pretty cool. So that’s with a siemens PLC? And what coding language/interface?
Yessir. I used one of the modular varieties. S7-1200, using TIA portal v15, written in ladder and structured text, with WinCC runtime as my fake HMI (GUI) on my laptop
^^^^^^^. 
(Sneezles on the ground). Holy Moly… Cyberborgs? 
Sneezles61
Haha well I’m pretty sure you have said in the past that you are great with woodworking, so I am quite envious of your skills. (Go blue head on the ground but in awe) at your skills. We should form a tag team!
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Update:
System worked pretty well. Probably need to work out the sealant in the future, maybe welding or using jb weld on the exterior rather than food grade silicone caulk.
Beer turned out much lower OG than expected. I was distracted and only batch sparged for 15-20 minutes rather than my usual 35-40. Also with the lower boilinn due to different heating element and SCR, my boiloff was less than usual… But I made the same volume of preboil as usual. Was supposed to be 1.065, came out as 1.052. so, probably human error and not system related. Not expecting this beer to turn out great, but gives me hope for the future. The heating element still has some stuck on “gunk” but oh well.
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Science is a fussy mistress. It’s been fun following your build. Based on your analysis I say it won’t be long and you’ll have your baby fine tuned and humming along like a Swiss watch!
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Silver solder… I’d not want to even think some chemical leached into my brew…
I still do an hour mashing… You could even step mash… I could once I’m at mash temp, I can set my SCR at 15… Then I watch my thermometer… I may have to crank up to 30 to regain a bit of heat… But then I can back down and try a point or two higher or you may have it the other way and go lower…
Sneezles61
Yea I think it was my batch sparging. And like I said, I collected the same amount of preboil as I normally do, but with a much less vigorous boil, maybe not enough water escaped so I have a diluted brew. I will add some boiled and cooled dme if it bothers me. Mash was still an hour, sparge just was a little shorter than normal.
A few things I noticed. Recirculation for cooking worked well, but it also broke apart all of the whirlfloc chunks… Not sure how to avoid that moving forward. Also the dip tubes don’t stay in their designated orientation. Not sure if that is normal, but these appear designed to rotate at will. Neat idea but it resulted in the output tube to point straight downward at times and really reduced the flow to the chugger.
Your sparge really doesn’t contribute much to OG, just washes the last sugars off the grains and in all honesty the second runnings should always be lower gravity and dilute your first runnings. I’d look elsewhere for the reason for your low gravity.
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I mean if not that, the only thing I can think of is too diluted wort. Too much volume collected, meaning I used too much water in general. Otherwise, I’m not sure where to look. Strike water was good temp, vorlauf went fine, collected almost 3 gallons of first runnings, which is normal for me usually. But then collected around 6.5 gallons in total, which means over half of my pre boil was from the sparge. Ended up with a little more than 5.5 gallons after the boil. So… Maybe too much water in the sparge or not enough water in the mash?
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I’m going to ask a ton of questions and they’re more process and efficiency related but they’re all about dialing in your new system so not really off topic.
What was your mash efficiency? Brewhouse efficiency? How did they compare to previous iterations of this beer? You didn’t use a completely new recipe on a completely new system did you?
It’s all about consistency and since you have a new system you have no baseline for efficiency until you get a few brew sessions on it. Your equipment changed so your process will likely need to be adapted to the new equipment especially if you’re not boiling as hard with the new system.
Do you typically have 5.5 gals post boil? An extra half gallon could have a big impact on OG.
Do you take gravity readings of first runnings? Sparge?
My guess without more info is you didn’t boil as hard as in the past but it’s hard to say without a baseline comparison. It’s going to take some trial and error to work out your efficiency. Be anal about volumes and record keeping. Software helps. I rely heavily on beersmith.
I’d figure out your efficiency for that first brew session. Consider that your system efficiency number and plan THE SAME RECIPE around that efficiency for your target OG. That will give you a baseline for future recipes.
I know you’re not a noob but sometimes it helps to go back to square one and think it through.
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Thanks I appreciate this way of thinking. I can honestly say that… Hanging my head in shame… I made a completely new recipe on this completely new system.
