Gravitysucks
Well-Known Member
I actually started brewing back in 1991 doing extract batches on an electric stove using Papazian's Joy of Home Brewing, Dave Line's Big Book of Brewing, and Zymurgy magazine as my guides. I wasn't able to brew a lot as my wife was very protective of "her" kitchen but I did manage to produce a few good beers, a bunch of mediocre beers ,and some that were actually terrible. Eventually I was banished from the kitchen because my wife decided that beer brewing was too messy and made the house smell (in case it's not obvious she was a rum and coke girl on the rare occasion that she drank and had never actually drunk a beer in her life). I gave up at that point.
Until 2001. Now wifeless, not because of the beer brewing, I decided to give brewing another try and even expand into something that in my previous life probably would have gotten me banished from the house rather than just the kitchen...all grain brewing. I had a limited budget as is often the case with folks that have an "ex" in the picture but I did a lot of research and figured I could eventually put together a workable system. Then I made what at the time I thought was the score of a lifetime. The city next to the town I live in had, at the time, a thing called "big trash pickup week" and as I was driving to work one morning I saw, amounst a pile of trash and broken furniture, 3 stainless kegs from various beer makers. Not believing my luck or giving it a second thought, I stopped and threw them in the back of my truck. I also found an old washing machine like my 30 year old one that had just died on the same morning and managed to make one working one out of the two. Win/Win.
It wasn't until I got home that night, after fantasizing all day about the new keggle system I was going to build, that I thought about where I'd actually found the kegs or why they might be there. The house they were in front of was across the street and just a short walk from the local college and being summer it was likely that staff was cleaning out trash left behind in college housing. The kegs were likely ones that had never been returned to the local distributors and having been to an occasional kegger in an earlier life I was pretty sure the deposit one puts down on a keg probably wouldn't cover the cost of the actual keg. So essentially the kegs were stolen. I could just picture myself taking the kegs to a local welder to have ports welded,getting turned in, and then having the police at my door. I almost took them back to the trash pile that night but I was afraid someone might see them in the back of my truck and I'd get caught so I hid them in my basement. They're still there almost 17 years later. I wonder what the statute of limitation is for keg thieves.
Anyway, since ready made stainless kettles were still not readily available and the ones that were available were very expensive I ended up buying an HDPE HTL, Mash Tun, and a conical fermenter from MiniBrew and a Polarware boil kettle. I build a 3 tier stand and got everything set up then life happened again. I got a job offer on an island here in Maine, a four hour commute each way from home. It was only suppose to last 6 months but I ended up being there for 4 years, only occasionally coming home to check that my house was still standing and squatters hadn't changed the locks. I did manage to get a few brew days in with some friends on long weekends but it was never really enough to work out the bugs in the system. And since I was away for such long stretches of time my friends never seemed to remember to save any of the results for me to try. Apparently none were better than "just OK" or so I'm told.
After I finally got back home for good house repairs, renovations, and the 3 rescue dogs I adopted while on the island took up all my time. That brings me to today.
I retired a few months ago and I'd really like to try to get back into brewing. Since most of the guys that I used to brew with are as old, or older than I am and refuse to brew outside when the weather gets much below 60 degrees, which is about 10 months a year here in Maine I'm hoping that going electric and moving inside will lead to more brew days.I still have all my old equipment which I've tried to improve it a bit over the last few months and I've purchased a new 15 gallon Stout boil kettle set up for an element. I've build a single tier stand for all my equipment and I have pumps, hoses, cam lock, etc on my shopping list of things I think i still need but my big question, and the reason for this ridiculously rambling post is that I have no idea what to do about a controller.
I worked as a marine electrician so I'm familiar with both AC and DC systems and I've built numerous computers for myself and other people so electricity isn't an issue. It's more an issue of weighing the pros and cons of the various types of controllers. After reading everything I've been able to find about various types of controllers it would seem that Kal's system and it's clones are the simplest and most bulletproof type of controller while the Arduino based controllers offer give you more opportunity for automation and control of minutia. The Rasberry Pi based controllers seem to give you some but not all of the versatility of the Arduino and it has the advantage of programs like CraftbeerPi being free.
I'm sure that I would have no problem putting together a system like Kal's as most of the components are little different from those used in dealing with mixed Ac/Dc systems on the yachts I worked on but, while I've never worked with either Arduino or the rasberry Pi, I find the systems interesting. I even considered the Hosehead controller at one point as something to get me started although I question using active cooling rather than passive in a potentially wet environment. So, I guess I know enough to be dangerous but not enough to make an educated decision. I've tried to go back through posts here to figure out the pros and cons but I still find it a bit confusing. Any help would be appreciated.
