My Electric Brewery Build

[bigvalen]

That looks so cool!

[bigvalen]

I've decides if I manage to do this, I'm gonna try do it Nixie cubes.

[Ozbrewer]

Happy National Homebrew day everyone......

Well, the panel is finished, except for the labels. And today, Sorcerers Apprentice (Rory), put in the electrics - and did a bang up job as well. Anyone looking for a sparky, I can highly recommend Rory.

So, boring photo's of the electrics, just showing the neat work.

Junction box on outside of house


Cabling to go over the roof and out to the back. All neatly done. Just under 30 meters of cable.


Main socket


Ok - onto the good stuff now. So I had to test everything and then tune in the pids.

BK and HLT in place for testing. No problems really, one minor leak on one fitting on the HERMS coil, a quick tighten and solved.







Water on re-circulation. Chugger pump really does the job.



Flow back into the Mash Tun. Bit slower as the HERMS coil does restrict the flow a bit.



The MT temp followed at a close enough rate. I didn't measure times. The HLT water heats up super fast with the two 5500w elements. I'll time everything next time.

Ok - so here is inside the panel. All neat and tidy now....







Front of the panel again - still need the tags - and you can't see all the lights etc due to position and how sunny it was today.



The base with all the cables and probes in place.




Ok - so initial overall comments:
- I need to calibrate the temp probes as I think two probes are out by 2 degrees c.
- I have three leaks on the BK, one when cold that disappears under boil, and two when under boil. Should be easy enough fixes.
- I have to check how quickly the mash tun follows the temp of the HLT - but looks ok so far
- The counter flow chiller worked brilliant - the return whirlpool is not fast as the flow is restricted by the 10mm copper pipe, however, it does drop 70 litres from boiling to 25c in 40 mins easy. So I was really happy with this.
- I have one fitting on the pumps that needs a tighten and one quick disconnect fitting needing a tighten as well.
- I need to program the timers
- the panel works as designed with no problems

I tuned everything and the PIDs work brilliantly, no over shooting or under shooting on temps. Overall the system seems really responsive.

Approx. 18 months to get here.

1st brew day on it next weekend.

[Sorcerers Apprentice]

Thanks for the kind words Rolf and well done for sticking it out and for completing a fantastic project, it's a thing of great beauty. It was a joy to witness your initial "switch on" almost like looking at the kids opening their Christmas presents. Your family will be delighted to get their kitchen table back at last and I look forward to sampling one of your famous Helles brews!!

[mr.drankin]

I had issues with ssr for my 5500kw heating elements in my control panel.  I found that they were over heating when on for a period of time. They would stick and wouldn't let the pids shut them off, the only way to turn them off would be shutting the main power off.

I ended up putting thermal compound between the ssr and heat sinks and setting a 5v pc fan beside them to keep them cool, they work fine now.  The last thing I needed was a burnt out ssr in the middle of a boil.

[Ozbrewer]

@SA - thanks Rory. I'll let you know about Saturday as well.

@Mr.Drankin - I have 3 SSRs, a massive heatsink and I've used thermal paste with all of them as well. I also oversized them 2 x 40amp and 1 x 80amp. Apparently they run cooler if they are oversized for the amperage that would be going through them. What size are your SSRs?

[mr.drankin]

I have 2 40 amp ssr's which are connected to 1 camco 5.5kw and 1 2.4kw heating element.  My problem probably is a small enclosure, 400mm x 300mm and small cheap heat sinks I got with the ssrs.   I'll upgrade at some point, although I do think i'd keep a fan inside circulating air because of the the heat.

[Ozbrewer]

I oversized the heat sink as well. Bought when I bought the SSRs from Auberins. I think the fan sounds like a good idea.

Are your heatsinks mounted internally? Or externally with a hole in the panel to mount the SSRs on?

You can see in one of my pics above the SSRs on the heatsink and the over abundance of white thermal paste.

Do you have any pictures of your setup? Would be good to see what you have done.

[mr.drankin]

I done a braumeister, biab type of set-up.  Its in belfast homebrewers as shiny experimental set-up.  I have slightly changed it,  put a more secure whirlpool arm in, waiting on a hop spider from america which just leaves a bigger stainless steel enclosure to attach to the side.  It works fine so i'll test a few times in case I think of something new, I dont fancy upgrading again.

[psham]

Quick question on whirlpool arm, would you keep the diameter at ½inch or reduce to say 10mm to give more power to the whirlpool?

[mr.drankin]

This is something I plan to experiment with, the tube reduced to 3/8 would probably be better I think.  Although it doesn't whirlpool that quick you still get the desired effect with everything settling in the middle. 

[Ozbrewer]

Quick question on whirlpool arm, would you keep the diameter at ½inch or reduce to say 10mm to give more power to the whirlpool?

From what I can see on my system is that the HLT water recirculates quicker than the wort pump going thought 50' of 1/2 inch coil. The coil restricts flow. On my BK, when recirculating through 30' of 10mm copper for chilling (counterflow), the flow is restricted even more. Reducing your diameter will reduce the flow rate and overall power to the whirlpool.

[psham]

Interesting.. One for and one against.. I have 10mm arm in place and am not happy with flow rate, it does the job.. Going to test with ½" to see if it improves..

[Ozbrewer]

@psham - let me know how you get on with this. My experience says reducing to 10mm will constrict your flow rates, but if you get a different result, it means I have a different problem to think about..

[psham]

Going to test in the morning.. I'll let you know..