Hunter's Basement E-Brewery Build

[hunter306]

I'm going to start by prepping the layout on the enclosure and cutting the necessary holes. I want to get that done before I paint the enclosure black so that I don't mess up the paint once while cutting! The cool thing about these enclosures is that they have the removable trays in the back, which I will be taking out and fastening the DIN rails to so I can begin the wiring while paint is getting wrapped up.

I'm betting it will take me a about 3-4 days to get it done, based on the research I've done.

 

[Roadie]

That's quick, awesome. How will you vent the kettles?

 

[chris102984]

Quick question, how'd you setup the drain with the cleanout? I have similar plumbing in my basement and I'd like to setup a similar drain solution.

 

[Chrisl77]

It looks like he took out the cleanout plug and put a male adapter in it. Then added a second T with a 1 1/2" side connection and a new cleanout plug at the top.

 

[hunter306]

Yep, Chris is correct. We used a threaded male adapter and turned it to fit the second cleanout. Because the existing cleanout is low enough to the floor, this allowed us to put in the drain without doing additional major plumbing work.

We're using an Air Admittance Valve behind the sink to vent the sink for proper drainage.

 

[clarksc4]

It looks like that wall material is textured, I worked in a kitchen for 5 years and if it's the same stuff, it is a PAIN to clean without a stuff bristle brush

 

[hunter306]

@clarks: Fortunately a brewery and a kitchen are different beasts. The brewery lacks that grease that the kitchen tends to get gummed up with. I don't think that textured paneling will cause us any issues in our brewery case.

 

[hunter306]

So, I took a few days off over the weekend to do some other projects, but I've been back at the panel assembly since monday. I think I'm making decent progress, so I figured it was time for another photo dump of the build!

I knew my layout was going to be a bit different than Kal's build, so I arranged the parts a couple of times until I came to the layout that I settled on as pictured. Once I did this, I plotted out the centers for the holes so I could begin drilling:

It's a good thing I was planning on painting the enclosure, because simply cutting and working on it marred up the finish pretty good. I wasn't very worried about the eraser and the pencil either, because once it comes time to paint, i'll be sanding the whole enclosure.

Drilled out the corners and began cutting out the pid locations and V/A meter with the jigsaw. Those Auber PIDS don't give you much room for error since the bezel only overhangs by about 2mm. I ended up cutting them small and then using a bastard file to slowly work them to fitting the PID.

Dry Fitting:

Planning the bottom. To save money, I did not do twist locks for everything. The Chugger Pumps unfortunately void your warranty if the plug is changed (according the warranty information) so I opted to go with a standard 15amp outlet. I did use XLR connectors for temperature, and Twist Locks for the heating elements. The main power is hardwired, no twist lock (couldn't warrant 70 dollars for that set!)

Fitting the outlet, similar to the PIDS, I opted to go smaller and file to fit. The result was pretty good.

Time to get drilling the 22mm holes! After some technical difficulties with my old Craftsman Drill Press, I got to cutting.

The panel, cut and drilled:

Prepping for Paint. I used the same hammered finish paint that kal used, but didn't use primer. I chose to do this because I sanded the existing finish gloss down, and basically used the original paint as my base coat. I also added paper to protect the inside from overspray, as I decided against redoing the (not visible) internal parts.

More upcoming!

 

[jhalloran]

Damn nice jigsaw work!

 

[Feurhund]

Great work man. Enjoy the journey! I did mine from scratch too with barely any electric experience.
It's been complete for almost three years now and countless batches done. It can handle anything you throw at it and makes great beer, more than a few medals if I can say so modestly.
You will love the sink! As crazy as it sounds after all the other bells and whistles the sink and the ease of clean up etc has been such a pleasure. Good luck with the rest of the build and look forward to a brewery you can retire with.

 

[TaylorInOK]

Great work! Looking forward to following this project.

 

[hunter306]

The Wife surprised me with the last kettle for the new brewery system this morning! Merry Christmas all!

 

[rockinmarty]

Lucky you

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Home Brew mobile app

 

[Huaco]

Very cool build!
I built a Kal rig in 2012. Yes, they do make awesome beer!

 

[hunter306]

Got a few things done this afternoon, but spent most of the time taking it easy. A few more progress pictures as the panel comes together!

Painting in the garage:

Paint all wrapped up:

Starting to assemble the front panel controls:

Fully populated inside of the panel door:

Ready for the heatsink and the wiring!

 

[1fast636]

Looking good man I'm digging the extra cabinet door handles on the sides adds alil something to it

 

[hunter306]

Thanks for the compliments as always!

Got a few things done on the panel this afternoon, starting with the heatsink. Added a quick silicone bead around the cutout before putting the heatsink in place:

Heatsink Attached:

Started attaching the DIN Rail Sections to the panel:

Started wiring the ground wires to the grounding point in the enclosure:

Ran the main wire from the GFCI outlet to the 63A contactor:

 

[skemp45]

I am so excited to see this build finished!!! Awesome build man and keep at it

 

[ScotBrew]

Looks great! Keeping my eye on this one!

 

[max384]

This build has inspired me to go electric... Eventually.

Great thread. Keep it up!

 

[Trippel-A]

Subscribing!

 

[hunter306]

Spent some time re-engineering the schematics this afternoon because I wasn't happy with the method by which the Emergency Stop was drawn into the existing diagram. The diagram had the 120v leg running entirely through a 3amp switch on the door, which would be overloaded with both pumps running simultaneously under load, so I put the E-stop inline with the Keyed On-Off switch to allow me to leverage the 63amp main contactor.

