Introduction - motivation
Motivation for building a home microbrewery – from idea to execution. Planning automation, location and mashing system.
- 2 min read
Introduction – motivation
April 2021
After finishing my powerwall project, I was looking for the next big project that will keep my brain and hands busy. A few years ago I was an employee of ProjectSoft HK as a programmer. One business field was system control of sugar factories, brewhouses and mini-brewhouses. (Czech republic is a super-nation in the count of mini-brewhouses :))
At one business trip I had the opportunity to debug and put into production a mini-brewhouse in Switzerland, run by two brothers. I remember one moment when one of the brothers stood up in front of the brewhouse, spread his arms and said: “This is MY machine!”
I like beer, my friends and family too – so the project topic is chosen!
Idea
The idea was to have automation wherever it makes sense. A touch display will show the process diagram with all temperatures and states.
This means 50 l vessels. I cannot have this in the house – no room for that – so I need to build something outside.
About the price: I want to push it to the minimum by doing DIY where it makes sense.
Where to put it
For the solution of the space problem, see: Building brewhouse-cellar
This mini cellar is for lowering the ambient temperature to better reach 0–4 °C even in hot summer.
Automating mashing
One of the first problems was how to solve mashing. A pump capable of transferring dense hot wort costs a lot. I tried a DIY peristaltic pump, but the pump requires a really large silicone hose (2 cm inner dia) and from practical tests it does not work well.
I was inspired by this connected vessels method: by changing the mutual height of vessels, one can move the wort using gravity. Mash-tun would be 1 m higher than lauter tun; moving it back is done by air pressure.
Note: It did not work – the pressure required is so large that the vessels cannot hold it and would need to be sealed extremely well.
