Automation for 10-12 litres?

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aamcle

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To increase the variety of beers I brew I'd very much like to be brewing 10-12 litre batches. To make it feasible I'd need a system with a high degree of automation, as I'm in the UK the commercial brewing appliances are unavailable or very expensive.

Do you know of any automated builds on that size range? The more automation the better.

Atb. Aamcle
 
Sadly.

1, in the UK the price is daft :( :(
2, all it automates is the mash.
 
Most likely, the more a solution automates, the more it will cost... And you definitely get what you pay for in terms of the Braumeister. I'm looking forward to seeing what other options are mentioned.
 
Just curious, what are you looking to automate?
I looked into automating things, but even at the brewery there isn't much to automate, we still turn things on and off, and open valves by pushing buttons instead of turning them. IMO, there isn't much to automate at 3 gallons.
 
I built a BM clone(ish) some years ago it was a pale shadow of the real thing and I hated it. I'm confident I'd like a BM though :)

The difficult parts for me are automating the hop additions and some sort of automatic cleaning system.

The mash and boil are easy enough, even sparging is relatively achievable but the hop additions are harder, I have seen a number of builds that work on this forum but I'd want something compact and I've no idea how I'd even start to put together a auto wash...

Maybe 2 vessel but full volume mashing, just draining into the boil kettle.. It will give me something to ponder about.

Verboten, I'd like to be able to set it running and just come back to pitch the yeast, to get my day back!
This has been brought in by two brew days back to back and I want to do two more when these batches are out my fermentation fridges!


Atb.
 
The smaller Anvil Foundry is reasonably priced for 3 gal batches. Brewbots are always gonna be expensive.
 
I'm in the UK .....

I have been thinking about it, if I ran the wort from the kettle into a Cony keg that was standing in a trug of water it would cool quickly an save a good deal of complications.
 
Just curious, what are you looking to automate?
I looked into automating things, but even at the brewery there isn't much to automate, we still turn things on and off, and open valves by pushing buttons instead of turning them. IMO, there isn't much to automate at 3 gallons.

You might want to change your opinion on this lol, I've been quite successful in automating 3 gallon batches.
 
I really don’t want to change my opinion, I guess that is why it’s my opinion.

can you, sure, your rig looks nice.
 
You can use the Grainfather for half sized batches if you buy the shorter pipework. Efficiency takes a bit of a hit.
I mostly brew for 9.5l kegs.
 
I have the small batch pipework, but because the malt pipe has to be removed end to end automation is very problematic.


Aamcle
 
Start small, build up over time.
If you go electric brewery, the natural starting point is to read temperatures and control the heat (on/off). You don't have to have a PID control for that; a simple on/off with deadband is good enough.

I have automated my brewery some, then sold it. Now I'm about to build a new, small batch system. BIAB, but I might go back to 3vessel again. not sure yet.
I also have been discouraged to find a few projects from the past now dead.

So, I just created an open-source project to automate a brewery.
The info is in this post link, ask whatever you like there.
Automate your electric brewery - 4 Testers needed for open source project
 
I still have a programmable PID from a build a few years ago, I'd certainly want to use electricity I'm in the UK so the is no good reason to mess with gas.

The HIM/Scada project is interesting.

aamcle
 
I still have a programmable PID from a build a few years ago, I'd certainly want to use electricity I'm in the UK so the is no good reason to mess with gas.

The HIM/Scada project is interesting.

aamcle
Okay, I'll let you know how it goes.
At first try, I am not looking to build an auto-hop addition device, nor a CIP (clean-in-place).

This was the only homebrewtalk CIP that I found
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/my-new-clean-in-place-cip-setup.580652/
But a Google search for CIP home brewery should get you a lot of info.
 
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