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Welp, I'm just minding my business checking out the new posts side bar.

Oh, what's this? Electric brewing, cool... what's this all abou....




trimixdiver1 said:
243805d1419344372-bucks-electric-brewery-imageuploadedbyhome-brew1419344371.082874.jpg
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Mother of god... *backs away slowly*
 
trimixdiver1 said:
Got the pressurizable boil kettle working. Took awhile. Just have some plumbing for the drains and several more RTD to install, then it's basic coding and leak checks.
View attachment 239599
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All that stainless and the brass just sticks out like a sore thumb :) :p

Looks awesome, incredible workmanship! Did you get a chance to brew? I can't wait to see the brew day pictures!

Cheers & Happy New Years
Max
 
mliptack said:
All that stainless and the brass just sticks out like a sore thumb :) :p

Looks awesome, incredible workmanship! Did you get a chance to brew? I can't wait to see the brew day pictures!

Cheers & Happy New Years
Max
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Back at you.

Yea I may still find a SS relief valve...
 
Got the HLT tuned and stage logic up to filling the MLT. I was able to get the HLT tuned to +/- .25degF, not too bad.
 
trimixdiver1 said:
For the love of God, I hope in two weeks! I'm on the boil kettle logic right now....
Click to expand...

Ive been thinking about this right now and Im wondering if it would be worth while to put in some logic to ensure the boil off I want. I was thinking about watching the level as the boil progresses and if there is not enough evap the heating element would ramp up a bit. Are you planning on adding anything in your logic similar to this?
 
ryane said:
Ive been thinking about this right now and Im wondering if it would be worth while to put in some logic to ensure the boil off I want. I was thinking about watching the level as the boil progresses and if there is not enough evap the heating element would ramp up a bit. Are you planning on adding anything in your logic similar to this?
Click to expand...


I don't have any direct means to measure the level in the BK, I just do a flowmeter batch in and out to get my pre and post boil volumes.

Is there anyway to calculate boil off by wort temp?
 
trimixdiver1 said:
I don't have any direct means to measure the level in the BK, I just do a flowmeter batch in and out to get my pre and post boil volumes.

Is there anyway to calculate boil off by wort temp?
Click to expand...

Huh, I thought in one of the pics I saw a float in your BK

As to your question, boiling is boiling right? you can have a more or less vigorous boil that alters the evap rate, but wont affect the temp.

I think Im leaning towards a pressure transducer on the BK. While the density will change, the affect on dP will be predictable as only water will be lost. This can easily be calculated during the boil to estimate the volume in the kettle during the boil.

What Im thinking for BK logic is to prior to starting the boil the P sensor readout is recorded when the kettle is full, then the element is set to max until it approaches the boiling point, upon reaching a boiling temp the element drops back to some value (lets say 60%) that will maintain the boil. Then after some time interval (~5min, 10min, .......?) the P sensor is read and the change is related to the volume of water boiled off. If this is an adequate amount for the time then the element level is maintained, if not its ramped up and the cycle repeats.

Im thinking this approach may also let me estimate SG. I know the flow total in, boil off volume, and P due to water column post boil. I can calculate the difference between the current P reading and what water would be to estimate the SG.
 
ryane said:
Huh, I thought in one of the pics I saw a float in your BK



As to your question, boiling is boiling right? you can have a more or less vigorous boil that alters the evap rate, but wont affect the temp.



I think Im leaning towards a pressure transducer on the BK. While the density will change, the affect on dP will be predictable as only water will be lost. This can easily be calculated during the boil to estimate the volume in the kettle during the boil.



What Im thinking for BK logic is to prior to starting the boil the P sensor readout is recorded when the kettle is full, then the element is set to max until it approaches the boiling point, upon reaching a boiling temp the element drops back to some value (lets say 60%) that will maintain the boil. Then after some time interval (~5min, 10min, .......?) the P sensor is read and the change is related to the volume of water boiled off. If this is an adequate amount for the time then the element level is maintained, if not its ramped up and the cycle repeats.



