Almost eREADY

Thanks guys. I plugged my elements in. Strange thing is they only seem to leak when the element selector switch is in the off position. When I select an element it goes dark until the SSR closes. Whatever, it's a low priority right now for me.

I went to Radio Shack hoping to find a decent wire-wrapped resistor. They don't have squat. I went with the 1K 1W resistors in series just to get everything up. Estop works great. Thanks again P-J.

Tested 11 gallons of water starting at 58F. Full boil in 53 minutes. Not.....bad? Similar to propane. The great thing it was quiet. Not whisper quiet, but a lot quieter than propane. Everything was cool to the touch, the stand, the valves, everything. Pretty awesome.

Here's some eye candy:



Fixed the amperage factor to show 23 amps instead of 2.3. That corrected the power reading.

I did a ground continuity test from the frame of my stand to the enclosure wall. 1.6 ohms. Pretty good considering it's going through the frame, up through the kettle, to the element enclosure lug, through the 10/3 power cord, to the enclosure ground lug.

Not much today. Bought some stuff to finish pump setup.Pics tomorrow

OK Pumps mounted, plugs mounted, shield installed. Almost time to brew!

Outstanding work my friend! Cheers to you!

RAIN makes me a little uneasy so I'm just brainstorming indoors today. Got a couple cornies yesterday. I'm up to 6 now. Only pressure tested one so far though.

Need to start planning for my inaugural brew on this. 10 gallons of.....

Well the rain let up so I got a little window to troubleshoot. I found an easy fix to my pump pushbutton switches experiencing current leakage (only when pumps are plugged in of course). Because the switches I got from Auber are double pole, which I didn't need, I just used the second pole to switch the other line. So basically when the switch is off it's completely disconnected from all circuits. Worked perfectly.

Now if I could just figure out how to fix the SSR leakage without buying something else (relay or 12VDC element lights). I'll be brainstorming that for awhile. I hoped plugging the elements in would fix it, but because the elements are on double pole relays that are open until the element is selected, the elements are not providing a source for the small SSR leakage current to drain. When I select an element, the relay closes, and the LED goes off until the PID closes the SSR. It's an odd situation really. I may just have to put a 12VDC coil relay that is closed by the SSR which will provide a close for the element light red leg (The black leg is switched by element selector switch). I'd rather not buy 12VDC element lights because that won't indicate that the SSR closed, ust that the PID told the SSR to close. I wish I'd read about the SSR leakage earlier in my build, I could have planned a fix ahead of time.

I realize if I source the red leg from the DPDT relay the element select LED will be off, but I want the element light on when the PID tells the SSR to close, not when I select the element.

Bravo! Looks awesome. Congratulations on your accomplishment. I love the panel!

l3asturd said:

...
Now if I could just figure out how to fix the SSR leakage without buying something else (relay or 12VDC element lights). I'll be brainstorming that for awhile. I hoped plugging the elements in would fix it, but because the elements are on double pole relays that are open until the element is selected, the elements are not providing a source for the small SSR leakage current to drain. When I select an element, the relay closes, and the LED goes off until the PID closes the SSR.
...

Click to expand...

Why not wire the LEDs from the element side of the contactor?

Have you posted a wiring diagram?

kellzey said:

Bravo! Looks awesome. Congratulations on your accomplishment. I love the panel!

Click to expand...

Thanks, looking forward to making beer again!

P-J said:

Why not wire the LEDs from the element side of the contactor?

Have you posted a wiring diagram?

Click to expand...

Funny you mention that PJ. I was drawing out a quick diagram to help me troubleshoot. As soon as I finished it I realized what I could do, which happens to be exactly what you suggested.

I wired the red leg of the element LED to the load side of the 30A circuit breaker, which is sourced from the element side of the 30A relays. Not only did that fix the problem, but it added the ability to see that the circuit breaker is tripped. Just tested everything out and it works perfectly now. Only thing left is one alarm light is dead. Have to get a replacement.

Here's the diagram I drew for troubleshooting purposes:
BEFORE FIX

HERE'S THE FIX

Your solution just helped me solve my question of how I was going to have my 220v element pilot lights work. Thanks!

stlbeer said:

Your solution just helped me solve my question of how I was going to have my 220v element pilot lights work. Thanks!

Click to expand...