I apologize for taking so long to get to the point. I guess my Daughter is right...I need to learn when to shut up.
I've attached a picture of what I currently have, although I'm not sure I did it correctly, in case anyone has any suggestions.
Until 2001. Now wifeless, not because of the beer brewing, I decided to give brewing another try and even expand into something that in my previous life probably would have gotten me banished from the house rather than just the kitchen...all grain brewing. I had a limited budget as is often the case with folks that have an "ex" in the picture but I did a lot of research and figured I could eventually put together a workable system. Then I made what at the time I thought was the score of a lifetime. The city next to the town I live in had, at the time, a thing called "big trash pickup week" and as I was driving to work one morning I saw, amounst a pile of trash and broken furniture, 3 stainless kegs from various beer makers. Not believing my luck or giving it a second thought, I stopped and threw them in the back of my truck. I also found an old washing machine like my 30 year old one that had just died on the same morning and managed to make one working one out of the two. Win/Win.
It wasn't until I got home that night, after fantasizing all day about the new keggle system I was going to build, that I thought about where I'd actually found the kegs or why they might be there. The house they were in front of was across the street and just a short walk from the local college and being summer it was likely that staff was cleaning out trash left behind in college housing. The kegs were likely ones that had never been returned to the local distributors and having been to an occasional kegger in an earlier life I was pretty sure the deposit one puts down on a keg probably wouldn't cover the cost of the actual keg. So essentially the kegs were stolen. I could just picture myself taking the kegs to a local welder to have ports welded,getting turned in, and then having the police at my door. I almost took them back to the trash pile that night but I was afraid someone might see them in the back of my truck and I'd get caught so I hid them in my basement. They're still there almost 17 years later. I wonder what the statute of limitation is for keg thieves.
Anyway, since ready made stainless kettles were still not readily available and the ones that were available were very expensive I ended up buying an HDPE HTL, Mash Tun, and a conical fermenter from MiniBrew and a Polarware boil kettle. I build a 3 tier stand and got everything set up then life happened again. I got a job offer on an island here in Maine, a four hour commute each way from home. It was only suppose to last 6 months but I ended up being there for 4 years, only occasionally coming home to check that my house was still standing and squatters hadn't changed the locks. I did manage to get a few brew days in with some friends on long weekends but it was never really enough to work out the bugs in the system. And since I was away for such long stretches of time my friends never seemed to remember to save any of the results for me to try. Apparently none were better than "just OK" or so I'm told.
After I finally got back home for good house repairs, renovations, and the 3 rescue dogs I adopted while on the island took up all my time. That brings me to today.
I retired a few months ago and I'd really like to try to get back into brewing. Since most of the guys that I used to brew with are as old, or older than I am and refuse to brew outside when the weather gets much below 60 degrees, which is about 10 months a year here in Maine I'm hoping that going electric and moving inside will lead to more brew days.I still have all my old equipment which I've tried to improve it a bit over the last few months and I've purchased a new 15 gallon Stout boil kettle set up for an element. I've build a single tier stand for all my equipment and I have pumps, hoses, cam lock, etc on my shopping list of things I think i still need but my big question, and the reason for this ridiculously rambling post is that I have no idea what to do about a controller.
I worked as a marine electrician so I'm familiar with both AC and DC systems and I've built numerous computers for myself and other people so electricity isn't an issue. It's more an issue of weighing the pros and cons of the various types of controllers. After reading everything I've been able to find about various types of controllers it would seem that Kal's system and it's clones are the simplest and most bulletproof type of controller while the Arduino based controllers offer give you more opportunity for automation and control of minutia. The Rasberry Pi based controllers seem to give you some but not all of the versatility of the Arduino and it has the advantage of programs like CraftbeerPi being free.
I'm sure that I would have no problem putting together a system like Kal's as most of the components are little different from those used in dealing with mixed Ac/Dc systems on the yachts I worked on but, while I've never worked with either Arduino or the rasberry Pi, I find the systems interesting. I even considered the Hosehead controller at one point as something to get me started although I question using active cooling rather than passive in a potentially wet environment. So, I guess I know enough to be dangerous but not enough to make an educated decision. I've tried to go back through posts here to figure out the pros and cons but I still find it a bit confusing. Any help would be appreciated.
I apologize for taking so long to get to the point. I guess my Daughter is right...I need to learn when to shut up.
I've attached a picture of what I currently have, although I'm not sure I did it correctly, in case anyone has any suggestions.
