My daughter has appropriated my wife's old macbook pro to play flash games so I appropriated her little green computer to brew beer. I plugged in some usb-controlled thermocouples and relays and I cut a few hours off my pay-attention-to-the-brew time!
So far I have only automated the HLT (including the valve.) Next up: another valve (from HLT to Kettle) and a separate heat-stick for the kettle so all I'll have to do is wander over and throw some hops in at the right times.
Right now I'm only using two 7.5 gallon turkey fryers to make 3 gallon batches, but I've got another one handy for when I go 3-level and get a pump and go to a whole 6 gallons with HERMS...
The whole setup:
This wasn't so much of a build as it was a cobble-together but it is boiling me a copper-kolsh (what else would you call a red ale with kolsh yeast?) right now (as I post, not in this picture--in the picture it is waiting for the time to start, which was 5am this morning.)
Many thanks to all of you who have contributed pictures of your own builds! I have wasted so much time looking at them on this forum...
So far I have only automated the HLT (including the valve.) Next up: another valve (from HLT to Kettle) and a separate heat-stick for the kettle so all I'll have to do is wander over and throw some hops in at the right times.
Right now I'm only using two 7.5 gallon turkey fryers to make 3 gallon batches, but I've got another one handy for when I go 3-level and get a pump and go to a whole 6 gallons with HERMS...
The whole setup:
This wasn't so much of a build as it was a cobble-together but it is boiling me a copper-kolsh (what else would you call a red ale with kolsh yeast?) right now (as I post, not in this picture--in the picture it is waiting for the time to start, which was 5am this morning.)
Many thanks to all of you who have contributed pictures of your own builds! I have wasted so much time looking at them on this forum...