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Documenting my Single Vessel Automated Brewing System

Post #1 made 10 years ago
by jhwerner1
Don’t know for sure were to post this within the Forum structure, however since my SVABS is (If I'm using the wrong section of the Forum, maybe a Mod will move it to where it belongs.)

In my Intro I said would post photos, but I’m going to start with a .pdf of the sketch of my system with some dimensions and sizes. Hopefully this will help make the photos a little more understandable as I post them.

On the Sketch of the system I indicate that I’m using a Liquor tank, this is where I will build up the RO water with salts and acids as needed for the style beer I’m brewing.

The RO Tank has a 20 Gallon capacity supplied from a RO Water Generator in the brewery. When RO tank is full a motorized valve shuts down the tap water feeding the generator. Motorized valve controlled by float valve in RO tank.

Tomorrow I’ll convert the sketch of the Control Panel to a .pdf file and post it here.
Old Geezer's-rev22614.pdf
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Last edited by jhwerner1 on 31 Aug 2013, 08:19, edited 6 times in total.
Joe Werner
Old Geezer

On Tap...
Scottish Ale Export
Oatmeal Stout
American Imperial Stout
American Imperial Stout
Red Irish Ale
New England IPA
American IPA
    • SVA Brewer With Over 100 Brews From United States of America

Post #2 made 10 years ago
by jhwerner1
A couple more .pdf files of the SVABS.

Local club members here in Indy sometimes ask why all the complication, BIAB is suppose to simplify the brewing process. My answer, just my engineering background, make everything as complicated as possible. :headhit:

Since registering with BIABrewer and reading the forum, I've ordered a small kettle to start Mini-brewing and a couple of chill cubes. Getting rid of the Plate chiller would simplify the SVBABS considerablely.

With the long weekend I'll be able to get together some of my photos of this build and post them.

Fossildust
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Joe Werner
Old Geezer

On Tap...
Scottish Ale Export
Oatmeal Stout
American Imperial Stout
American Imperial Stout
Red Irish Ale
New England IPA
American IPA
    • SVA Brewer With Over 100 Brews From United States of America

Post #3 made 10 years ago
by jhwerner1
SVABS Photos...

The first thing needed when building a new system is a stand of some kind that will support it. I started the project build in July 2012 by using Maple hardwood to build the brew stand with. The following post covers that project.

1" x 2" glued up to 2" x 2" for the build.
1 x 2's now 2 x 2.JPG
Brew Stand taking shape.
Brew Stand taking shape.jpg
Made a Butcher Block for the top of the stand. The bottom of the kettle needs to be accessible due to all the plumbing connections.
Butcher block top opening being cut.jpg
Opening ready for Kettle... Will it fit and not fall through the opening?
Opening ready for kettle.jpg
It fits, encapsulated bottom is a little smaller than Kettle outside diameter, allowing the kettle to sit on the edge of the opening. As the project continued I found that the piping manifold would require chnages.
Kettle bottom fits opng..jpg


Diamond plate placed on bottom and some of the piping manifold completed.
Pump and Valve manifold set in place.jpg
More photos in next post,

Fossildust
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Last edited by jhwerner1 on 07 Sep 2013, 00:07, edited 2 times in total.
Joe Werner
Old Geezer

On Tap...
Scottish Ale Export
Oatmeal Stout
American Imperial Stout
American Imperial Stout
Red Irish Ale
New England IPA
American IPA
    • SVA Brewer With Over 100 Brews From United States of America

Post #4 made 10 years ago
by jhwerner1
With the brew stand complete it was time to see if I could assemble a system to place on it. First step, prep the 10 gallon kettle so it could be used as a Mash Tube (my SS Bag) With the Cam Lock fittings in the bottom of the Kettle and its mate in the bottom of the Mash Tube, I needed a means to make sure they lined up when dropping the Mash Tube into the Kettle.



Kettles used for project.
New Kettles.jpg

Fabicated guides from SS shoulder bolts to center Mast Tube in Kettle.
Stand-offf_guides .jpg

Photo shows fittings installed in bottom of kettle.
2 - 3.5 kW Heating elements,
Whirlpool fitting that will have a pc of tubing attached to get wort to side of kettle to start whirlpool action,
Cam lock male fitting that Mash Tube fitting will connect to.
Plus, a Volume fitting and wort return.
All openings for fittings will drilled to proper size to allow them to be tapped to allow fittings to be screwed thru encapsulated bottom.
Ftgs in bottom of Kettle - text.jpg

Mash Tube in place.
Mash tube in place.jpg

Blickman False bottom modified to be the Mash bed bottom fixed filter.
Rests on Acron bolts of guides to prevent it from touching the heating elements.
Silcome seal around filter keeps the wort flowing up thru the bottom of the mash bed.
Bottom Filter in Place.jpg