Thanks! I bet this has been resolved by several other people in my situation. I know Kal puts his element lights in parallel with his relays, which would have been fine, except I wanted to indicate when the SSR closed. It's kind of funny to see the light flashing with the PID logic but I like it better that way.

l3asturd said:

Thanks! I bet this has been resolved by several other people in my situation. I know Kal puts his element lights in parallel with his relays, which would have been fine, except I wanted to indicate when the SSR closed. It's kind of funny to see the light flashing with the PID logic but I like it better that way.

Click to expand...

I do it for safety reasons too. If you instead show when the PID is firing as you did, you now no longer know if the element is live.

Kal

kal said:

I do it for safety reasons too. If you instead show when the PID is firing as you did, you now no longer know if the element is live.

Kal

Click to expand...

But how would the element be live UNLESS the PID was firing? If by chance the SSR stuck closed the light would indicate that. In fact, if you have the element light in parallel with the relay it will never indicate a fault with the PID or SSR as it will remain lit until the relay opens, by turning off your element selector switch or turning off main power. Please correct me if I have your flow wrong. The way I thought yours works is that your element select LED is on regardless of your SSR state?

No, that's not the way mine works.

I have this setup:

PID -> SSR -> RELAY CONTROLLED BY ELEMENT SELECT SWITCH -> RECEPTACLE + ELEMENT LIGHT

I put my The ELEMENT LIGHT at the end only comes on when there's power present at the RECEPTACLE.

This is done purposely so that the light only comes on if the element is heating/firing.

I think you're saying you put yours betweem the SSR and RELAY?

If that's the case then the light comes on even when the ELEMENT SELECT SWITCH isn't closing the relay so that the receptacle is live. So you don't have anything to tell you 100% truly when the element is firing.

Kal

kal said:

No, that's not the way mine works.

I have this setup:

PID -> SSR -> RELAY CONTROLLED BY ELEMENT SELECT SWITCH -> RECEPTACLE + ELEMENT LIGHT

I put my The ELEMENT LIGHT at the end only comes on when there's power present at the RECEPTACLE.

This is done purposely so that the light only comes on if the element is heating/firing.

I think you're saying you put yours betweem the SSR and RELAY?

If that's the case then the light comes on even when the ELEMENT SELECT SWITCH isn't closing the relay so that the receptacle is live. So you don't have anything to tell you 100% truly when the element is firing.

Kal

Click to expand...

Not quite. My black leg is powered from the relay coil 120v switched by the element selector switch. My red leg is provided at the element outlet. I used the coil voltage for the black side of the led because it was already there, and the led requires so little current my wire gauge was irrelevant.

So is your ssr switching the leg that is also switched by the element selector switch? Do you have a diagram kal? Maybe that would clear it up for me. Ill reread your info at your site again too.

Ok I found your diagram. Ours are wired almost identical now. The only difference is I tapped the relay coil voltage for my black leg because it was a lot closer. Now I think I'm on the same page!

OK I am in the middle of a mock brew. Currently heating my HLT mash water. I'm gonna go for 160F for now. Took a few pictures of the rig a little more complete:



Here's the HLT heating to 160F. I have the recirc pump creating quite a nice whirlpool to evenly distribute heat from the element. Currently just running hot PBW through the system.


MT:

BK:

I like the float valve. I have been trying to talk myself into the extra expenditure. Looks sexy! Did you autotune your PIDs or are you going to run some hand picked numbers?

Haven't autotuned yet. Just been letting it tune itself during the mock brews.

I just ordered 2 kits of Belgian Ale for my inaugural brew. Super heat cleaned everything with hot PBW circulating throughout the system. Rinsed and dried. Ready to brew!

I'll probably brew next weekend, I'm heading to Firestone Brewery in Paso Robles this weekend for a tour.

Got home and found my rebel mill on my porch! Woohoo!


Also picked up the yeast hog 2000:


Beer gun. I actually got everything all set up to try this gun out, filled half a bottle then my keg was empty. I am officially out of homebrew. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

Wrapped my RTD wires up for a little extra protection.


Bummer I can't brew soon. I might end brewing midweek just to get it started.

