Hey Guys, I just got into brewing with my father in law.  He has been brewing for years and then took a couple years off and now I have him back into it.  We are wanting to setup a fairly automated brew system and I'm wondering if anyone has suggestions.  I'm an EE so I can handle the automation but I'd like to follow some DIY instructions or Kit's like they have at Brewtroller or something else.  Any help is appreciated!

You're an EE, the fun part is making the instructions, now get to it!

Water gets hot, water gets cold, water moves around--throw in controller of choice and feedback loop/control.

Yeah but I guess I'm after what kind of tanks, pumps, sensors and controllers that people use.

Check out HomeBrewTalk, it's the Arfcom of brewing.

Personally I like the whole brewing process, it's kind of a ritual for me but the automated stuff is kinda cool too.

And specifically: http://www.homebrewtalk.com/forumdisplay.php?f=235



 

Thanks guys.

I built a semi-automated e-brew stand.  It uses a PLC, couple automated valves, 2 pumps, temp controllers and some relays.

I also spurged on a touch-screen HMI.  A lot of brewing involves the tedium of maintaining temps for set periods on time, so why not automate that?  Built it from scratch after lots of studying what I really wanted it to do.

You're an EE?  You shouldn't be afraid to tackle a project like this from scratch.  The biggest part was the programming, turned into a huge PLC program and first time I dabbled with Modbus communications (to read/write data to temp controllers)

Well I know there are some controllers out there like the BCS 460 that have all that pre programmed so I'm thinking of going that way and building it out myself. Mainly because eof the Web interface that I don't have time to program.

My hero!  I need some details.  Did you buy the control panel built out or follow some instructions?  Do you have a Brew Controller in there that the HMI connects with or is it only those PID's?

Built all from scratch using stuff from AutomationDirect.  I use this stuff at work so I have some experience and access to the programming software.

I’ll try to briefly describe how it works.

I can run it in manual or auto mode.  Manual lets you turn anything on as you want.  Use that only for cleaning.  You enter a recipe for auto mode.  Enter in strike water volume and temp, mash time, sparge types (can do batch or fly) and times, boil time and ingredient add times.  Then hit “brew”.

A solenoid valve opens and begins filling the HLT with water (plumbed from house plumbing).  The PLC enables a 5500W heat element in the HLT and begins heating the water.  A float switch in the HLT will shut off the water when full.  While heating the water, pump 1 will periodically circulate the HLT water through one side of a plater chiller.  An automated 3-way valve will direct the water back to the HLT.  This is to stir for even heating.  Temp control is relegated to the temp controller.  Through Modbus communications I can write set values to it from the PLC and read process values off the thermocouples…which are connected to the temp controllers.  The temp controller, through a solidstate relay directly controls the heat element.  Once temp is at the target strike water temp, the 3-way valve reconfigures to direct flow to the mash tun (MLT).  The MLT has a ‘sparge arm’ with a spray nozzle on it.  I calculated out the flow rate of the pump/system so I can pump a specific strike water volume based on time.  Once that’s done it sounds an alarm prompting me to add the grains.  Once doughed in I hit the ‘start’ button and it starts the mash timer.  I used to have this set up as an auto HERMS system, but found it pretty inefficient.  I’ve since just wrapped the MLT in insulation and just do a one-step infusion mash.  Once the mash is underway, it automatically refills the HLT and heats to the sparge water temp.  When the mash is done, another valve opens to slowly gravity feed the wort into the boil kettle.  The system automatically runs the sparge and stops when it hits your target total volume.  Again, it keeps a constant tally of how long pump 1 runs pumping water to the MLT to calculate total water volume.  It then sounds an alarm to let you know you are ready to boil.

Boil is fairly manual.  I use another temp controller, but in a manual mode (on/off).  I rigged up a potentiometer through the PLC to output “percent on” time to the temp controller.  I just thought it would be more intuitive to turn a knob to turn up or down the heat.  The plc will enable the boil element when in the boil (only one heat element can be active at a time).  I crank the knob to 100% to start the boil, then back off to around 50% to maintain a nice, rolling boil.  Hit “start boil” and it starts the boil timer.  Prompts will alert me and display on the screen when hop additions are due.  The boil kettle is plumbed to pump 2 which routes through the other side of that plate chiller and back to the boil kettle.  15 minutes to the end of boil it turns that pump on to circulate boiling wort to sanitize the plate chiller.  End of boil it ‘beep’s and immediately goes into cool down mode.  Heat element gets disabled and both pumps turn on.  The solenoid valve to fill the HLT turns on and this cold water gets pumped through one side of the chiller while the wort is pumped through the other side.  The cooling water gets rerouted to go down a drain instead of into the HLT.  It’ll run like this until the wort’s target cool temp is reached.  I can then throw a sanitized tube on the output of pump 2 and transfer to a carboy.  

I went overboard with this and probably have over $1000 sunk in it.  I’m afraid to actually tally up the exact amount, but hey, it’s a hobby.  I have a 350CFM exhaust fan routed straight outside and it’s not quite enough.  I had to use a dehumidifier to keep the moisture in check.  220 volts of power is supplied off a double gang, 50 amp GFCI breaker.  Programming the PLC was by far the most difficult part.  Lots of sequences, timers, and number crunching to keep track off.

Wow Jim.  Thank you for taking the time to lay all of this out.  I usually just give a modbus map to guys like you and walk away.  I'm looking for something a little less complex than this but it is great to have everything laid out.

The Electric Brewery has some cool products to get your started or just give you ideas. For some reason, their site isn't loading for me right now though.

Against my judgement my FIL ended up purchasing a Brew Boss because I told him it would take me several months to get everything together.   Oh well, we will be brewing quicker this way. First on the brew will be a stone IPA clone, then a Dales Pale Ale

Good Lord, $1400 for basically ONE pot, elec burner, pump and controller?  Damn that is some margin.  What is it, brew in the bag type system?

No chiller or fermenting help either huh, the fermenting temp will be the one that gets you, if that goes to hell your beer will suck no matter what, wort production be damned.

It is a one pot full mash system.  It has a chiller that was purchased with it.  We have a separate fermenting system that we can ferment multiple batches at a time.  The designer has a pretty good youtube video up.

Here's my semi auto controller



PID keeps the RIMS tube at the right temperature

Rotary switches are for the outlets on the top for the pumps. I've made a few mods since that picture was taken, but the appearance is about the same. Added a second SSR so I wouldn't have to worry about touching hot things

I like that design.  Nice work!