Lights out brewery build project

[setmash]

Hi,

Its 18 months since i started AG brewing and Ive decided its time to seriously upgrade my kit with a view to saving a good amount of time on each brew as Im spending 8+ hours before it goes in to the FV and I just dont have the time to brew all the nice beers I want to try. I brew in a batch size of 3 cornies. The MRS has kindly offered to buy me a BCS for Christmas (bless her). Ive put a bit of brain power in to it and I reckon I can make my brewery completely lights out. i.e. I press 'Start' and i end up with finished cooled wort in the FV without having to touch it. I will get to that point eventually with the build (question is will brewing be any fun if I do) but will phase it in. Im going to start the build from scratch and allow a really good budget (feck it I work hard enough and the kids wont miss heating this winter lol). I have a few questions regarding kit and some regarding process. Any feedback is apprecaited. I will source as much of the gear in the UK but realistically most of it will come from the US. Phase 1 will be lights out until the boil stage. Phase 2 will be lights out to FV stage.

Any feedback would be moist appreciated. I will take pics and document to help others. Its going to take 8 to 12 months to complete.

The hardware
Planning on using legally bought kegs , polish them myself and do all the necessary soldering/ weldless joints - I want this build to be a feature of the house, it must look gorgeous ( I was thinking about Stout kettle kit - its nice but maybe wit would look too professional)
Question: Darkonnis mentioned that if he could do it all again he would design his system to be bottom draining to aid cleaning - my vessels will have flat bottoms, im thinking of 1.5 or 2 inch butterfly dump valves on the bottoms and catch all the crap in a bucket underneath the rig , any comments/suggestions ?...if i can make cleaning easier then life will be easier
I was hoping to use RIMS, however thinking about this from a safety perspective I may go nano HERMS - no chance of explosion even with a flow switch Im still not sure I would trust RIMS
Im planning on using 5.5KW ULWD elements - the CAMCO type connected in to the vessels via TRICLOVER fittings. I will design the system to handle 11KW + HERMS (2.2KW) but will start with 5.5KW, im thinking if this is lights out then start with 5.5KW in the HLT and Kettle as time wont be a factor because (after significant debug) this kit can run on its own overnight (Im an electronic engineer...you can remind me of that when i electrocute myself lol).
I plan to, eventually, hard pipe the entire system (I will use polished copper - it will be beautiful). Triclover where possible. Initially camclocks and silicon hose until all the debugging is done.
All liquids will be transferred using SS head inline chugger pumps and I will use SS float switches on the base to ensure element protection) and adjustable top level switches for vessel autofill,
Electronic solenoid valves for liquid control.
I need to look at the sparge system carefully - im thinking maybe a Blichman autosparge, or maybe I will design an electronic level sensor to measure the liqour above the grain bed. The BSC will control the valve outputs and adjust as necessary.
One thing I cant do is measure the OG before boil. Im hoping that if I get my process right that wont be necessary.
Hops will be added from small automated containers...this is Phase 2 so Im not too worried about this for now, though I will make sure the rig can accommodate this.
I will use a counterflow chiller (the BCS will sanitize this an the output line from the boiler automatically). Everything will be temperature controlled.

I do have a big question. I dont have much RIMS HERMS experience. A key show stopper is adding the grain bill. I was planning on adding the grain dry in to the MT, then pumping the correct amount of water in to the MT from the HLT. I would normally stir in the Grist to ensure no clumping, however I will be in bed so I cant....I was hoping, because this is a HERMS system, then the grain is going to get significant agitation so efficiency and flavour shouldnt be effected ? Any comments or experience on this ???

Any feedback on the above, anything i should watch out for ? Im really looking forward to it so would appreciate any ideas or feedback you have. I will keep all up to date on progress. Im currently sourcing vessels (hoping to use Morrow brothers limited for the kegs..any other suggestions ?) and Im designing the control electronics.

Thanks in advance,,,

[Fil]

Nice plan.. Dont kegs have a domed bottom?

Do you Need herms or Rims? id consider adding that as and when the need for step mashing ocours with the beers your brewing. as long as your tun is preheated and well insulated you wont need to add any heat to the mash, and its a lot easier to simply insulate the tun well than engineer and monitor/control in real time extra heating.

if you want to minimise the doughing in needed you can underlet (fill from the bottom up) the tun with mash liqour. and something im toying with as a dry tun preheat option is a 100w incandescant light bulb hung in an enclosed tun and withdrawn before any water goes in, may work with an empty metal tun, but iff full with grain may not be so effective..) But trial and error could lead u to the strike temp needed to heat the tun and grain to mashing temps??.....

for control if u want a nice touch screen gui id look at the brewpi for a basic model, u can stick any old gui on the top of that and serve it up as a web page to any device. but if your after a minimal 20 x 4 lcd interface the arduino is brill and has fantastic community backup and support, and shed loads of open source brewapps to copy lift and mod.. check out jabba's Brewery programming thread for at least 3 complete systems to digest/copy/use

ecsentricdyslexic has a grand automated hop adder find one of his posts and check the vid links in his signature..

[beer taster]

Hi setmash
Good luck with the project, I assume you've seen the brewtroller projects. One day when I retire I may get time to build a more automated brewery.

[darkonnis]

I'll get some photos of my new FV's up when I get finished with em and show you exactly what and how i mean. Sounds reasonable all round though.

[JabbA]

I was idly thinking about this over the weekend as brewing with an 18 month old requires a bit of planning and squeezing into to family life!

Regards to the mash, I came to the same idea as Fil with a lamp to preheat the MT and I was also thinking about a motorized paint stirrer mounted to the lid which would run for a few seconds once all the mash liquor has underleted.

Cheers,
Jamie

[setmash]

Thanks guys, really interesting feedback. My thoughts on the BCS is that it will be fairly quick to set up and use. I had considered the Raspberry Pi / other embedded controller. Its a question of trading off the ease of use with the BCS v's the flexibility of a programmable controller. I will do some research as to the best option - maaaaan, nothing is easy in the AG brewing world of ours. I may need to use some flow sensors for liquid measurement. Im starting to think flow sensors may be a good option for vessel fill rather than float switches.

Love the idea of filling the MT from the bottom. Im going to start doing some experiments with this at the weekend. Any other advice gadly accepted