Had my first stress test failure today, doing a boil in the HLT (for calibration of the RTD) and as soon as I got to about 160ish degrees the 1/2" MPT to Hose adapter I got started melting. I was about 30 feet away cleaning beer lines and started hearing an odd noise. That noise was my pump spewing hot water all over my rig (including element electrical boxes). I shut off the pump and turned off the element. Looked in and it was completely dry firing, for probably about 1 minute. Crap. Drops of water were dripping on it and it would instantly boil them, so ya, I got really hot. I'm not 100% percent sure it didn't do any damage (It's a ULWD ripple) but it's currently heating water again and is 144 degrees so far. If I have any problems with getting or maintaining a boil I'll replace the element. Drove to Home Depot and bought a brass hose valve, which I should have done in the first place. Unfortunately the valve is male garden hose and my filter is male garden hose. I'll have to find a female to female garden hose coupler now.

An interesting note is that water wasn't passing through the adapter, it was just heat dissipating through the pipes on the other side of the valve the melted it. I didn't think it would be a problem because I would never be boiling normally, and hot water would never pass through the adapter. At least I found the failure now and not during my first brew! ....sigh

l3asturd said:

a female to female garden hose coupler now.

Click to expand...

Thats "lesbian" in plumbing terms.

Your melted fittings are electrical PVC right?

lschiavo said:

Thats "lesbian" in plumbing terms.

Your melted fittings are electrical PVC right?

Click to expand...

Haha I found the lesbian adapter at Lowes.

That fitting is PVC, but not intended for electrical use. It was labeled as a 1/2" NPT to 3/4" FIP Garden Hose Adapter.

Here's the before picture:


So everything is brass now for the hose water input. Also replaced all gaskets with silicone gaskets just as a taste precaution.

Here's the after pic:

I ordered my switches from the ebay vendor as you did. Did they come with both the NO and NC contactors? In one of your pics, it looks like both are there but then later only one is there. I wasn't sure if you removed the NC ones to save space or if they were never there. The ebay listing says it should be NO/NC so hopefully that's the case.

While I'm waiting for my slooow ship to come in, I'm trying to plan for a safe start interlock like Kal's. It would suck if the NC contactors weren't there.

Sorry, what switches do you mean? I don't remember ordering any NC switches at all

I was referring to the alarm switches. I went back and looked at the pictures in the beginning of your build. The switch that I originally saw was the element selector not the alarms.

Looks like jamesbondtb has a few different auctions for switches. Some are NO/NC and some are just NO. I ordered the ones with 2 contactors so hopefully that's what shows up.

Well I'm brewing tomorrow. I'm a little concerned about my recipe kit though. I thought it would come with more specific instructions, such as mash temps, sparge temps, etc. It's the B3 Belgian Pale Ale. If anyone has any suggestions I'd appreciate it. If I don't hear from anyone I'm probably going to mash in at 155F and sparge at 168F.

They base their recipe on a 70% Mash efficiency (Haha I laugh at 70%).
Here are the ingredients (10 gallon batch):
20LB 2-Row
8oz Caramunich
8oz Special B
1LB Carapils
1LB Corn Sugar (For drying out)
2oz Perle Hops
2oz Mt Hood Hops

I might suggest mashing just a hair cooler, maybe 152F. BJCP guidelines might suggest mash temps from the high 140s to low 150s. Let us know how it goes!

It's been a couple days since I brewed now. Everything went ok, but I definitely learned a few things....

1. I need a couple more quick disconnect hoses.
2. I need to rethink my MT and HLT temp probe positions.
3. My BK temp probe is worthless in its current position, I need to order a 4" probe from auber. I actually had a boil over because I was using my alarm to warn me when it was starting to boil and it actually boiled at 199 degrees because of bad temp probe positioning.
4. I need a better way to clean out the spent grains, that took forever.
5. If you pay $80 for a freezer on craiglist, expect to get your money's worth. The freezer compressor took a crap on me on brew day (of course). I've had the freezer about 6 months.
6. I need to develop some method to clean all my test equipment and misc all at once. Like a deep tub sink or something. I spent a lot of time cleaning all the little gadgets.
7. The jumbo tea ball used as a pellet hop and trub stopper was a major mistake. It clogged after pumping 7 gallons in to the fermenter. I'll need to find something with more surface area or just ditch filtering altogether.
8. Electric brewing is awesome!