Blickman False Bottom with silcome seal.
This filter is movable, seal has a friction fit that will keep in whatever location it is placed.
I believe that it will be located approximately 1" above the top of the mash bed.
Depth of mash bed will depend upon design gravity of the recipe.
Holes are drilled in sides of mash tube and will be plugged with cone shaped silcome plugs to location of moveable filter.
Movable top filter.jpg
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Last edited by jhwerner1 on 07 Sep 2013, 01:33, edited 2 times in total.
Joe Werner
Old Geezer

On Tap...
Scottish Ale Export
Oatmeal Stout
American Imperial Stout
American Imperial Stout
Red Irish Ale
New England IPA
American IPA
    • SVA Brewer With Over 100 Brews From United States of America

Post #6 made 10 years ago
by jhwerner1
alymere... Thank you for the comments.

Continuing the photo story board of my build with comments and 6 more photos. The drawing I posted in the first couple of posts here show that I planned to drill openings in the side of the Mash tube. The next couple of photos how these openings and the silcome plugs I will use in opening that are below the moveable upper filter.
Openings in Mash Tube for overflow and Cone shaped plugs.jpg
Openings above top filter without plugs.jpg
Cable and chain to lift Mash Tube edited.jpg
Kettle showing Brewers Hardware Electric Element adapter installed.jpg
Cable thru ceiling, photo also shows the diamond plate exhaust hood I build for above brewing system and sink.
Mash Tube cable thru ceiling to electric winch.jpg
System piping and tubing.jpg
More photos in a couple of days, depends on weather, if it does not rain then the weekend will be used to harvest my hop crop of Northern Brewer, Cascade, Centential and Mt Hood.

Later,

Fossildust
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Last edited by jhwerner1 on 07 Sep 2013, 11:09, edited 2 times in total.
Joe Werner
Old Geezer

On Tap...
Scottish Ale Export
Oatmeal Stout
American Imperial Stout
American Imperial Stout
Red Irish Ale
New England IPA
American IPA
    • SVA Brewer With Over 100 Brews From United States of America

Post #7 made 10 years ago
by BobBrews
Holy Molely!!!

It is a beautiful thing to behold. It makes my brewing bag look as ancient as a mash tun.
tap 1 Raspberry wine
tap 2 Bourbon Barrel Porter
tap 3 Czech Pilsner
tap 4 Triple IPA 11% ABV
Pipeline: Mulled Cider 10% ABV

http://cheesestradamus.com/ Brewers challenge!
    • SVA Brewer With Over 100 Brews From United States of America

Post #8 made 10 years ago
by aamcle
This seems to work like a Braumister with the wort flowing up through a grain bed.

The Brau's n Nextgens build up a lot of force on the top filler which has the be firmly clamped down.

Will this be an issue with your build?

ATB. Aamcle


ATB. aamcle
    • Over 20 Brews From Great Britain

Post #9 made 10 years ago
by jhwerner1
This seems to work like a Braumister with the wort flowing up through a grain bed.
The Brau's n Nextgens build up a lot of force on the top filler which has the be firmly clamped down.
Will this be an issue with your build?
Hi aamcle,

Since I have not brewed with this system; I don't know. I believe the friction fit I have with the sides of the Mash Tube and the Silcome seal around the filter will keep it in place. It is really tight at the present time, don't know what effect heat will have on the seal.

If I do have a problem, I can fabricate a simple clamping device as designed by Arnie for his system. see (http://arniew.wordpress.com/braubushka/. This is the system that had the biggest influence my design.

Thanks for the comment and question. I'm always looking for comments, concerns, and questions about things that the viewers see in my design that I didn't due to being to close to the design.

Fossildust
Last edited by jhwerner1 on 08 Sep 2013, 10:04, edited 2 times in total.
Joe Werner
Old Geezer

On Tap...
Scottish Ale Export
Oatmeal Stout
American Imperial Stout
American Imperial Stout
Red Irish Ale
New England IPA
American IPA
    • SVA Brewer With Over 100 Brews From United States of America

Post #10 made 10 years ago
by jhwerner1
As I said in my previous post to aamcle, I looking for comments, concerns and questions regarding the design of my SVABS. Sometime we get to close to a project and overlook protential problems or something simply not working.

Going to attempt to post a few more photos of the SVABS, while enjoying a beer (Sweet Stout).