Im thinking this approach may also let me estimate SG. I know the flow total in, boil off volume, and P due to water column post boil. I can calculate the difference between the current P reading and what water would be to estimate the SG.
Click to expand...


The floats are in my HLT and MLT. I have micromotion mass flow meters on my MLT and BK, so I will know SG, flow and temp from them.

The DP on the BK is a decent idea though. May need to see if one of my xducers would be sensitive enough for DP and for reading 10+ psi for wort xfer.
 
trimixdiver1 said:
I got it on eBay. It's a 4kw heater @ 480v so for us it's like 1900w.
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I've been reading your huge thread and haven't got to the end, but I hope you've caught your math mistake in the quote above.

If you half the voltage, you quarter the watts. :(
 
Sock said:
I've been reading your huge thread and haven't got to the end, but I hope you've caught your math mistake in the quote above.



If you half the voltage, you quarter the watts. :(
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Yea I was just throwing out data that I had in my head.

The element is actually 4400w at 277v. I got 17.7 ohms with my meter to get an exact measurement, though it should be 17.4 if we are using the nameplate data.

So I'm looking at 3254w at 240v.
 
trimixdiver1 said:
For the love of God, I hope in two weeks! I'm on the boil kettle logic right now....
Click to expand...

Count down timer has started!

I'm in a similar boat, but just not to the level that you are. I want to brew by this spring (maybe 4/1/15 as an april fools day beer) with my eHERMS system.

Good luck to you - I can't wait to read the play-by-play, I am hoping to learn something from you. I need a PLC-101 class...
 
mliptack said:
Count down timer has started!



I'm in a similar boat, but just not to the level that you are. I want to brew by this spring (maybe 4/1/15 as an april fools day beer) with my eHERMS system.



Good luck to you - I can't wait to read the play-by-play, I am hoping to learn something from you. I need a PLC-101 class...
Click to expand...


Well after 2 wet runs, I've gotten through the mash.

Only issue was the wiring in the band heater junction box, insulation couldn't handle the heat of the heater, so I may just take the insulation off and cover it back up with the listed cover.
View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1422918840.929730.jpg

Only surprise was after putting 9kw in the HLT and 3kw in the MLT band heater, it's only a degree a minute....

Maybe that's a good rate, just seemed slow to me.
View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1422919008.682069.jpg
 
Well after searching and searching and buying a broken 12" model thinking I could fix it, I found this baby.

http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.view&alt=web&id=151577707701

It's a working 15" HMI cmore. It's also the newest generation! I can't believe I got it for a 1/4 of the reg price. It has a blemish on the screen protector, but that can be buffed out!

My other HMI is the 10" version I've been using via the web client. I could have been totally satisfied, but come on... 15" is soooo much more screen to put more data on!

Also it has a HDMI output so instead of using advanced hmi as my display on the 36" flatscreen and taking all the time mapping modbus stuff, now I can use just the HMI output!!!

Don't know if you can tell, but I'm a happy guy!!!
 
That looks awesome! Still waiting to hear about the maiden brew :)

Apparently I need a little external inspiration to keep working on mine...
 
Another addition! A nice HMI enclosure and arm. Originally for an AB panel view, just need to make the hole a little bigger for my Cmore 15" HMI. View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1425242156.553118.jpg
View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1425242173.373307.jpg

That arm weighs twice as much as the panel. Thing weighs about 60lbs. Think I'm going to use some strut to distribute the load between 2 2x10 floor joists. Still a crap ton of weight!

Need to label the switches, anyone here make plastic engraved labels?
 
Nice. Reminds me of my days spend on plant floors. Are those 23mm or 30mm switches/pushbuttons? What brand?

Kal
 
kal said:
Nice. Reminds me of my days spend on plant floors. Are those 23mm or 30mm switches/pushbuttons? What brand?

Kal
Click to expand...


They are 22mm, the left 4 and the EMO are AB the right 4 are eaton.

The arm I got with this is a bear, probably 50lbs.

Might add a label for the toggles as they are just for manual control if the stage logic isn't active.
 

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