Heatsinks and Enclosures

Unfortunately I don't have any pictures for tonight, but I'll have some this weekend of the progress I am making.  I mentioned in the last post that I wanted to have my control panel done by the end of the weekend.  That didn't happen.  I ran into an issue with the heatsink and my taps.  I couldn't get deep enough holes tapped for the screws that will hold the SSRs against the heatsink.  Because of this I have the bottom of 2 screws embedded in my heatsink and I had to order a bottoming tap.  The tap came today and I had time to test fit one of the SSRs.  It worked beautifully.  Tomorrow I should be able to get the other SSR fitted and then mount the heatsink.  That is all I have left to do before I start wiring.

Since I couldn't work on my control panel, I started working on the heating element enclosures.  These boxes will provide a dry place for the heating element wiring while the element is working hard boiling my wort.  The boxes are 2 gang electrical boxes meant for outdoor electrical connections.  A flat plate is used to provide an even surface for mounting against the kettle.

The flat panel is designed to be used on only one side of the gang box.  However, in this application we need the flat plate on both sides.  To do this I had to drill holes in the box to align with those already in the plate.  That part was easy.  What wasn't easy was trying to get the flat plate to sit flush against the outside of the box.  After looking for solutions on forums, I tried to countersink the holes.  After a lot of trial and error I ended up with some decent looking countersinks, but the flat plate still didn't fit right.

I stared at the two parts and tried pushing them together for a long time before noticing that the box was too big for the flat plate.  It was too wide to sit flush because the corners were pushing against the bevel on the plate edges.  A quick measurement confirmed what my eyes were telling me.  If only I had checked that first.  I wouldn't have needed to spend so much time trying to get a good countersunk hole.  Now I will just have to JB Weld the box and plate together and fill in any holes that may arise.  Hopefully I can get it right the first time though.

After finding out I had wasted a lot of time I finally moved on to painting the boxes.  They are a dull grey normally, but I painted them with silver spray paint with a hammered finish.  This way they will be a closer match to the kettles that they will be attached to.

Overall, the weekend wasn't a complete bust, but I didn't get as much done as I was hoping.  The remainder of my parts also arrived today so if I get stuck on any one part of the build I will be able to move on to another portion with ease.  I still think my goal of mid June is doable, but now I need to really keep at it.  I am getting excited to brew again!

Tap That!

I spent the last couple days marking and measuring where I needed all of the holes for the internal components for the control panel.  Tonight I decided that I had everything marked correctly and it was time to start drilling.  I started with the heatsink.  The holes for the heatsink were the easier than I was anticipating and were exactly where I needed them.  Next I moved on to the backplate for the internal components.

I got half of the back panel drilled.  I also tapped the holes.  By tapping the holes, I won't have to remove the entire backplate to replace a component if it fails.  Hopefully that situation doesn't arrive, but I am ready if it does.  This whole process has been going smoother and faster than I was expecting.  So far I haven't messed up for any of the components.  It is definitely putting me ahead of the pace to finish my control panel by the end of the weekend.

I also ordered the last parts that I need to do all of the kettle conversions.  So once I finish the control panel I should have the stuff I need to keep moving.  I am getting excited the closer I get to finishing the control panel because the rest of the build should be easier and a lot less stressful.

Control Panel Install

I have finally made forward progress on my electric brewery build!  Work and life have just been crazy for awhile so I was moving along like a glacier on this project.  Since my last sporadic updates, I have painted the control panel box, installed the components in the door, put the door tags on, installed the handles and laid out the internal components.

My next move will be drilling the backplate so I can mount the internal components.  Then I will install the power receptacles and start wiring the control panel.  I am hoping to have this system done within a month.  There is a lot to do in order to accomplish that goal, so I am going to stop writing and get back to it!

Brewing Randomness

Life has pretty much sucked brewing-wise over the last month.  Work has been crazy and just sucked up a ton of my time.  So over the last month I have been able to randomly get stuff done when time and energy allowed. To kick things off, I managed to keg all 3 beers that were waiting in the fermenters.  This included my ESB, red ale, and the barleywine that has been aging on bourbon soaked oak chips.  The ESB and red ale both taste as they should.   The barleywine smells amazing, but still lacks in the taste department.  I am going to bottle it up (with my awesome new BeerGun) and see how it ages.  I also worked on a new beer marking system, but that will be a post for another day.

I also got work done on my brewery control panel.  I am in the process of cleaning up the box and door so I can paint them!  Then it will be on to the fun part of wiring everything.  That will be a pain, but if I take my time I should do alright.  The painting will take a week or so to let everything dry properly, but then I will be back up and running at full speed.

At the National Homebrew Conference in June, I will be taking the Beer Judge Certification Program exam to become an official homebrew judge.  The test will be difficult, but hopefully I can do well enough to pass.  I started watching some online recordings and following along with the tastings to help develop my palate.  I will have more on this later.

I also brewed my last beer ever.  Well at least my last beer on my current set up.  I have decided to focus what is normally my brew time on the brew system to try to make that operational before some friends visit in June so we can brew together on it.  My last beer was a Rogue Dead Guy Ale "clone" that I am calling Not Dead Guy Ale for a friend coming back from deployment.  The name also works on the level that I was forced to sub out some of the grain due to local availability.  The brew day went well.  This was the first time I have ever done a 90 minute boil, but thanks to Beersmith I mashed and boiled with the correct volumes of water to end up with my 5 gallons.  This beer is currently bubbling away in the fermenter.

I feel bad after not posting for the entire month of April, but life just got in the way.  It especially hurts after starting the year so well with regards to posting about my brewing.  Looking ahead, my work schedule seems to be calming down so I will hopefully have more time to play with brewing stuff and post about it.