I guess if I have a pump, valves, and various other compenents, I had better see If I can connect them all together with some tubing and then a control system to automate everything.
Front view of piping and tubing.jpg
Close-up photo of Pump & valve wiring breakout box.jpg
3-way valves and Plate Chiller.jpg
Another view if Plate chiller and 3-way valves.jpg
Another view of break-out box and Trub Filter.jpg
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Last edited by jhwerner1 on 08 Sep 2013, 11:26, edited 2 times in total.
Joe Werner
Old Geezer

On Tap...
Scottish Ale Export
Oatmeal Stout
American Imperial Stout
American Imperial Stout
Red Irish Ale
New England IPA
American IPA
    • SVA Brewer With Over 100 Brews From United States of America

Post #12 made 10 years ago
by jhwerner1
Sharing more photos of my SVABS. The previous photos shared here completes the system build as far as the Brewing rig itself is concerned. The next series of photos will document the build of the Control Enclosure and the components within.
To start off with the enclosure itself.

It is really bigger than I wanted, but then the price was right. SS enclosure was purchased used from a company that provided control systems for wastewater treatment plants. Total cost including shipping was less than $90. Very good price for a 18" high x 16" wide x 10" deep.

The enclosure I received from them was painted with white enamel paint, not exactly the look I wanted. So the paint was removed with paint stripper and then I knew why it had been painted, very bad welded seams and joints.

Ops, posting.php?mode=reply&f=24&t=2238# maybe the good price was not a good one after all. But decided to give a go at cleaning it up and not sell it to a scrap yard. The final result turned out to be better than i expected. Learned a lot about getting a mirror finish on crappy SS.

My workshop is not really equipped to be cut rectangle openings in SS, another learning experience. Managed to get the openings cut with a few blunders, which I hid with black cast acrylic sheet that was used to fabicrate bezels.

Enough chatter, time to share a few photos. (6 at a time)
Enclosure stripped of paint ughly.jpg
Still ugly after 1st attempt.jpg
Mirror finish - no longer ugly.jpg
Openings in cover.jpg
Power outlets installed in bottom.jpg
Some of the components mounted in cover.jpg
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Last edited by jhwerner1 on 09 Sep 2013, 10:17, edited 2 times in total.
Joe Werner
Old Geezer

On Tap...
Scottish Ale Export
Oatmeal Stout
American Imperial Stout
American Imperial Stout
Red Irish Ale
New England IPA
American IPA
    • SVA Brewer With Over 100 Brews From United States of America

Post #14 made 10 years ago
by jhwerner1
datamichael...

Leave the cold water valve to plate chiller closed for 30 seconds to allow hot wort flow (approx 200F (93C) through all piping between Kettle, plate chiller, including tubing to carboy or no-chill cube.

After sweet wort is in carboy, and I mixed a batch of PDW in kettle, I'll reverse the 3-way valves (mounted on plate chiller - V7 & V8) and circulate CIP fluid (PDW) through the plate chiller (reverse flow).

After clean-up of the plate chiller I'll manually control each valve in system to create CIP fluid flow through all piping in system and then drain the complete system. Mix up a batch of sanitizer in kettle and circulate it through all piping and valves.

Trub filter, Mash tube, and mash tube filters will be cleaned in sink.

I worked in a Craft Brewery (Triton Brewery) here in Indy for approximately 8 months, until I fell backwards over a 2" hose and shattered my right arm. End of short brewing career. While there we never disassembled anything to clean, always used CIP procedures and sanitizers. So I believe that will work in a home brewery as well.

Thanks for the question,

Fossildust
Joe Werner
Old Geezer

On Tap...
Scottish Ale Export
Oatmeal Stout
American Imperial Stout
American Imperial Stout
Red Irish Ale
New England IPA
American IPA
    • SVA Brewer With Over 100 Brews From United States of America

Post #15 made 10 years ago
by jhwerner1
Continuing the Photo documentation of the SVABS.

The first photo of this post shows what the (almost) finished Control Enclosure Cover looks like.

One thing, a short explanation of the URL (Heimbierbrauerei.com)under the brewery name. It is still functional, however it has not been updated in a long time. Sort of got a little upset with it, when after a couple years of posts the site was comprised and someone made a real mess of it. Moved the domain name to another host server after getting most of the DB-backup to my hard drive. Just not had the motivation to attempt to put it back together again. Maybe after I get the SVABS running and creating good beer I'll start posting again.
Control Panel Cover.jpg
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Last edited by jhwerner1 on 10 Sep 2013, 07:33, edited 3 times in total.
Joe Werner
Old Geezer

On Tap...
Scottish Ale Export
Oatmeal Stout
American Imperial Stout
American Imperial Stout
Red Irish Ale
New England IPA
American IPA
    • SVA Brewer With Over 100 Brews From United States of America

