Hey all,
When I lived in a tiny London flat I used to (barely) manage to brew 1 or 2 gallon batches using my electric stove and some smallish stockpots. Now that I've moved to New Zealand I'm desperate to restart my brewing and would like to start building a larger and more polished setup. I'll be moving house soon so I'm not 100% sure how much space I'll have available, but I think I'd prefer the smaller form factor of a piece of kit like the Grainfather rather than a larger 2 or 3 kettle rig. However I've also started playing around and experimenting with electronics and part of my enjoyment from brewing is in hacking together and building DIY components.
I had toyed with the idea of building my own version of the Grainfather, with some added extras (computer based temperature control to have non-manual mash profiles, automatic sparging from another vessel - probably a stainless steel FV with a removeable heating element) but I don't think I can do it for cheaper than the Grainfather costs. Also I like the aesthetic of it and I'm a bit scared that anything I build would be a bit rough around the edges (I have to get all of this past my wife for approval, so neatness is a factor).
So really I'm asking is if you guys think it should be possible in theory to 'hack' or bypass the temperature controller on the Grainfather and replace it with my own. Probably an Opentroller BX2 or a BrewPi. As far as I understand it the current temperature controller is pretty much an STC-1000 so has no option for serial input/control, so I'd probably remove that which should leave me with a pre-installed temperature probe (no idea what kind/model), and power cables for the pump, heating element, and the 500W/2000W switch for the heating element. I should be able to just wire these into my own controller right? Or is there likely to be a lot more to it than that? Like I said I'm a real beginner, but I do have a friend at work who is an expert in electronics that I can go to for help with the technical side, I'm really just wondering from a theoretical point of view if there's something I'm missing with this idea.
Cheers guys.
When I lived in a tiny London flat I used to (barely) manage to brew 1 or 2 gallon batches using my electric stove and some smallish stockpots. Now that I've moved to New Zealand I'm desperate to restart my brewing and would like to start building a larger and more polished setup. I'll be moving house soon so I'm not 100% sure how much space I'll have available, but I think I'd prefer the smaller form factor of a piece of kit like the Grainfather rather than a larger 2 or 3 kettle rig. However I've also started playing around and experimenting with electronics and part of my enjoyment from brewing is in hacking together and building DIY components.
I had toyed with the idea of building my own version of the Grainfather, with some added extras (computer based temperature control to have non-manual mash profiles, automatic sparging from another vessel - probably a stainless steel FV with a removeable heating element) but I don't think I can do it for cheaper than the Grainfather costs. Also I like the aesthetic of it and I'm a bit scared that anything I build would be a bit rough around the edges (I have to get all of this past my wife for approval, so neatness is a factor).
So really I'm asking is if you guys think it should be possible in theory to 'hack' or bypass the temperature controller on the Grainfather and replace it with my own. Probably an Opentroller BX2 or a BrewPi. As far as I understand it the current temperature controller is pretty much an STC-1000 so has no option for serial input/control, so I'd probably remove that which should leave me with a pre-installed temperature probe (no idea what kind/model), and power cables for the pump, heating element, and the 500W/2000W switch for the heating element. I should be able to just wire these into my own controller right? Or is there likely to be a lot more to it than that? Like I said I'm a real beginner, but I do have a friend at work who is an expert in electronics that I can go to for help with the technical side, I'm really just wondering from a theoretical point of view if there's something I'm missing with this idea.
Cheers guys.
