Beer Church Update (Long)
Ryan Pierce
As a lot of you may have heard on the mailing list, or seen if you've come to PS:One, a lot has changed.
First off, the fermentation chamber took up a lot of space in a very inefficient way, and the temperature control was broken. This needed to change. I'd like to thank Haddon for taking the initiative to reorganize / consolidate a lot of the equipment, disassemble the fermentation chamber, and undertake the process of rebuilding it into smaller, modular units.
I had originally anticipated recirculating air through an air conditioner to handle the cooling. Haddon is working with others (Zach?) to re-purpose the guts of refrigerators. This is, frankly, outside my skill set, as I am rather nervous about bending refrigeration tubing into shape without breaking anything and letting out all the Freon. But if he can make it work, that's all that matters.
It is my intention to re-start Beer Church brew days as soon as
we have a fermentation chamber with temperature control and easier
access to our equipment. Haddon thinks this can be done as soon as
October.
Speaking of equipment, at some point, we may need to consolidate. I think we have a surplus of propane burner stands, potentially too many brew pots, a massive glass carboy that is really poorly designed for fermenting and has never been used, etc. I'm thinking we should try to separate out necessary and useful from unnecessary, try to locate owners for the unnecessary items, and return them, or invoke Tidy Space. We need to be very careful about this so that we don't get rid of necessary items or Tidy Space something with a known owner. I want to work with Toba, Tucker, and Justin if he's still around, to make sure that all the prior stakeholders are involved. Once this is done, we can inventory what we are retaining and put it on the wiki.
While I consider the equipment failure of the fermenting chamber to be the primary reason Beer Church went dormant, I also think we need to do more to get people involved. We have no problem getting people to show up for a brew day. But not a lot of people volunteer to run one. I'd like to change that. I'd like to work with people who want to brew beer to get them to a point where they can do this successfully. To that end, I'm open to suggestions regarding how to educate people. At the same time, I'd also like to see other fermented beverages represented. I know we've had sake and mead in the past, and Haddon has interest in teaching cider classes.
Next up: The Bar. A lot is happening there, too, although it doesn't necessarily all pertain to beer.
Soda water: Andrew purchased a water carbonation machine and a bar gun that can dispense soda water as well as tap water. He wants to mount a cold plate in the fridge currently under the bar. As long as there's room for the cold plate plus two kegs, then great. We also need to do work on the regulator, because the carbonation machine needs 120 PSI CO2 and beer usually dispenses with <10 PSI.
Now the bar fridge itself has a problem. We had a fan and an air
circulation loop in place so that cold air would be recirculated
through the draft system and keep the taps and beverage lines
cool. (If the beverage lines warm up, you get horribly foamy
beer.) At first glance, I think we're missing some of the hose and
insulation. I remember paying a pretty penny for that on McMaster,
so I'm hoping we can locate it. The fan is disconnected, and we've
got a big hole in the top of the fridge. I also remember having
problems with moisture accumulating and icing over the evaporator
coils. I think a low tech desiccant solution (a tray of kitty
litter?) was used in the past.
Additionally, it looks like at least one of the tap adapters is
coming loose inside the column. I'll need to take this apart to
address this. Should Beer Church really get going, I realized I
have a lot of the parts for installing two more faucets. It would
take a second beer fridge, but it may be possible to have up to
four beers on tap.
Last: The HERMS Beer Sculpture. A lot has been happening behind the scenes that isn't exactly visible. I've been doing wiring in the control box, which lives at home with me for now. I had previously been doing work with a micro-distillery, and was using the control box on much larger (800 gallon!) equipment. (See links below.) I was also trying to refine the temperature control algorithm. (It was suffering from significant overshooting because there's a lag between heat input to the keg and the thermometer reporting the right result.) Now we're getting to the point where I need to start testing this at PS:One. Last night I fired it up, literally speaking. I had to do some metal fabrication to move the burner up to the proper position to heat the keg. One benefit of this system is modularity, as evident by my use of it with a distillery. I'm using XLR jacks for most control outputs. So yesterday I started wiring the control harness. Right now I have all three burners wired. They plug into the control box. I hooked up a propane tank and, for the first time, was able to turn each burner on and off by computer control.
