Advice on temp. contorl project

New to forums but need some input. 1) does anyone make a temp. control device for lagers that does programmable profiles like set temp for x amount of days then temp for x amount of days notify when done? 2) if no one does or they don't do what you want them to do what would you like to see in a programmer? temp control, time divisions, abilities. 3) how much would you pay to have one if you do want one with said abilities?

Doing a senior project and need some input on what the market wants and willing to pay. not to mention i need to control lagers without me being around. Hate traveling for work when you have a beer at home that needs attention.

Thanks in advance for any input and if you can get anyone interested to share i would greatly appreciate it!!

I don't know of anything that's currently available to homebrewers that does this, but I'm sure one could be built. I've seen plans for homemade temp controllers than involve PID's. I'm sure adding a timer to that would get the job done.

I would probably pay $150+ for something that had the ability to do this. Not that I need it, since I don't travel a whole lot, but it would be nice to have, just in case.

I would use one for ales, set it to desired ferment temp for x days, then drop to cold crash. For lagers I wouldn't see it working, though. After the initial activity I check for diacetyl, then decide whether or not to do the D-rest. Also, I like to do this while there's still a few points left to go. Unless the sensor was measuring S.G. instead of time I don't think it would be of much use. Also, I'd have to set it to D-rest every lager or I'd be checking them all anyway, which would defeat the purpose of automation.

What might sell me is if it was able to monitor SG and temp and expandable for multiple beers, along with having expandable temp control capabilities. This along with a web interface. Unfortunately I think that all of this would put it out of my price range.

Thanks for the S.G. question spent a few hours on schismatics and defiantly could do it. what is the highest S.G. you see when brewing?
only 10 batches under my belt so want to know what every ones max is for the system.
Im thinking ten profiles each can be named and temp-time changed and S.G. being monitored with the ability to determine temp change and D-rest from the S.G. reading. could do a modular system to add web or smart phone (err don't realy want to try objective c).
how much would u be willing to pay for a system like this? gonna have market research on my senior project don't want to harp on money but need all ideas on parameters functions and price for said features.
thanks for the help!!

sounds like an afternoon with an arduino

good times

I'm curious as to how you would measure the SG, would it be like a traditional hydrometer with some sort of encoder that could be calibrated and measured with a reference fluid level or such?

I would pay $77.95 - http://www.auberins.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1&products_id=4

More if you got that SG sensor working.

mattd2 said:

I would pay $77.95 - http://www.auberins.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1&products_id=4.

Click to expand...

+1 A Temperature Controller with Ramp and Soak mode will take care of the temperature control. If someone could make an inexpensive SG meter they will capture the attention of a lot of Homebrewers.

yes close Mista but its a microchip and i was going to go with a traditional hydrometer but home made with a range finder to determine the S.G. calibrated by user to start. (find S.G. input into controller to set S.G.) - (level might have user waist beer or not have enough to get to the correct level)or maybe a self cal. if I or partners can determine a better system before we assemble the parts, it will be better to auto cal.
sanitation is a must for the project so it limits what a senior college team can do.
S.G. will be determined by temp.
its all up to what the market wants so any input will determine what it is capable of doing

i have seen the PID controller but i feel it lacks in the lcd display and what it can do like set names and different profiles that are set and can be reused without reprogramming.

thanks for the input

bcs-460

For a complete, working system I'd shell out $150 if it came with a single SG/temp gauge and two relays for heat and cool. As far as mechanical SG meter, I think that you're going to run into serious issues with CO2 coming out of solution. In order to get an accurate SG reading I pour my sample back and forth between two glasses several times. Otherwise I get bubbles on the hydrometer that make it more buoyant, causing an artificially high SG reading. I remember seing something on the interweb about a startup that was making a digital temp/SG probe. Can't find it now, though, but if you could take that type of probe and add in the temp control ability so that it could be programed to change temperatures at various SG steps I'd be in.

You could measure the SG by measuring the weight and volume (to calculate density, sg=density measured/density water) Although then you need to figure out a way to measure water level and deal with the yeast accumulated at the bottom.
alternatively you could use a refractometer, they do make digital refractometers so that might be easier to integrate with a controller.
Otherwise you could design a hydrometer which is completely submerged. Perhaps a large weight for the bottom of the fermentor, and a cable to a float with a force gauge or just a weight (something that almost floats in wort) hanging into the fermenter if you have an accurate enough force gauge and measure to sg that way(the math is not that bad, if you need help i am more than willing to point you in the right direction).
I admit i don't have an exact idea how to implement these options but perhaps you can come up with a good method.