Once I pulled this together, I began to re-run the wiring at the main input as need for a power shunt for the E-Stop LED, and the Contactors 120v switched line both needed to come off the main input leg. The main cabinet is coming together slowly, but looks like a mess in these pictures because I haven't tightened down the wire ties yet (still quite a few lines to run).

On to just a couple of pictures from today. Revised power and E-Stop Circuit:

The main cabinet with 120v (A), 120v (B) and 120v (C). To isolate the high current (heating elements on the 25amp breaker) I split the buses. The 120v (A) bus will be for the PIDS, PUMPS, LEDS, And Buzzer. The 120v (B,C) will be combined for the elements.

 

[Huaco]

This build has inspired me to go electric... Eventually.

Great thread. Keep it up!

you wont be sorry...

A some successful batches have gone through my E-Brewery...

 

[Codfish]

Living vicariously through you, sir. Nice build!

 

[hunter306]

Well, we went out of town for the weekend, but I was back at it with my remaining few days of vacation. Not happy with the previous effort at wiring the inputs from the 63a contactor, I reworked pretty much everything again this morning before I got started. I'm much more pleased with the arrangement now.

Also, to save anyone else the hassle, I had tinned the ends of my wires before putting them in the screw terminals. As I was reading more on the accepted method of inserting stranded wire into these screw terminals, I found that tinning wires is not acceptable due to the Solder Creep that can occur. This results in the wires slowly loosening due to the tendency for the tin in soldered connections to deform more easily than the copper alone. With that being said, I went back and redid everything while I was cleaning up the breaker wiring.

Redone breaker wiring:

Installed and wired the SSR's with thermal paste:

Contactor wiring for the elements:

Started installing the heating element twist-locks:

After wiring up the V/A meter, I wanted to ensure that things were coming along correctly. I checked my connections to make certain everything was properly terminated (Although, not all hooked up!) and plugged her in. I tested the ground and the chassis with my Fluke before I grabbed ahold of the power-key for the first time

Powered up, Reading the 2-pole voltage:

Emergency stop switch tested:

More wiring slowly being completed, including the 2 pumps:

Door switch wiring so far:

Overall progress from this afternoon:

More to come tomorrow, when I get started on wiring up the XLR connectors and PIDS.

 

[kona_dude]

Great looking build so far. I may have missed it but is this from an eBrewSupply kit?

 

[hunter306]

Yes, many of the parts are from eBrewSupply.com, I bought the 30a PID kit on their Cyber Monday sale with the upgraded heatsink (medium) and din-mounted contactors upgrade.

I bought the 16x16x8 NEMA enclosure from them as well.

This evening, I was busy working on the labels for the panel while I watched some hockey. I ended up using my Brother P-Touch Electronic label maker and some clear tape with white print, available from Amazon for about 12 dollars (Amazon link!) Here is the result!

 

[Setesh]

Very nice work! Subscribed.

 

[RocketBrewer]

Very Cool!

 

[hunter306]

Getting really close to finishing the control panel after this afternoon's work. Got the XLR connectors in this morning and then spent the rest of the afternoon wrapping up the door electronics.

XLR Connectors for the thermal probes:

Thermal probe connections run to the PIDS:

SSR Signal lines connected to the PIDS:

Wiring the 120v Connections to the PIDS. To save home-runs to the terminal block, I shared the 120v hot side from the pump switch.

Pulling the door wires into the looms that run into the main chassis:

Overall progress from today:

I have a few things left to finish up on the Panel, including the signal runs for the Element Contactors, the Labels for the Probe XLR connectors, and the grounds for all of the 120v indicators lights that show element selection and pump activity.

THEN, it's on to the next step, the Kettles! Stay tuned.

 

[1fast636]

Love how clean your panel is really making me think this will be some thing I can do in the future, keep it up man love the progress

 

[Ttownbrewer]

Looks awesome Hunter! I'm looking forward to seeing it all come together!

 

[Docbruw]

Great build! I'm still in the planning/funding stage of a 50amp panel. How much clearance do you have between the HLT PID and the breakers?

 

[hunter306]

@Docbruw, it's about an 1.5" between the back of the pids and the top of the din mounted contactors and breakers.

 

[hunter306]

Quick afternoon update, since I reached a major milestone. The panel is completed and tested (for basic functionality, still don't have the elements or probes built yet). Some finished pictures of the control panel, which took about 45-50 man hours to complete and may be one of the more complex projects I've undertaken in the recent past.

 

[Roadie]

Points for the nice clean look of the wiring.

 

[hunter306]

Spent some time finishing the plumbing and finishing the clean-up/wet area of the ebrewery this afternoon. Also got the new wort chiller in from MoreBeer.com and it looks really nice, getting excited to run a batch (hopefully soon!).

A few pictures of the progress.

Water filter with Cam-Lock disconnect, Wort Chiller cold water connection:

Also installed a stainless wire rack for equipment storage:

Unpacked the Blichmanns to start figuring out the vent hood sizing:

 

[DFHEK]

Rock on man. Looks absolutely fantastic. You deserve a lot of credit for the obvious thought and hard work put in here. The electric brewery looks to be a great setup. I hope you enjoy it! Subscribed!

 

[Chrisl77]

Do you have anything between the kettles and that metal table? If not you might want to put a piece of wood or cork under them as a thermal break to keep heat from transferring from the kettles to the table.

 

[hunter306]

Do you have anything between the kettles and that metal table? If not you might want to put a piece of wood or cork under them as a thermal break to keep heat from transferring from the kettles to the table.

Thanks for the headsup, definitely planning on putting down some insulating medium before I fire them for the first time. I just got the Blichs out of the box this evening to determine what the height of the hood was going to look like