The next steps are:
1. Try testing the new control algorithm to see how well it can
heat water.
2. Buy hoses and hose connectors, and test recirculation of water through the heat exchanger, including temperature control.
3. Fabricate tops for the kegs, and wash all the accumulated dust out of them.
4. Attempt a first beer.
5. Party!
This HERMS system is something that will enable Beer Church to
brew 10 gallon batches, accurately maintain temperatures so that
mashes will be repeatable, and easily do mashes with multiple
temperature steps (e.g. what is done in many German beer styles.)
The intention is that other people will be trained and authorized
to use this equipment, just like any other PS:One tool. This puts
us in the big leagues; we'd be providing equipment comparable to
some of the best homebrew clubs, and I can easily see PS:One
brewers getting into competition brewing.
Regards,
Ryan
P.S. Distillery pics:
https://twitter.com/RyanPierce_Chi/status/851122442227548160
https://twitter.com/RyanPierce_Chi/status/851121698128769025
https://twitter.com/SoltisFamSpirit/status/850879649538289664
https://twitter.com/RyanPierce_Chi/status/851125599615766529
https://twitter.com/RyanPierce_Chi/status/851124974484168704
https://twitter.com/RyanPierce_Chi/status/851122779231485956
https://twitter.com/RyanPierce_Chi/status/851122442227548160
https://twitter.com/RyanPierce_Chi/status/851124974484168704
https://twitter.com/SoltisFamSpirit/status/850879649538289664
httpshttps://twitter.com/RyanPierce_Chi/status/851124974484168704
Justin T. Conroy
As a lot of you may have heard on the mailing list, or seen if you've come to PS:One, a lot has changed.
First off, the fermentation chamber took up a lot of space in a very inefficient way, and the temperature control was broken. This needed to change. I'd like to thank Haddon for taking the initiative to reorganize / consolidate a lot of the equipment, disassemble the fermentation chamber, and undertake the process of rebuilding it into smaller, modular units.
I had originally anticipated recirculating air through an air conditioner to handle the cooling. Haddon is working with others (Zach?) to re-purpose the guts of refrigerators. This is, frankly, outside my skill set, as I am rather nervous about bending refrigeration tubing into shape without breaking anything and letting out all the Freon. But if he can make it work, that's all that matters.
It is my intention to re-start Beer Church brew days as soon as we have a fermentation chamber with temperature control and easier access to our equipment. Haddon thinks this can be done as soon as October.
Speaking of equipment, at some point, we may need to consolidate. I think we have a surplus of propane burner stands, potentially too many brew pots, a massive glass carboy that is really poorly designed for fermenting and has never been used, etc. I'm thinking we should try to separate out necessary and useful from unnecessary, try to locate owners for the unnecessary items, and return them, or invoke Tidy Space. We need to be very careful about this so that we don't get rid of necessary items or Tidy Space something with a known owner. I want to work with Toba, Tucker, and Justin if he's still around, to make sure that all the prior stakeholders are involved. Once this is done, we can inventory what we are retaining and put it on the wiki.
While I consider the equipment failure of the fermenting chamber to be the primary reason Beer Church went dormant, I also think we need to do more to get people involved. We have no problem getting people to show up for a brew day. But not a lot of people volunteer to run one. I'd like to change that. I'd like to work with people who want to brew beer to get them to a point where they can do this successfully. To that end, I'm open to suggestions regarding how to educate people. At the same time, I'd also like to see other fermented beverages represented. I know we've had sake and mead in the past, and Haddon has interest in teaching cider classes.
Next up: The Bar. A lot is happening there, too, although it doesn't necessarily all pertain to beer.
Soda water: Andrew purchased a water carbonation machine and a bar gun that can dispense soda water as well as tap water. He wants to mount a cold plate in the fridge currently under the bar. As long as there's room for the cold plate plus two kegs, then great. We also need to do work on the regulator, because the carbonation machine needs 120 PSI CO2 and beer usually dispenses with <10 PSI.