Post #18 made 10 years ago
by jhwerner1
Final photos until I start testing the system and then brewing beer.
Inside Control Panel.jpg
Inside Control Panel Closeup.jpg
Inside Cover closeup.jpg
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Last edited by jhwerner1 on 13 Sep 2013, 02:06, edited 2 times in total.
Joe Werner
Old Geezer

On Tap...
Scottish Ale Export
Oatmeal Stout
American Imperial Stout
American Imperial Stout
Red Irish Ale
New England IPA
American IPA
    • SVA Brewer With Over 100 Brews From United States of America

Post #19 made 8 years ago
by redlegger
Any updates on the results of this build?
"I like beer. On occasion, I will even drink beer to celebrate a major event such as the fall of Communism or the fact that the refrigerator is still working.” – Dave Berry

Post #20 made 8 years ago
by jhwerner1
Thanks for asking, it may even surprise a few on this Forum that I'm still around.

Update:

System worked very well once I got some of the minor bugs out of it, or maybe it was more likely when I learned to use it and the software.

Last fall, Brewtroller announced they were going out of busdines and I didn't think I wanted to have a orphaned controller in my system, so I sold all related Brewtroller parts and started over with a PLC controller.

Then I started having knee problems, so two replacement knee surgeries slowed me down.

Just getting back on my feet so I'm now able to finish the re-wiring of the control panel, probably 4-5 hours if I stay with it.

Test the software, all control connections to components of system and then start brewing again.

If you want to follow the adventures of the crazy Old Geezer. I now have a website. http://www.oldgeezerbrewery.com I will be posting photos of my progress as I go along.

Joe Werner
Joe Werner
Old Geezer

On Tap...
Scottish Ale Export
Oatmeal Stout
American Imperial Stout
American Imperial Stout
Red Irish Ale
New England IPA
American IPA
    • SVA Brewer With Over 100 Brews From United States of America

Re: Documenting my Single Vessel Automated Brewing System

Post #21 made 7 years ago
by jhwerner1
Another year has gone by since my last post here. I finally finished my system with the new controller installed. I've now brewing with the system. In the process of chilling the wort of my 7th batch - Helles Bock. Going to pitch yeast at 60 degrees F, let the yeast get started then ferment at 55 degrees F.
I've not posted anything to my website in a long time, spending my time learning to use the new system. I'll start adding content to the site during next month. Plan to document the installation of the new controller and the problems I found with the original design, that was documented in this thread a few years ago.
Logged in here again this morning to read and study the wisdom of Pat regarding efficiencies of brewing systems. I'm not getting what I expected, but they are getting better then they were 6 batches ago. Plus to download the latest version of BIABacus.
I will be a regular visitor here during the upcoming days and months.
Joe Werner
Joe Werner
Old Geezer

On Tap...
Scottish Ale Export
Oatmeal Stout
American Imperial Stout
American Imperial Stout
Red Irish Ale
New England IPA
American IPA
    • SVA Brewer With Over 100 Brews From United States of America

Re: Documenting my Single Vessel Automated Brewing System

Post #23 made 5 years ago
by jhwerner1
Hi Guys & Gals,

It has been two years since posting here after I completed the build of the Single Vessel BIAB Automated system.

Yep!!! I'm still around and brewing, even at my advanced age of 82 on April 2, 2019. The last couple of years have been interesting. Brewed many batches of beer, entered as many competitions as possible. Won a few ribbons, advanced the NHC Finals thrice. With all that said, the system is brewing the good beer. Enter 13 beers into the Indiana Brewers Cup last year, not so good, only one ribbon out of thirteen entries, that is the worst percentage per competition during the two years. With all those batches brewed I had 80 gallons of beer in the Walk-in Cooler and some of those not very good. The last batch I brewed was July 27th, 2018. With all that beer in the cooler, I decided to rebuild my system.

Why, is maybe the question. Basically, because it takes a long time to drink that much beer, or even give it away. So, the redesign was to change the system so I could brew 2.5-gallon batches, instead of 5 - 15 gallons batches. Which I could not do, heating elements were in the bottom of the kettle and the least amount of liquid quantity in the kettle was 3.5-gallons or I would dry fire the elements. Sure leaves a bad odor in the brewhouse. The conversion is now complete with a RIMS system for heating the wort allowing me to brew between 2.5-gallons to 15-gallon batches. Sometimes, if brewing for a Festival, Wedding, etc. I need to be able to brew the bigger batches.

When I get time, I'll post photo images of the system with the conversion in place.

All is Good here in INDIANA.

Joe Werner
Old Greezer
Joe Werner
Old Geezer

On Tap...
Scottish Ale Export
Oatmeal Stout
American Imperial Stout
American Imperial Stout
Red Irish Ale
New England IPA
American IPA
    • SVA Brewer With Over 100 Brews From United States of America
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