the thermal igniters today in the mail. Unfortunately the rest of the components needed to build the control circuit are on a slow boat from china (1 is on a slow boat from Korea) and aren't expected here until Jan 20th! That sucks. So in the mean time I am going to make a brew on this thing manually cause I can't go any longer without a brew in the fridge. I guess I will put a drain in my brew room and consider some water plumbing choices while I wait.
 
Well mounted the hot surface igniters and installed a drain pipe in my brew room. I received the parts from mouser that I ordered for the circuit yesterday. I am going to mock up part of the circuit on a bread board and do some testing on it. I can't put it all together until I receive the power supplies and a few other choice parts from china but at least I can test the switching part of the circuit.
 
well what do you know, the slow boat from korea just showed up with my thermocouples! got them mounted now I just got to put circuit together and wire them up when the rest of my components get here.
 
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