The building of a New Brewery

[rabeb25]

Since I have been getting a lot of PM's, here is some quick and dirty cell phone videos of some testing in action.

https://www.facebook.com/thebeerery/videos/655755964567007/

https://www.facebook.com/thebeerery/videos/655756057900331/

 

[brettwasbtd]

So what is the new induction unit you have and how did you mod it?

 

[hungry4hops]

This is amazing, it's like a miniature scale of a professional brewery, thanks for all the posts keep up the good work!

 

[rabeb25]

Tinkered some more over the last few days:
Starting finalizing the decoction control panel:

XLR for the temp probe:

Panel all sorted ( still awaiting the cat5 panel mount):

Front of the unit, 120v in, 240v in, and HDMI out:

Back of the unit, Power connectors( still awaiting cat5 panel mount, and panel tags):

Making sure it all still works:

Got the new controller for it ( a 7" kindle fire, that will go in a ruggedized case):

It also interfaces with the main brewery controller:

 

[rabeb25]

I orignally went center bottom mount for the volume sensors, but it pooled water after clean out, and if the pump lost power it would get sucked in the air tubes. SO I went back to the traditional bubbler mounting and am much happier with it.

Boil Kettle:

Matched it with the HLT:

Both:

 

[rabeb25]

Well, I had Christmas with my family today, and happened to luck out( thank god for Amazon wish lists). I got my decoction stand, my long wished for restaurant sprayer thing, and my panel mount stuff showed up. So rushed home, put the kids to bed and started tinkering.
First thing I put in was the sprayer.
View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1450589517.166118.jpg
View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1450589556.701114.jpg

Then I turned my attention to the kitchen cart. Chopped off about 16" on the legs, got it all mounted and put on. Ended up with this:
View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1450589653.416711.jpg
View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1450589669.007570.jpg
View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1450589690.518278.jpg
View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1450589731.972234.jpg
View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1450589775.561550.jpg

 

[wobdee]

Wow, nice work!

 

[mblanks2]

Thing of beauty. Awesome work. When my brew stand grows up it wants to be just like yours.

 

[rabeb25]

Did some tinkering over Christmas break here.

Finished my probe ends:

Got the controller all put together:

Had my 14" touchscreen go out, so I happen to have a 17" back up I retorfitted in place:

Misson Control:

Brewing while Eating breakfast:

Reconfigured the area where the TV was before:

View from the bar Area:

Of course I still have to finish the room!

 

[brewslinger]

Would you mind sharing what kind of touch screen you are using?

I am looking at building a system with a touchscreen myself but have been having a hard time locating one to my liking.

 

[rabeb25]

I use laptop screens with lcd controllers and separate touch panels.

 

[rabeb25]

A snippet of a recent non-decoction Helles brew.

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVE1ST3-eFU[/ame]

 

[brettwasbtd]

So the adcraft burner can be used with a PID to be switched on and off easily?

 

[jcav]

This system and thread is amazing!

John

 

[lbond2]

I am speechless....

 

[rabeb25]

So the adcraft burner can be used with a PID to be switched on and off easily?

Correct!

 

[rabeb25]

Thanks all. I have been steadily brewing on the system, I have done no sparge, traditional 3 vessel, 4 vessel with decoctions, 3 vessel with direct heat step mashes, anything you could imagine. Love it.

I replaced the 5500 watt element with a 3750 watt boil coil, as I didn't like the flavors I was getting, and the boil with the bigger element. LOVE, the boil coil, no scorching, no off flavors. Was able to get my boil off to a nicer 12%/hr with 75% on the PID. I would still like to lower it to 10%, so I will be working on that.

Here are some updates.

HLT fill:
[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HdiXvHa7Es[/ame]

Dough in while underletting the mash:
[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEMYIaZzk4U[/ame]

Boiling and Hot break:
[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99D2fvHe3Ns[/ame]


Mash clarity:

Preboil:

And lastly the beer that as brewed in the pictures from the posts above, cheers.

 

[jcav]

Very nice, and that beer looks fantastic!

John

 

[rabeb25]

Adding this for the people who were curious about the induction cooktop automation.

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xOEjVV-wZM[/ame]

 

[augiedoggy]

Very sweet setup man. I really dig the mixing rake design.

 

[augiedoggy]

I replaced the 5500 watt element with a 3750 watt boil coil, as I didn't like the flavors I was getting, and the boil with the bigger element. LOVE, the boil coil, no scorching, no off flavors. Was able to get my boil off to a nicer 12%/hr with 75% on the PID. I would still like to lower it to 10%, so I will be working on that.

