What are you doing with homebrew today?

A rainy day project making progress.

Wired the higher current circuits with some high temperature (SIS) switchgear wire scraps. I thought I still had a capacitor that I swapped out on the air handler fan, but can’t find it. Something in the 50uF range will drop 75% of the voltage to the heater by my calculations. That’ll make the output about 250W until it gets too hot, then it’ll shut off. Otherwise, if it needs full heat, the heating output will pick up a relay to bypass the capacitor. Pump is turned on any time the heater has power available.(secondary switch on), and the Inkbird will have power when the main is on. That will let me use it for a thermometer to monitor cooling down for pitching. Don’t have to drag out more utensils.

Needs the capacitor and some idiot lights to finish it off.

IMG_3520.jpeg
 
RoadRoach said:
A rainy day project making progress.

Wired the higher current circuits with some high temperature (SIS) switchgear wire scraps. I thought I still had a capacitor that I swapped out on the air handler fan, but can’t find it. Something in the 50uF range will drop 75% of the voltage to the heater by my calculations. That’ll make the output about 250W until it gets too hot, then it’ll shut off. Otherwise, if it needs full heat, the heating output will pick up a relay to bypass the capacitor. Pump is turned on any time the heater has power available.(secondary switch on), and the Inkbird will have power when the main is on. That will let me use it for a thermometer to monitor cooling down for pitching. Don’t have to drag out more utensils.

Needs the capacitor and some idiot lights to finish it off.

View attachment 29553
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I love dinrail. makes life so much easier.
 
Donoroto said:
Good question, let's think like engineers.

The grain starches are converted to simpler sugars by enzymes in the malted grain. Each enzyme is most active in a specific temperature band, below which it is inactive (or nearly so) and above which it gets denatured (and stops working forever).

I will speculate that the enzymes are starting in the malt, but dissolve into the water. I believe that if a piece of malt is surrounded by wort at xxx degrees, it is also at that temperature.

Overheating a volume of wort denatures the enzymes it contains. A little won't hurt, but do it enough and conversion stops from lack of enzyme. Denaturing is not instant, but it is just several seconds - or so I speculate. I may be wrong.

Considering all that, I think the 1/4 second that the RIMS tube might overheat parts of the wort is ok, but it needs to mix back down to temperature right quick. Overheating the grain is very bad.

Perhaps a relatively small (quart?) chamber after the heater to even out the temperature? And measure there? Requires continuous recirculation.
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I think we’re on the same page now. The way I see it, the grain bed cannot overheat if the wort temperature coming out of the RIMS is being regulated at the optimal mash temperature, however the mash bed could be a little on the cool side. Which is exactly why I took @Minbari advice to add a lower power heat to maintain wort temperature without causing oscillation or overshoot. If it continues to climb, the cooling output will turn off all heating until the wort drops back down to set point. I’ll probably have to play with it some to optimize flow rate with temperature loss, etc. I ran my test with max flow. It took a while for it to cool down below the deadband and turn the heat back on.
 
Minbari said:
I love dinrail. makes life so much easier.
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Yes it does. I prefer the taller stuff to raise the terminal strips off the surface to make wiring easier. Most of materials in this thing is recycled and repurposed from junk I accumulated over about 40 years of industrial service work. I just can’t bring myself to toss stuff that I might have a use for later. The missus calls me a pack rat, but sure likes it when I already have what I need to fix something she needs.
 
RoadRoach said:
Yes it does. I prefer the taller stuff to raise the terminal strips off the surface to make wiring easier. Most of materials in this thing is recycled and repurposed from junk I accumulated over about 40 years of industrial service work. I just can’t bring myself to toss stuff that I might have a use for later. The missus calls me a pack rat, but sure likes it when I already have what I need to fix something she needs.
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The difference between a pack rat or hoarder, and someone who plans for the future, is that the latter knows where all that stuff is.
 
I'm still just thinking about brewing, but no action.
Except:
I'm gonna brew one of the quarterlies, the Beach brew (where has @ofram gone to, or was it @efrim?) as I want to use Maris otter.
This time with a Belgian yeast.
I got half a pack of T58, so thats gonna be the one.
Just need to figure out what to use instead of orange peel. My previous brews had lime peel, but now I got neither.
Lemongrass maybe? Or I might have some limes in the freezer.

