cheapseatsbrew
Member
Well here goes, I found this freaking huge coffee maker on craigslist from this awesome dude in Asheville NC that used to run a microbrew in N. California (no affiliation). He had it for a few years and never did anything with it. $80 for a coffee maker that retails for over $3,000......score.:rockin:
First Task: Get it home and torn apart, figure out what is needed to turn this thing into a clean sleek all in one beer brewing machine......at least this is the goal. Couple pics of what has been done to date:
outside shot
Panel with added pot for solid state relay control, for my first batch I'm gonna skip the temp controller and thermocouple and find the temps via trial and error. First attempt to boil the water in both urns (6.5 gallons in one 7.5 in the other) and the surrounding water in the tank total of 25 gallons took very close to 2 hrs. The control water tank is fiberglass insulated and all part are stainless and what isn't is brass/bronze. Some more tests will be necessary before I brew as to what pot settings/resistance equates to what temps.
Two 9 gallon S.S. urns. The port in the middle bottom will be my sparge water exit/fill. The water will flow from spigot thru filter to the fill solenoid to the mash tun (left S.S. vessel) via a copper tube that will coil up thru the water surrounding the two urns which will consequently be at the same temp as the mash regulated by the Camco 5500 watt 240V element/SSR and 500KOhm pot. The sparge solenoid will be controlled by the brew button on the front panel (existing circuitry) I will use a ball valve to control flow.
Most of the control circuitry is there, its basically just re purposing whats there and adding a few components. The existing elements were 208 single phase and I can't efficiently/economically supply that voltage so I switched it to 240/110V control. Another neat feature is the level sensor circuit, solenoid controlled fill to contact normally open (close upon contact with water) sensor. This way I can control the boil volume of the "control water" as it boils off.
Last pic for tonight: it has a thermometer of sorts just need to swap that one out for a actual thermometer. This should do for the first few batches until phase two where I hope to add a pump for the wort to boil kettle and boil kettle to fermenter. My goal is to make this setup as clean and compact as possible. This is basically a constraint via wifey that it not take up too much room in the garage. Also the 50's GE frige I restored that will eventually be the kegerator. Cheers
First Task: Get it home and torn apart, figure out what is needed to turn this thing into a clean sleek all in one beer brewing machine......at least this is the goal. Couple pics of what has been done to date:
outside shot
Panel with added pot for solid state relay control, for my first batch I'm gonna skip the temp controller and thermocouple and find the temps via trial and error. First attempt to boil the water in both urns (6.5 gallons in one 7.5 in the other) and the surrounding water in the tank total of 25 gallons took very close to 2 hrs. The control water tank is fiberglass insulated and all part are stainless and what isn't is brass/bronze. Some more tests will be necessary before I brew as to what pot settings/resistance equates to what temps.
Two 9 gallon S.S. urns. The port in the middle bottom will be my sparge water exit/fill. The water will flow from spigot thru filter to the fill solenoid to the mash tun (left S.S. vessel) via a copper tube that will coil up thru the water surrounding the two urns which will consequently be at the same temp as the mash regulated by the Camco 5500 watt 240V element/SSR and 500KOhm pot. The sparge solenoid will be controlled by the brew button on the front panel (existing circuitry) I will use a ball valve to control flow.
Most of the control circuitry is there, its basically just re purposing whats there and adding a few components. The existing elements were 208 single phase and I can't efficiently/economically supply that voltage so I switched it to 240/110V control. Another neat feature is the level sensor circuit, solenoid controlled fill to contact normally open (close upon contact with water) sensor. This way I can control the boil volume of the "control water" as it boils off.
Last pic for tonight: it has a thermometer of sorts just need to swap that one out for a actual thermometer. This should do for the first few batches until phase two where I hope to add a pump for the wort to boil kettle and boil kettle to fermenter. My goal is to make this setup as clean and compact as possible. This is basically a constraint via wifey that it not take up too much room in the garage. Also the 50's GE frige I restored that will eventually be the kegerator. Cheers