This is interesting since theres very little info on this forum or side by side comparisions where people have used different power and watt density elements and reported a change in the flavors produced by it...
I Too wondered about this and thus far im using an ULWD 4500w element which only puts out 4026 w or power and have been reluctant to replace it with something more powerful for fear that it could cause heavier flavors somehow ... if what you say is true there should be quite a drastic flavor difference on a beer produced with a boil coil vs those using lwd or even HWD elements...
I have thought about wiring 2 4500w elements and using a manual potentiometer ssvr setup to limit there top output but have not been able to find any evidence to suggest it would actually have an effect or not.

It does make sense though that it could since the heat intensity can effects the flavors of some sauces and caramel type mixtures from what Ive been told... and breweries tend to use a gentler method yet for applying heat to the wort with stem jackets so...

 

[rabeb25]

This is interesting since theres very little info on this forum or side by side comparisions where people have used different power and watt density elements and reported a change in the flavors produced by it...
I Too wondered about this and thus far im using an ULWD 4500w element which only puts out 4026 w or power and have been reluctant to replace it with something more powerful for fear that it could cause heavier flavors somehow ... if what you say is true there should be quite a drastic flavor difference on a beer produced with a boil coil vs those using lwd or even HWD elements...
I have thought about wiring 2 4500w elements and using a manual potentiometer ssvr setup to limit there top output but have not been able to find any evidence to suggest it would actually have an effect or not.

It does make sense though that it could since the heat intensity can effects the flavors of some sauces and caramel type mixtures from what Ive been told... and breweries tend to use a gentler method yet for applying heat to the wort with stem jackets so...

99% of my beers are light pale german lagers. I can pick up the nuances and I started to correlate the more the weirdness the more time it was boiled, or the intensity it was boiled. Watts per sq in are watts per sq in... using a PID you are pulsing the full power on and off, even if its 30% you are still 100% for that 30%. It was those 100% pulses that did weird stuff for me, hops and wort. The hops would always get a bit vegetal on me, the more hops the more pronounced, even when adding them 10 minutes and below. I have it down to 70% now, and seem to be at about 10% boil off and getting a very clean boil flavor now. MUCH happier.

 

[rabeb25]

Let me preface this with, I am no camera man, I am no actor. I fought with youtube all weekend. Uploading a bunch of HD videos that youtube decided to make SD now.. So the video sucks, as does the editing. However this should give an overview of a brew of mine. I will link the abridged video first, and then show my channel, so you could see any of the 30 full videos it came from. The abridged version is pretty quick and dirty. The individual videos give much more depth and detail.

The 6hr brew day abridged from start to finish:
[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4HxK1J65f0[/ame]



The channel with all the indiviudal videos:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCx58Qq4GJheOAiyCoxBOfRQ


Again, sorry for the quality, I will most certainly take donations for a go pro, and a camera man.

Here are some of the pictures I took as well.

Mash pH:

Hotbreak:

Postboil pH:

 

[HarpuaScorpio]

...I fought with youtube all weekend. Uploading a bunch of HD videos that youtube decided to make SD now.. So the video sucks, as does the editing....

You're good. The videos are HD, you just have to select that after it starts. Hover your mouse over the video panel, a gear will appear, click that and then click "quality". You'll see a bunch of video resolution options.

 

[rabeb25]

You're good. The videos are HD, you just have to select that after it starts. Hover your mouse over the video panel, a gear will appear, click that and then click "quality". You'll see a bunch of video resolution options.

No, I know that. But the videos themselves are HD, but upon the upload it downrezed them( read: fuzzy, grainy). The originals are much better quality.

 

[HarpuaScorpio]

No, I know that. But the videos themselves are HD, but upon the upload it downrezed them( read: fuzzy, grainy). The originals are much better quality.

Gotcha. In that case, I apologize if I came off pandering or insulting your intelligence. That's not what was intended.

 

[rabeb25]

Gotcha. In that case, I apologize if I came off pandering or insulting your intelligence. That's not what was intended.

Its all good. Cheers.

 

[rabeb25]

Brewing today and trying out the new Youtube live streaming.

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPWJZjvtH4Q[/ame]

 

[bierdeblanche]

This is great to be able to watch this off and on today. Once I move out to California, I'm going to start putting together a build very similar to yours.

Do you just set the rake for your decoction vessel to on, or is it automated in any way?

 

[rabeb25]

It's automated with the raspberry pi.