After this one it will be something on the trub..Would Q2 work with T58? Sounds odd to me, but I bow to superior knowledge.

Gone drink a non-homebrew now and if I remember, make more sparkling water
 
Minbari said:
It's only 1030am...... way too early for that much accomplishment!
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Was done with my last one at 10:30. I really, really wanted homebrew, so I didn't have a choice but to get up substantially before the sun did.
I was determined to watch the sunrise at the beach the week before last. As early as the sun is coming up right now and my hour drive to the beach, that involved setting the alarm for 4:30 so I had time to stop at the bait store. You gotta do what you gotta do.
 
Time to figure out if there are any coils in the side of the fridge.

Easy no-risk method: drill (or cut) one or more shallow holes into the interior plastic (just barely break through the plastic), then use a probe (think small screwdriver) to probe for anything that isn't styrofoam. Feel free to dig out the foam carefully. If clear, drill a big hole (1-1/2" to 2-1/8" hole saw) from the outside. Fit the CO2 line and inkbird probe through that, fill the hole with foam rubber. Some tape on the metal edges prevents cuts.

Very few modern fridges have coils or wires in the sides.
 
Donoroto said:
Time to figure out if there are any coils in the side of the fridge.

Easy no-risk method: drill (or cut) one or more shallow holes into the interior plastic (just barely break through the plastic), then use a probe (think small screwdriver) to probe for anything that isn't styrofoam. Feel free to dig out the foam carefully. If clear, drill a big hole (1-1/2" to 2-1/8" hole saw) from the outside. Fit the CO2 line and inkbird probe through that, fill the hole with foam rubber. Some tape on the metal edges prevents cuts.

Very few modern fridges have coils or wires in the sides.
Click to expand...
A half dull utility knife works too. Will cut the plastic and not the copper if it is there.

But i agree, most have coils in the back
 
Donoroto said:
Very few modern fridges have coils or wires in the sides.
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Gonna beg to differ. The little Chinesium fridge (fermenting fridge) I bought just a couple years ago definitely has coils that wrap down both sides and across the top. Mine may be a little different I suppose in that it can function as an upright freezer or a fridge with a freezer compartment. The way I found out where the coils were was to just open the door and turn it on in freezer mode. One good thing about the humidity in the sunny south is how quickly it'll condense/freeze on the walls of a freezer if left open.
 
Donoroto said:
Time to figure out if there are any coils in the side of the fridge.

Easy no-risk method: drill (or cut) one or more shallow holes into the interior plastic (just barely break through the plastic), then use a probe (think small screwdriver) to probe for anything that isn't styrofoam. Feel free to dig out the foam carefully. If clear, drill a big hole (1-1/2" to 2-1/8" hole saw) from the outside. Fit the CO2 line and inkbird probe through that, fill the hole with foam rubber. Some tape on the metal edges prevents cuts.

Very few modern fridges have coils or wires in the sides.
Click to expand...

This will be in my future as well as I can only fit two kegs in if I have the CO2 tank in there too. I'll have to be careful because it's an old fridge. The previous owner left it here when we bought the house 25 years ago!
 
RoadRoach said:
Gonna beg to differ. The little Chinesium fridge (fermenting fridge) I bought just a couple years ago definitely has coils that wrap down both sides and across the top. Mine may be a little different I suppose in that it can function as an upright freezer or a fridge with a freezer compartment. The way I found out where the coils were was to just open the door and turn it on in freezer mode. One good thing about the humidity in the sunny south is how quickly it'll condense/freeze on the walls of a freezer if left open.
Click to expand...
Yeah, my chinesium keeezer has cools in the walls. But a standard kitchen fridge, with its own separate freezer, is different.
 
There's also a method using a paste with baking soda that you apply on the outside and see what evaporates first and theoretically shows any refrigerant lines. I don't remember the exact details, but I either read about it on Homebrewtalk or heard it on the Homebrew Happy Hour podcast.
 
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