My Rig

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dragonfire540

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Thought you guys might apreciate this. Been building this for about a year little at a time. PLC controlled fully automated from beginning to end of hot side. It uses electric heat on HLT and on the RIMS system and currently gas on Boil Kettle but going to put in a boil coil instead. Automatically adds water and measures how much water is getting transferred to the MLT and flow rate of lauter. It calculates the mash water ratio as well. Still more to do but getting closer. Beer comming out of it is really good and consistant. Just add grain and turn it on and select what your going to brew. just add grain and your water additions to HLT and Mash. Also manually add hop but has timer to notify you when to do it. I also added a CIP program to clean it afterwards ;)

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If this is dumb question, somebody stop me, but how the heck do you keep it all clean? How often are you gonna have to break it down to parade rest and short of that, what other cleaning steps will you have to take more frequently. I'm using some pretty rudimentary gear and its hard enough to keep clean and sanitized with so many valves, fittings, and tubes.
 
To keep it clean I have programmed in my Unitronics controller a Clean cycle for it. I start but filling and heating the HTL to about 75c and alert me to add PBW. I then set it to start to transfer the cleaning solution to the MLT ( that I removed all the grain from previously). I measure the volume transfered with my flowmeter from Omega. I cycle it through the RIMS system pulsing it. I run it for 10 minutes continuous and then stop it to let it soak for a couple minutes and repeat.

then run it through the boil kettle, chiller and finally out the system.

I run several cycles, since, wash, rinse again, and I set sanitize but I don't need to run it. This is hot side so Don't need to sanitize it but if I choose I can run it.

I manually reverse the input/output to the chiller to flus it out.



that keeps it quote clean without having to pull it apart. If and when I do take it apart, everything is using Camlok fittings from out friend at BrewHardware. that makes it VERY easy to pull apart and clean.



Getting grain out... I put a 2" valve out the back and plumed it to a collection bin. Then I fill the HLT up with water and open the valve... I stir it up as it flows out the back and into the piping to a vessel that filters grain from water so I can dump it.

Dang I need a spell checker on this sorry for all the typos !
 
ryane said:
how are you measuring flow/volume?
Click to expand...

Funny, I just described the entire process for flow in another thread on here.

Basically I measure it with pulses coming from an Omega Flowmeter I got off eBay. It uses a hall effect sensor and paddlewheel to read magnetic pulses which I read in the controller's High speed input.

in y case 55 pulses = one liter of flow
I also read the frequency to calculate the flow as well for more accuracy. I read the freq input and calculate with floats variables.
 
dragonfire540 said:
To keep it clean I have programmed in my Unitronics controller a Clean cycle for it. I start but filling and heating the HTL to about 75c and alert me to add PBW. I then set it to start to transfer the cleaning solution to the MLT ( that I removed all the grain from previously). I measure the volume transfered with my flowmeter from Omega. I cycle it through the RIMS system pulsing it. I run it for 10 minutes continuous and then stop it to let it soak for a couple minutes and repeat.

then run it through the boil kettle, chiller and finally out the system.

I run several cycles, since, wash, rinse again, and I set sanitize but I don't need to run it. This is hot side so Don't need to sanitize it but if I choose I can run it.

I manually reverse the input/output to the chiller to flus it out.



that keeps it quote clean without having to pull it apart. If and when I do take it apart, everything is using Camlok fittings from out friend at BrewHardware. that makes it VERY easy to pull apart and clean.



Getting grain out... I put a 2" valve out the back and plumed it to a collection bin. Then I fill the HLT up with water and open the valve... I stir it up as it flows out the back and into the piping to a vessel that filters grain from water so I can dump it.

Dang I need a spell checker on this sorry for all the typos !
Click to expand...

Incredible. That is freakin cool! Reversing the flows and building everything with easy to disassemble hardware is ingenious. You sir, are truly one of those setting the bar for the rest of us mad scientists.
 
Rotor_Head said:
Incredible. That is freakin cool! Reversing the flows and building everything with easy to disassemble hardware is ingenious. You sir, are truly one of those setting the bar for the rest of us mad scientists.
Click to expand...

Thanks :)
Luckily Bobby at BrewHardware.com keeps good stock on the Camlocks and the price is decent otherwise it would have cost quite a bit more.

I have added a couple motorized ball valves and a motorized three way valve since those pics and change a few pipe runs a bit but will post newer pics soon. I also need to replace the temporary copper pipe with stainless steel soon. I used copper since it is easier to work with till I as settled on where I wanted everything. That way I can order the lengths I need.
 
Rotor_Head said:
Incredible. That is freakin cool! Reversing the flows and building everything with easy to disassemble hardware is ingenious. You sir, are truly one of those setting the bar for the rest of us mad scientists.
Click to expand...

Thanks :)
Luckily Bobby at BrewHardware.com keeps good stock on the Camlocks and the price is decent otherwise it would have cost quite a bit more.

I have added a couple motorized ball valves and a motorized three way valve since those pics and change a few pipe runs a bit but will post newer pics soon. I also need to replace the temporary copper pipe with stainless steel soon. I used copper since it is easier to work with till I as settled on where I wanted everything. That way I can order the lengths I need.
 
NervousDad said:
Nice job! I'm in the process of converting my SABCO VLC controller into a fully automated system and you've given me some good ideas!
Click to expand...

The Sabco uses a v350 pic from unitronics. That is a really nice one you can download with it. I am using a v230 from unitronics in this one since I got it free :)
 
I'm thinking of building a Herms system. Are you able to get 10 gallons in the fermenter using those kegs
 
Yea. They are best at 10 gallons. They can do more but gets harder to deal with boilover. That is what I am want to put in a 20 gallon boil kettel. To fill a 17 Gallon fermentor but these do 10 gallons just fine
 
Here is a link to the video, I tried to upload it but it is 800 Mb or so.

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_463SwMcI0[/ame]

It is still not 100 percent complete. The wiring is temporary as is the copper pipe used. Wiring I will clean up when all programming is completed and the rest of the panels are done.

Copper will be replaced with Stainless Steel

Efficiency with the system is 86% and consistent ... as long as I keep my grind the same :)
 
This is fantastic. When you get those wires cleaned up this will be front page homebrewing magazine porn :)
 
Ki-ri-n said:
It's not on the rig itself. But in a pile of extra parts to the left.....
Click to expand...

When I bought these kegs they where already cut off, I think he put the slots in them for a false bottom, but I don't think that will work all that well so I bought one from bobby at brewhardware.com
 
rekoob said:
Great Rig, looks well thought out and put together.
Click to expand...


Thanks. It has taken long enough to build. I just added the formula calculations for the strike temperature. It asks for the grain temp and calculates strike temp based on target mash temp. Working quite well.
 

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