Now the bar fridge itself has a problem. We had a fan and an air circulation loop in place so that cold air would be recirculated through the draft system and keep the taps and beverage lines cool. (If the beverage lines warm up, you get horribly foamy beer.) At first glance, I think we're missing some of the hose and insulation. I remember paying a pretty penny for that on McMaster, so I'm hoping we can locate it. The fan is disconnected, and we've got a big hole in the top of the fridge. I also remember having problems with moisture accumulating and icing over the evaporator coils. I think a low tech desiccant solution (a tray of kitty litter?) was used in the past.
Additionally, it looks like at least one of the tap adapters is coming loose inside the column. I'll need to take this apart to address this. Should Beer Church really get going, I realized I have a lot of the parts for installing two more faucets. It would take a second beer fridge, but it may be possible to have up to four beers on tap.
Last: The HERMS Beer Sculpture. A lot has been happening behind the scenes that isn't exactly visible. I've been doing wiring in the control box, which lives at home with me for now. I had previously been doing work with a micro-distillery, and was using the control box on much larger (800 gallon!) equipment. (See links below.) I was also trying to refine the temperature control algorithm. (It was suffering from significant overshooting because there's a lag between heat input to the keg and the thermometer reporting the right result.) Now we're getting to the point where I need to start testing this at PS:One. Last night I fired it up, literally speaking. I had to do some metal fabrication to move the burner up to the proper position to heat the keg. One benefit of this system is modularity, as evident by my use of it with a distillery. I'm using XLR jacks for most control outputs. So yesterday I started wiring the control harness. Right now I have all three burners wired. They plug into the control box. I hooked up a propane tank and, for the first time, was able to turn each burner on and off by computer control.
The next steps are:
1. Try testing the new control algorithm to see how well it can heat water.
2. Buy hoses and hose connectors, and test recirculation of water through the heat exchanger, including temperature control.
3. Fabricate tops for the kegs, and wash all the accumulated dust out of them.
4. Attempt a first beer.
5. Party!
This HERMS system is something that will enable Beer Church to brew 10 gallon batches, accurately maintain temperatures so that mashes will be repeatable, and easily do mashes with multiple temperature steps (e.g. what is done in many German beer styles.) The intention is that other people will be trained and authorized to use this equipment, just like any other PS:One tool. This puts us in the big leagues; we'd be providing equipment comparable to some of the best homebrew clubs, and I can easily see PS:One brewers getting into competition brewing.
Regards,
Ryan
P.S. Distillery pics:
https://twitter.com/RyanPierce_Chi/status/851122442227548160
https://twitter.com/RyanPierce_Chi/status/851121698128769025
https://twitter.com/SoltisFamSpirit/status/850879649538289664
https://twitter.com/RyanPierce_Chi/status/851125599615766529
https://twitter.com/RyanPierce_Chi/status/851124974484168704
https://twitter.com/RyanPierce_Chi/status/851122779231485956
https://twitter.com/RyanPierce_Chi/status/851122442227548160
https://twitter.com/RyanPierce_Chi/status/851124974484168704
https://twitter.com/SoltisFamSpirit/status/850879649538289664
httpshttps://twitter.com/RyanPierce_Chi/status/851124974484168704
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Justin T. Conroy
John Farmer
Ryan Pierce
You're right. The hose and insulation is still there. I originally just looked under the bar and didn't see it. I came back last night and found where it was hiding: between the side of the bar and the wall. I can try to reassemble this. What type of sealant did you use to connect everything to the fridge?
The cold plate would require drilling into the fridge. You're right, the side can get hot. I recommended to Andrew going through the top.
So you discovered the pain of trying to tighten that nut inside the PVC pipe? Yeah, about that.... I was seriously considering cheating and trying to glue it all in place. It's been a while but I'm going to need to take a look at how it is assembled.
Ryan
rdpierce
Subject: Re: [Beer Church] Re: Beer Church Update (Long)
From: Walter Dworak <prepara...@gmail.com>
Date: Sep 13 11:59AM -0700
I'm interested in learning, but I'm extra confused now as to what the
status of brewing is and have 0 prior experience. Part of this might just
be because I wasn't paying much, if any, attention to the mailing list
recently and all of a sudden