Review: BrewPi Spark

[molc]

Like I said, I'll do another water test with the STC in the thermowell. I suspect a large part of the problem is the brewbelt. My diff. was set to 0.3C, so the swing shouldn't have been so bad.

[molc]

Quick update to this, to show some interesting observations from using the brewpi for a while now. Here's my most recent beer, in the first ~12 hours:


Now, I cooled with the immersion cooler to 17.7C before transfer, as measured by the brewpi probe manually, but by the time transfer is complete and you account for stratification of the wort while cooling etc, it looks like it's closer to 19.5 at the time I've pitched. Over the next 4 hours, the temperature comes down to target, but in future, I'm going to transfer and only pitch once the temperature is settled, as that 1.5 C drop is def. going to stress the yeast a bit initially.

Looking back over my last few brews, I see the same pattern in all of them. Another lesson learned

Once they get the mash control update complete, I'll be able to have the same sort of logging at mashing, along with control. At the moment, I connect up the brewpi and do it manually, as a snippet of data to review. Here's my attempt at holding a 65C mash with recirculation manually:

The big drop in the middle is me messing with the temperature probe (read nearly strangling myself on it as it was hanging across the room from the fridge)

Overall I couldn't be happier. The level of control it is giving, along with it's accuracy, is just brilliant. Also, when you get a yeast related off flavour, it's so much easier to figure out what happened.

[Shanna]

Quick update to this, to show some interesting observations from using the brewpi for a while now. Here's my most recent beer, in the first ~12 hours:


Now, I cooled with the immersion cooler to 17.7C before transfer, as measured by the brewpi probe manually, but by the time transfer is complete and you account for stratification of the wort while cooling etc, it looks like it's closer to 19.5 at the time I've pitched. Over the next 4 hours, the temperature comes down to target, but in future, I'm going to transfer and only pitch once the temperature is settled, as that 1.5 C drop is def. going to stress the yeast a bit initially.

Looking back over my last few brews, I see the same pattern in all of them. Another lesson learned

Once they get the mash control update complete, I'll be able to have the same sort of logging at mashing, along with control. At the moment, I connect up the brewpi and do it manually, as a snippet of data to review. Here's my attempt at holding a 65C mash with recirculation manually:

The big drop in the middle is me messing with the temperature probe (read nearly strangling myself on it as it was hanging across the room from the fridge)

Overall I couldn't be happier. The level of control it is giving, along with it's accuracy, is just brilliant. Also, when you get a yeast related off flavour, it's so much easier to figure out what happened.

Interesting that you were able to get your immersion chiller to drop the temp down to 17.7. What is the secret, as I can never get mine down below 20C. Are you cooling the incoming water with ice or using glycol or something else? I considered getting my hands on a stainless steel container e.g a cocktail shaker or vacuum flash and filling it with ice and then using that to push the temperature down that last couple of degrees. I have a 2 channel beer chiller and even passing the cooling water through that before putting it in to the chiller I still can't get the last few degrees with any kind of speed. Chilling remains a pain in the ass in terms of the overall time taken to complete it. I have a 2nd chiller that I recently made that I plan to use in conjunction with my original chiller. I am hoping the two together will push me over the top.

I wonder also are you recirculating the wort when your chilling? I am using the chugger to drain the wort out the bottom valve and back in the top of the kettle through a copper pipe that reaches the bottom of the kettle.  This combined with a side mounted dip tube drain I believe makes sure that there is no temperature stratification.

Shanna

PS: I love the graphs, putting together a homemade version of the brewpi myself and will be interesting to see if I can match that output

Shanna

[Leann ull]

Nice graphs, brewpi really earns its salt when profiling from 10 to 2 on lagers over 30 days  or on ales and is 0.05 accurate, the probe itself is only good to +/- 0.1
Flashed stc 1000 is good too just interface is a bit trickier
Have you a fan Colm? it makes a huge difference to transfer of heat or cold around whatever fermentation chamber you are using.

[molc]

Interesting that you were able to get your immersion chiller to drop the temp down to 17.7. What is the secret, as I can never get mine down below 20C. Are you cooling the incoming water with ice or using glycol or something else? I considered getting my hands on a stainless steel container e.g a cocktail shaker or vacuum flash and filling it with ice and then using that to push the temperature down that last couple of degrees. I have a 2 channel beer chiller and even passing the cooling water through that before putting it in to the chiller I still can't get the last few degrees with any kind of speed. Chilling remains a pain in the ass in terms of the overall time taken to complete it. I have a 2nd chiller that I recently made that I plan to use in conjunction with my original chiller. I am hoping the two together will push me over the top.

I wonder also are you recirculating the wort when your chilling? I am using the chugger to drain the wort out the bottom valve and back in the top of the kettle through a copper pipe that reaches the bottom of the kettle.  This combined with a side mounted dip tube drain I believe makes sure that there is no temperature stratification.

Shanna

The only secret I have is a lot of cold water from the tap. I think it's using about 75-100L to cool 22L of wort over the course of 40-60 mins, so it's incredibly wasteful. The first 50C is fast (10-15 min) and then it just takes for ever. Once I get the chugger, I'm going to cool 30L of water the night before in the fermentation fridge and recirculate that, along with putting a bag of ice in there before I start.
Since I got the solar pump, I do recirculate. I strap the silicon hose to the chiller inside at 30 deg angle, like the jamil cooler, then start recirculating the boiling wort to sanitise everything. When I start cooling, I leave the first 20L of heated water go to a fermenter for rincing later, then the rest goes down the sink. I keep the pump going throughout cooling and then switch to pumping into the fermenter when I'm done. It saves the hassle of sanitising and cleaning the auto siphon, as well as being faster.

Have you a fan Colm? it makes a huge difference to transfer of heat or cold around whatever fermentation chamber you are using.

No fan, simply because it's being so accurate without one so far that I haven't bothered. I'm going to build a little one into a stand for the heating bar though over the summer.

[Leann ull]

Yep I used mine for 6 months before the fan and a very kind member donated me one from a pc.
Heating and cooling cycles become much shorter and you get no hot or cold spots.

[imark]

Yep I used mine for 6 months before the fan and a very kind member donated me one from a pc.
Heating and cooling cycles become much shorter and you get no hot or cold spots.

Do you have fan control from the brewpi or is it always on? I need to do a bit of work on mine and I want to integrate a fan in the next incarnation.

[Leann ull]

There is a space on the board for a fan feed and it will power 12v just need to configure it then in the settings menu

[Shanna]

Yep I used mine for 6 months before the fan and a very kind member donated me one from a pc.
Heating and cooling cycles become much shorter and you get no hot or cold spots.

I would get two as the fans are powerful but a fridge is a big space.

Shanna