Homebrew

Over the course of the past couple of years, I have become an avid homebrewer. I brew numerous styles of beer, cider, mead, and wine. As an electrical engineer, I enjoy designing and building gadgets, so I have designed quite a few brewing gadgets including an entire electric brew system.

My Homebrew System

After brewing all-grain for a while, I decided that I wanted to step up to 10 gallon batches, so that I could split batches with different yeast or treatments, or just have more of beers I like a lot. However, I don't have anywhere to brew outdoors and the kitchen stove wasn't going to cut it, even with a heat stick. To solve this problem, I decided to design and build an electric brew system that could run on 120V power, since I don't have any available 240V lines.

I use a custom-made digitally controlled homebrew system that also doubles as my cheesemaking system. It consists of a 15.5 gallon heated hot liquor tank and brew kettle made from a converted sanke keg, a cooler as a mash tun, a March pump, and control box.

The brew kettle / HLT has 2 electric water heater elements mounted into it, providing a combined 3500 watts of heating power. For transfers and recirculation, it has a stainless ball valve with camlock quick disconnects and a dip tube. A false bottom catches hops and break material. A RTD thermocouple is mounted into the pot as part of the temperature control system. A thermometer and sight glass are included for convenience.

The control system is a custom-designed PID control box that I built, which controls 2 separate 20A 120V circuits that power the heating elements. An Auber auto-tuning PID is used to control the temperature by duty-cycling power to the heating elements in the outer pot based on the reading from the RTD probe. A switched auxiliary outlet is provided on the control box for easy control of the March pump and any other accessories.

The brew kettle doubles as the hot liquor tank. Initially, strike water is heated to the correct temperature by dialing it into the controller. Once the mash is started, sparge water is heated in the hot liquor tank. The first runnings are taken into a separate brewpot and set aside. After the sparge water is added, the hot liquor tank becomes the boil kettle and the second runnings are taken directly into it. The first runnings are then poured into the main brewpot for the boil. Boil intensity can be controlled by adjusting the duty cycle on the digital controller.











©2011 Chris Banker