Tiny Brew House. Ultimate BIAB 110v System Build

[poptarts]

Man, that’s an impressive build right there. I might be wrong here, but could you Brew and distill out of this thing? (With a few small adjustments)

Yes, the boil kettle is a still in fact. However if im not mistaken they dont want us talking about that hobby on this site.

 

[bonecitybrewco]

So if I understand correctly, the boil off condenses as the steam flows through to the chiller unit and then you can dump the condensate. Then, when you want to chill, you reverse the flow out the bottom of the kettle, up through the tube sheets with cold water applied and back in through the top? Also, it seems the stress point would likely be the sight glass given how much it elevates the piping over the lid.

 

[poptarts]

So if I understand correctly, the boil off condenses as the steam flows through to the chiller unit and then you can dump the condensate. Then, when you want to chill, you reverse the flow out the bottom of the kettle, up through the tube sheets with cold water applied and back in through the top? Also, it seems the stress point would likely be the sight glass given how much it elevates the piping over the lid.

Yep thats how it will work. Honestly I think the weak point is the weld of the TC fitting on to the lid of the pot. That sight glass is insane heavy duty. But this is solved with hard plumbing and or the clamp to handle on the kettle. Waiting on one bloody part still and Ill get some pictures of it all fitted out.

 

[bonecitybrewco]

Awesome. This is very much how a single unit in a chain of multiple effect vacuum evaporators work. It's a great concept! I know from personal experience.

 

[poptarts]

Still waiting on some small stupid parts from the slow boat but chipping away at the control panel software. Getting the panel cut soon so I can start updating this thread with more actual progress.

 

[poptarts]

Got my panel cut and am working on assembling it now. Still waiting on relay board but I should be able to get it mostly assembled up without that in place.

 

[poptarts]

Playing around with pump configurations too, leaning toward the small one and selling my chugger if it holds up.
All Photos => https://imgur.com/a/TJob5

 

[poptarts]

oh Yea! Basket showed, forgot to post these!

 

[BeardedBrews]

Playing around with pump configurations too, leaning toward the small one and selling my chugger if it holds up.

oh Yea! Basket showed, forgot to post these!

I switched my kettle from the chugger over to the little 24v dc pump and haven't had any real issues. I love how quiet it is. I don't think you'll miss the 1-2 gallons per minute difference.

Also, basket looks great!

 

[cegan09]

I use one of those little pumps (12v, not 24v, but similar). They work great, unless you get some grains that escape the basket. I had that recently where a bunch of grains got out of my bag and I spent the mash stopping the RIMS system every 10 minutes to take the pump apart and remove grains from the clogged wheel. my recommendation is make sure you have something like a bazooka tube on the pickup, or a good screen of some kind to prevent that.

otherwise looks really cool, keep the updates coming.

 

[VTCCbrewer]

Amazing thread!!!

 

[garagejob]

I cant wait to see your control box done. that thing looks like it will be amazing all by itself. watching this build from the edge of my seat. keep it up!

 

[jfenton78]

Where is everyone getting the 12v pumps? I bought one before but had issues with it locking up during long periods of use. Are you controlling the pump via PID or a potentiostat?

 

[poptarts]

Busted out some progress over the 3 day weekend. Testing this morning revealed my 2 110v outlets are not working so either I messed up wiring the relay or its broken, sadly I never tested it before installing so tonight I have to figure out whats going on with that. Everything somehow fits in my panel, not sure how. Had to order some special ribbon style HDMI cable for the monitor that should be here today so I can actually start turning that on and making sure its working as expected.
Went with hard plumbing for the condenser, it not only looks awesome but it adds the support I was needing! If, i can figure out this relay board, I should be able to get to work on brewing a batch of water this weekend and running it through the paces before my first brew. But as it sits now, the software has a couple bugs I can work around / patch up this week but I think the basics and Process/State automation phases are functioning as expected.

 

[poptarts]

Where is everyone getting the 12v pumps? I bought one before but had issues with it locking up during long periods of use. Are you controlling the pump via PID or a potentiostat?

I just got it off ebay. I will control the pump with the relayed 110v outlets, no need for PWM on it I can't imagine I would want anything besides on and off. I haven't tested it too much so I cant comment on the locking up after long runs. I still have my chugger pump because I have doubts as well on its reliability.

 

[garagejob]

forgive my ignorance, but what are these blue and red tagged wires?

also what OS are you running and what system are you using in the control box? or are you running all this from your laptop and just showing the display on the control box display panel? I am very interested in seeing how you have this setup.

 

[BeardedBrews]

forgive my ignorance, but what are these blue and red tagged wires?

They look like DS18B20 temperature probes to me, I believe the plan was to design his own controls using RPi but I don't know the details.

 

[poptarts]

forgive my ignorance, but what are these blue and red tagged wires?

also what OS are you running and what system are you using in the control box? or are you running all this from your laptop and just showing the display on the control box display panel? I am very interested in seeing how you have this setup.

