fmajowich » Homebrewing

Home Brewing Data Logging

fmajowich — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 00:10:49 +0000

I’m always looking for way to improve my Home Brewing. The idea occurred to me the other day that I should collect as much data while brewing as possible.How else will I know what happened during a brew session without data to reference? Since I hate doing things manually (Paper/Pencil) I figured the data collection could be done with my computer. While scouring the internet I came across people using the Arduino platform for all sorts of cool things. One of the first items I came across was using it as a PH meter. Which this gave me hope as PH is something we are interested in home brewing. Then my mind was blown when I found the Brew Troller. Not only can it operate as a monitoring device but can be a complete brewing automation system! Needless to say I’m going to ordering one of these rather soon. This will be great side project that will lead to better beer.

Build a HomeBrew Pre Water Chiller for a Plate Chiller

fmajowich — Thu, 28 May 2009 02:14:16 +0000

Brewing beer in Florida has a number of challenges due to the heat wave know as summer. A couple of these challenges include Fermentation temperatures and wort temperature for yeast pitching. To combat against the wort temperature for yeast pitching I purchased a
Therminator from Blichmann Engineering. However, my purchase had one fatal flaw. I did not take into account the high ground water temperature in Florida.

After my first use of the Terminator the wort temperature was at 79 degrees. This temperature was higher than my target temp and this was not even the hottest time of the year. This is when I decided to build a pre water chiller for the Terminator. I took a run down to my local hardware store and ended up with the following parts to hack together the pre water chiller

Parts for Pre Water Chiller

1 x 50′ hose (Already had)

1 x Cooler (Already had)

1 x 2′ 1/2″ tubing

2 x female hose repair ends

2 x 3/4″ male to 1/2″ Bard

2 x 1/4′”- 3/8″ hose clamps

1 x 50′ 3/8″ copper tubing

I planed on coiling the copper tubing and placing it in a cooler full of ice water. First I needed to coil the copper tubing to it would fit in the cooler. Luckily I had a leftover piece of PVC tubing from making a carboy dryer stand. Wrapping the copper tubing around the PVC pipe was easier than I expected it would be.

I then attached the the the 3/4″ male to 1/2″ Bard to the 1/2″ tubing using the hose clap. I then attached the 1/2″ tubing to the copper tubing with another hose clamp. I know this isn’t ideal but works for me.

Here is a finished picture of quick hack job. One end of the hose is connected to my garage sink facet. While the other end is connected to my Therminator water inlet.

Currently I don’t have any tempture difference results yet. However. after my next brew day I’ll post my results. I have high hops this will solve my wort chilling woes.

Home Brewing Water Filtration System

fmajowich — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 00:21:19 +0000

One of the benefits of all grain brewing is reducing your ingredient price. However, one of the ingredients that I’m currently buying is water. Now that I going all grain I will be using more water. Previously I had been buying 6+ gallons of water for extract brewing. Since I will at least double my water consumption for all grain I made a decision to build a water filtration system. I did some googling and found it should be rather easy to build one. The system I planned on coping was one I found at BYO. I headed down to my local big box store with a parts list in hand. Once I arrived at the water filter section of the store the light went off in my head. I could just use a whole house system and save myself some time. I just needed some fittings to attach it to my garage sink, some tubing, and the water filter. This is what I ended up with.

1 x Whirlpool WHKF-DWHV Whole house water filter
2 x 1/2" Barb x 3/4" MIP Elbow
2 x 5/8" OD x 1/2" ID x 10'
1 x Quick Connect Sink Adapter
1 x Quick Connect to Hose Adapter Male 5/8"
1 x 1/2 Bard to 5/8 Female

I went with a more elaborate sink adapter which allows me to also connect a hose to my sink. I need this so I could connect my Therminator for wort chilling. You can modify the connection to your particular water source. When connecting all of the fitting make sure you use teflon tape to reduce the chance of any leaks. So far I’m happy how the filtration system turn out.

Keg Conversion

fmajowich — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 23:23:14 +0000

I acquired 3 kegs awhile back with the plan to convert them into an all grain home brew system. Since I don’t own a welder I decided to us weld-less fittings. Doing some googling I came across the Weld-B-Gone Deluxe+ Keg Conversion Kit from Zymico. The kit includes a Stainless Steel 1/2″ Barb, Ball Valve, and bulkhead fitting. I then found the BrewMometer from Blichmann Engineering to use as my temperature gauge. I decided to leave off the site glass to keep the costs down.However, I will probably add a sight glass down the road. I used a step drill bit to make the 7/8′ hole for the fittings. If you are drilling more than 1 keg I highly recommend getting drilling oil. That way your drill/drill bit with last longer. Once the holes were drilled assembled the weldless fitting into the appropriate holes. I then attached the Zymico Bazooka T in my boil kettle for a hop screen. Next I installed a 11″ Sanke Stainless Steel False Bottom into my Mash Tun. I had to use a hacksaw to shorten the tub from the False Bottom to fit correctly into the keg. Ultimately converting the kegs was a straight forward process. I believe anyone could convert keg given you have a drill,step drill bit and a hacksaw. Check out some pics of the converted kegs.