My thinking was that outside of how vigorous my boil was, I didn’t change much in the actual brewing process except that I pumped liquid between vessels rather than manually pour or use gravity. I didn’t think pumps would mess too much up.
I did use a hop spider for the first time, trying to minimize the sediment at the end so my pumps and dip tubes wouldn’t clog. I also went back to whirlfloc tablets, but anything that clumped together for broken up during recirculation, so maybe I should have used a sanitized scoop to remove those clumps…
The big thing about yesterday was… I was very distracted during the “time gaps” during brewing. I spent free time taking a phone interview, entertaining my wife’s friends, cleaning up, and doing some drywall prepping. So… Again with the shame… I didn’t pay attention to my first runnings, so my overall efficiency reading doesn’t really exist. Granted, this will be a learning experience to pay much better attention. I just let myself get distracted when I normally wouldn’t have been
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Happens to the best of us. My most memorable brewing catastrophes were due to distractions self imposed and otherwise.
Keep on plugging. You’ll have it dialed in in no time.
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Yea I only really started paying full attention to my brewing about 18 months ago. I would always be careful, plan stuff out ahead of time, try new things or repeat old things. But I never wrote stuff down during/after. My wife got me a leather bound book that is basically a home brewing journal or log, and now I try to write down everything to make any successes repeatable or mistakes easier to identify. Buuuuut of course I didn’t take the time to do so this time. Oh well, it was still fun to use my new system and I’m sure it will only get better from here.
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Welp… Had an issue. Well, two issues. First… The silicone sealant started to leak because I moved the element around too much while cleaning it. Jostled a lot I suppose.
Then, I decided to mount the lock nut on the outside of the pot. I used some JB weld on the outside, locked it in place and it also acted as a sealant. That way I could insert the heating element and take it out at will, so I can remove for cleaning. It worked great during water test and then it worked great during the cleaning step (heat water and then add PBW). I went to brew today. Everything was great, made it through the star san sanitizer step, added strike water for heat. During this step… It hemorrhaged water after about 5 minutes. Gallons of hot water with phosphoric acid, spilling everywhere. I think the JB Weld could act as a sealant, but not a sealant AND something to hold the locknut in place.
So then I got mad. I cleaned up the giant mess, tended to my burns. Then I said screw it, and welded the damn lock nut to the outside of the pot. I’m not a skilled welder but I’m competent. I filled in all the cracks that I could. Then I used a tiny bit of the JB Weld to seal any holes. The actual weld will definitely act as a “hold”, and fill in most cracks. The JB Weld should fill in anything else. I may do an extra layer of silicone sealant just to be safe. Desperate and angry, haha
Brewhardware.com sells a heating element attachment device called the Hot Pod. I have one on my HLT and BK. Never had any leaks, although I don’t ever take the heating elements out. I just clean them in place.
Weld less fittings… Or just jump in and silver solder… I would not want any other chemicals to be able to be leached off in my brews…
I know it’s not what you want to hear…
I hope your burns aren’t bad and nothing else harmed through your process…
Sneezles61
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All of the modifications are to the exterior of the pot, so I should be fine with chemical leeching. They started off as weldless fittings and always leaked on me eventually. Like I said, cleaning the heat element would always shake something loose and start a new leak. I figured it would behoove me to create a setup where I can remove the element for COP rather than try to CIP.
At this point, the lock nut is welded onto the outside of the pot. I went over the seams with some cold welding, and I might do a second layer of FDA approved caulk. Not the end of the world if it fails, I can always rebuild. But for my sanity, I’d like to spend more time worrying about my brews than my pot.
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I looked at the hot pod just now. It’s a nice little enclosure, but unfortunately I don’t think it actually solves the issue I’m having. If I have to start over from scratch with a brand new pot, I may use one of these from the start next time
Personally, I would not want that JB weld stuff heated over and over in contact with a liquid I’m going to consume and and offer to friends. I’ve never had an issue with weldless bulkheads but once they were in place I never bothered them again.
I don’t understand why you feel the need to remove the element to clean but then I would never sanitize my boil kettle before a boil either so…to each his own mad methods.
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