They are my temp probes, I colored them so I could label them in the software "Red Probe" "Blue Probe" to make it easy since they are just going into thermowells and designed to be moved around.

As for software... Im building this whole system using a raspberry pi, you can see it in the photo there with the red prototyping hat on top of it. The pi is running raspbian for an OS, pretty much the standard these days for most. The software for the panel I'm coding completely from scratch, I call it Brewberry Pi because its awesome
The plan that seems to be working so far is the Pi will host my software on a website it is hosting, the monitor simply is just running Chrome and points to that website, I can also hit the website from my phone, tablet, laptop w/e to allow for remote monitoring and control.

I got my monitor all hooked up yesterday and had the slight oversight of not having a keyboard to log into the website so I will need to figure out a way to get on screen keyboard up and running but shouldn't be too hard... I have no idea what i'm doing honestly this is my first RPI project.
In other news, My relay is low level not high level so thats why its not working.... new one is on the way from amazon this time, and you are in the presence of a prime member so hopefully this weekend. (the wires dont normally look all mangled and ****** like this btw, this was after an intensive debugging session)

Ferm chamber updates though! Got my quarter keg, 'ultimate' racking cane system thing from nor cal, its pretty bad ass. And for heating im rolling with a low wattage waterproof seeding mat that is just going to be taped to the side of the chamber. Ran a test last night and the remote probe I had was reading 99.9F (cant go higher) so it definitely has the juice to heat up the chamber! Basically waiting on my angled USB for the monitor and now my second attempt at a realy before testing can begin! Oh and i got my spunding valve from china, pretty awesome for $20

 

[poptarts]

They look like DS18B20 temperature probes to me, I believe the plan was to design his own controls using RPi but I don't know the details.

They are DS18B20s on Micro XLR connections (that sucked to solder)

 

[garagejob]

They are my temp probes, I colored them so I could label them in the software "Red Probe" "Blue Probe" to make it easy since they are just going into thermowells and designed to be moved around.

They are DS18B20s on Micro XLR connections (that sucked to solder)....

That is exactly the info i was looking for.... Thanks

I got my monitor all hooked up yesterday and had the slight oversight of not having a keyboard to log into the website so I will need to figure out a way to get on screen keyboard up and running but shouldn't be too hard...

Why couldnt you use one of them handy USB wireless keyboard/mouse combos that has the little tiny USB receivers? then you could just plug it in to the Pi and leave that portion INSIDE the control box.

Like this thing:

 

[garagejob]

Got my panel cut and am working on assembling it now. Still waiting on relay board but I should be able to get it mostly assembled up without that in place.

Sorry, I am geek at heart! I totally believe that you should make a completely new thread just for your panel. I am very interested in knowing a lot more about it. Such as what size is the box? HOW did you cut the holes in the panel or did you order the panel with the holes already in it? I love those large electrical connections, I have been looking for some same or similar for a different sort of box i have been building for over a year (I am very slow when it comes to electrical stuff).

Keep up the good work!

 

[PacificNWBrewer]

.....
However, we are going to take it one step further and use the condenser as the wort chiller at the end of the boil too. I think a pool heat exchanger will work awesome for this. Honestly not sure why these are not more common in general as counterflow wort chillers considering you can get a stainless unit for around $100

.

Great idea!!!!! What size did to buy? I would love to try this as a pre chiller to use while whirl-pooling.
Thanks!

 

[poptarts]

Sorry, I am geek at heart! I totally believe that you should make a completely new thread just for your panel. I am very interested in knowing a lot more about it. Such as what size is the box? HOW did you cut the holes in the panel or did you order the panel with the holes already in it? I love those large electrical connections, I have been looking for some same or similar for a different sort of box i have been building for over a year (I am very slow when it comes to electrical stuff).

Keep up the good work!

This is the box 8x8x4
Got it water cut by a friend with access to some cool toys, however initial plan would have been drill / dremel / jig saw as I did to my old panel and it worked out fine, just a lot more labor intensive.
The big outlets are just L6-30 for the element and a flanged L14-30R for power in. Got them off eBay.
Happy to answer more questions or show more pictures of it if needed. Got her fired up on the 220v over the weekend with the new relay. My site seems to be crashing the browser so ill have to figure that out but I think all the hardware is ready to rock.

Great idea!!!!! What size did to buy? I would love to try this as a pre chiller to use while whirl-pooling.
Thanks!

Ended up using this one, since it already had the TC fittings on both end and was cheaper out of the gate I figured it would be worth saving some coin, however I think the original pool heater that I linked at the start of the thread would be more efficient and if I wasn't locked into TC fitting land I would have gone with it.

 

[PacificNWBrewer]

Any updates?! I’m curious to see the progress.

 

[BandonBrewingCo]

Not sure if this has been considered or not but is there any reason you don't just use Craftbeerpi? Seems to be exactly what you would need, instead of reinventing the wheel...