I actually hit my starting gravity despite cutting back slightly on my grain bill. I split the difference between B3's recommendation of 20lbs or 2row and BrewSmith's 17lbs. Not 100% sure of my efficiency but I know it's better than 70% for sure. I suppose that's decent for my first electric and all grain brew. Here's the pic of the clogged hop filter:



Here are some photos of the new Kenmoore Commercial freezer I scored off craiglist. I paid $250, which was hard to part with, but the thing is a beast.

Day 6 of fermentation. I dumped trub, which turned out to be more than my yeast catcher could hold again. I'm debating on making it bigger.

Hydrometer reading: 1.015 pretty good for day 6, but I also had a rush start because of high initial temps.

Taste test: Good?!?! I was surprised it wasn't repulsive. It's has a slight banana (fruit) aroma but I expected that, as my first 48 hours of fermenting were out of control unfortunately. It was anywhere from 70 degrees to 79 because of my freezer crash. New freezer doing a great job holding it at 65ish. We'll see how the taste holds up after being carbed in a week.

keep posting. thanks.

Well I've learned a lesson.....

Yesterday was a buddy's birthday and he came over and we started drinking the Belgian Pale, which turned out pretty good! We were probably about a gallon in to it when my buddy yells my name. I slowly walk over to the freezer and hear a hissing noise. I realize it's CO2, coming out of the picnic tap! Huh? Then I see the really bad news. When my buddy last got a glass he must have flipped the picnic tap up (in the locked on position). There were about 4 gallons of beer in the bottom of the freezer, and the CO2 caused everything to freeze solid in a matter of 20 minutes. It was a mess, a huge pain to clean up, and now I was missing 4 gallons of beer. Needless to say I was not happy, if it wasn't his birthday I would have been scolding him. He was pretty drunk and kept saying how lucky he was the CO2 didn't knock him out and kill him. I was thinking how unlucky I was. haha.

Anyway, I have about 4 gallons in the other keg, so not all is lost. I'm not sure how much CO2 is left in the bottle, I'll probably have to refill it a lot sooner than I expected. Luckily the chest freezer holds liquid well, no leaks. It even has a drain plug so all I did was cart it out to the driveway, unplug the drain, and wash it out.

Now I want to find some kind of picnic tap that doesn't even have the option of locking on (pulling the tab up instead of just squeezing).

Sounds like the drink"n buddy should be swimming wit the beer!!

Now that is alcohol abuse!!

Bummer

This might be getting a hair off subject, but nonetheless: The picnic taps disassemble real easy. Unscrew the top and push up on the rubber plunger to disengage the handle. With the handle off you could very easily modify it (it's only plastic after all) so that it would not remain "on" in event of ... user-error.

Thanks feister.

I just got done threading some SS mesh on my BK false bottom. That was tough. Anyway snapped a picture, you'll have to really focus to see the mesh. This is my last attempt at filtering from the kettle. If this fails I might remove the mesh and try out the trub filter.

You cant really tell from the picture but it's 2 separate pieces of mesh, so the false bottom still folds. Folding was required to be able to maneuver around my heating element and remove for cleaning.

Let us know how that works for ya!

I have some reservations about filtering at the bottom of the kettle, for fear of it plugging over and over. That being said, what I am looking at building for mine is...... Well, let's call it "Robo-hop-spider." I got the idea a few months back when I saw a large cylindrical tea infuser meant to go inside an airport-sized coffee maker. I'm still kicking around design ideas, but ultimately it will be a SS mesh cylinder, the height of the keg and about 3-4" in diameter that will stand in my boil kettle. It will operate just like a regular hop spider, but without all the floppy-melty nylon and PVC.

And before anyone says it... NO. I used tea balls back in the extract days. I will not be fishing 20 of those out of the bottom of a keggle to do a 10g APA ;-)

Forgot to snap a picture of my first electric all grain beer (Belgian Pale). Notice a little cloudier than I expected, I'll attribute that to having no control over early fermentation. Good color though, and nice white long lasting head. Good stuff to drink as well! Haha

Just made my second batch of electric all grain. It was my own recipe called Downtown Dirty Brown Ale. Actually went a lot smoother this time. Hit 90% efficiency according to brewsmith. False bottom with mesh worked well in boil kettle for bottom draining. I trickled the entire drain making sure not to plug up. Couldn't be happier. Ill post the pictures shortly.

Had to go buy a pond PH tester. Don't like it as much as the PH test strips but it did it's job.

This one is after adding lactic acid to the mash water:


This is just a shot of me draining to fermenter: