Beer Belly Breweries

[Trough Lolly]

Yep, if you look at the pic in my signature block, you can see the March Pump sitting on a dedicated marine deck platform between the keg and the counterflow chiller. The pics don't show the plumbing (silicon hose and ss ballvalves that are an ongoing and expensive work in progress)!

[Biernut]

Yes expense is the bottom line. Out of the whole project which is ongoing like yours I have found that the HLT is the most challenging and the most expensive unit to put together. My objective is to have the temps, water volumes and timing to be controlled by computer or microprocesser. Putting it together from the hardware point of view is no great hurdle but to write the software is totally out of my domain.

[Trough Lolly]

Over on the Australian Craft Brewing website, Arnie Wierenga wrote an excellent reference article on making an electronic temperature controller, if you want to go the whole nine yards - or you can grab a temp controller from your local Jaycar supplier.

The article: is here...

Cheers,
TL

[Biernut]

Had a look at that article T/L it was an interesting read. Looking at the circuit diagram I see Arnie has kept it pretty simple and straight forward and mentions some instability on the output for reasons I am not sure. I was more interested in looking for ideas in setups similar to controls in dishwasher and washing machines which would cover heating, water level, and solenoid valve operation. Ambitious, yeah you could say that, but given the time and the inclination it could work. In the mean time I will just plod along doing it manually and maybe full automation will grow slowly.

Cheers mate.

[WSC]

Check out this link from the US that outlines how to set up an AG stand and the kettles.

You can also get close ups of the stand if you want to get ideas for design.

http://www.brew-magic.com/map_page.html

I like the diagrams of the plumbing etc too.