Welcome!

I created this blog to document the progress of my beer brewing and automation project.

I began by learning to brew 1-gallon batches of beer by hand, and then created a heating automation setup to control the temperature as I brewed. With this setup, I brewed a few more batches in order to test and improve the process. My posts range from informative posts on my setup to tastings and calorie information.

Here are a few of the automation highlights:

Detailed Wiring of Full Setup
Heater Cable Rewiring and Added Safety Elements
Arduino Code

Please keep in mind, the posts appear from newest to oldest, so feel free to check out some of the links on the sidebar to find the information you are looking for!

Grapefruit IPA Tasting and Code (8/29/16)

Finally my last batch (for now) is finished:

Unfortunately, I don't think the seal on some of the bottles was very good, so it did not carbonate very well. It's possible something went wrong with my bottle capper after my last batch when it went on crooked and broke a bottle, or maybe I was just too timid this time with using it. Otherwise, the beer was pretty clear and fresh tasting with the grapefruit flavoring, but wasn't my favorite flavor. Of the people who tried it, some liked it and some didn't, so who knows if it turned out the way it was supposed to. I'll have to try again one day to make sure.

I also wanted to include the code I used when brewing this batch. It is pretty similar to my original code, but I changed the alerts to be specific to this recipe, and changed the heating mechanism during the boil - I also added this change in as an edit to my old code post from 7/4/16. This served to turn off the heater until the water fell a few degrees, so that less liquid was lost during the boil as compared to having the heater on the whole time.
  #include <Time.h> #include <TimeLib.h> #include <OneWire.h> // Adapted from "OneWire DS18S20, DS18B20, DS1822 Temperature Example" by Sonia Holar and Christian Volz - July 2016 // Procedure for Grapefruit IPA // // http://www.pjrc.com/teensy/td_libs_OneWire.hTimel // // The DallasTemperature library can do all this work for you! // http://milesburton.com/Dallas_Temperature_Control_Library OneWire ds(2); // probe on pin 2 #define RELAY_PIN 10 //relay pin 10 const int buzzerPin = 9; //piezo buzzer on pin 9 int x = 0; int y = 0; int SteepStart = 50000; //steep and boil starts set high so that timing if-statements //later cannot be true until these get set to actual reasonable values later int Stage1 = 1; int Stage2 = 0; int reachBoil = 0; int boilStart = 50000; //my added variables void setup(void) { pinMode(RELAY_PIN, OUTPUT); pinMode(buzzerPin, OUTPUT); Serial.begin(9600); tone(buzzerPin,1000,1000); //beep once on startup } void loop(void) { byte i; byte present = 0; byte type_s; byte data[12]; byte addr[8]; float celsius, fahrenheit; if ( !ds.search(addr)) { Serial.println("No more addresses."); Serial.println(); ds.reset_search(); delay(250); return; } Serial.print("ROM ="); for( i = 0; i < 8; i++) { Serial.write(' '); Serial.print(addr[i], HEX); } if (OneWire::crc8(addr, 7) != addr[7]) { Serial.println("CRC is not valid!"); return; } Serial.println(); // the first ROM byte indicates which chip switch (addr[0]) { case 0x10: Serial.println(" Chip = DS18S20"); // or old DS1820 type_s = 1; break; case 0x28: Serial.println(" Chip = DS18B20"); type_s = 0; break; case 0x22: Serial.println(" Chip = DS1822"); type_s = 0; break; default: Serial.println("Device is not a DS18x20 family device."); return; } ds.reset(); ds.select(addr); ds.write(0x44,1); // start conversion, with parasite power on at the end delay(1000); // maybe 750ms is enough, maybe not // we might do a ds.depower() here, but the reset will take care of it. present = ds.reset(); ds.select(addr); ds.write(0xBE); // Read Scratchpad Serial.print(" Data = "); Serial.print(present,HEX); Serial.print(" "); for ( i = 0; i < 9; i++) { // we need 9 bytes data[i] = ds.read(); Serial.print(data[i], HEX); Serial.print(" "); } Serial.print(" CRC="); Serial.print(OneWire::crc8(data, 8), HEX); Serial.println(); // convert the data to actual temperature unsigned int raw = (data[1] << 8) | data[0]; if (type_s) { raw = raw << 3; // 9 bit resolution default if (data[7] == 0x10) { // count remain gives full 12 bit resolution raw = (raw & 0xFFF0) + 12 - data[6]; } } else { byte cfg = (data[4] & 0x60); if (cfg == 0x00) raw = raw << 3; // 9 bit resolution, 93.75 ms else if (cfg == 0x20) raw = raw << 2; // 10 bit res, 187.5 ms else if (cfg == 0x40) raw = raw << 1; // 11 bit res, 375 ms // default is 12 bit resolution, 750 ms conversion Time } celsius = (float)raw / 16.0; fahrenheit = celsius * 1.8 + 32.0; Serial.print(" Temperature = "); Serial.print(celsius); Serial.print(" Celsius, "); Serial.print(fahrenheit); Serial.println(" Fahrenheit"); //MY CODE: if (Stage1 == 1) { //stage1 = heating up and then steeping grains Serial.println(x); Serial.println(y); Serial.println(Stage1); Serial.println(Stage2); Serial.println(now()); //just for our information/to make sure everything works properly if (fahrenheit >= 160){ digitalWrite(RELAY_PIN, LOW); //turn off heat Serial.println("Relay off"); if (x==0){ x=1; } } else if (fahrenheit <= 155){ digitalWrite(RELAY_PIN, HIGH); //turn on heat Serial.println("Relay on stage 1"); } } if (y!=x){ SteepStart = now(); tone(buzzerPin, 1000, 1000); //(pin,frequency,duration in ms) Serial.print("NEW SteepStart: "); Serial.println(SteepStart); y=x; Serial.println("Add grains");//alert us to add grains } if (now() >= (SteepStart+1200) && now() < (SteepStart+1210)){ //at 20 min mark Stage1 = 0; Stage2 = 1; tone(buzzerPin, 1000, 1000); //(pin,frequency,duration in ms) Serial.println("Remove grains");//alert us to remove grains } if (Stage2 == 1){ //stage2 = bring to boil and maintain 60 mins Serial.println(x); Serial.println(y); Serial.println(Stage1); Serial.println(Stage2); Serial.println(now()); if (fahrenheit <= 203){ digitalWrite(RELAY_PIN, HIGH); //heat on Serial.println("Relay on stage 2"); } else if (fahrenheit >= 205){ digitalWrite(RELAY_PIN, LOW); //heat off - want to prevent losing too much water by just leaving heat on during all of boil if (reachBoil == 0){ tone(buzzerPin, 1000, 1000); //(pin,frequency,duration in ms) reachBoil = 1; boilStart = now(); Serial.print("boilStart set to "); Serial.println(boilStart); Serial.println("Add DME and first hops"); //alert us to add DME } } } if (now() >= (boilStart+2400) && now() <= (boilStart+2410)){ tone(buzzerPin, 1000, 1000); //(pin,frequency,duration in ms) Serial.println("40 min have passed, add next hops");//alert us 40 min mark } if (now() >= (boilStart+3000) && now() <= (boilStart+3010)){ tone(buzzerPin, 1000, 1000); //(pin,frequency,duration in ms) Serial.println("10 min have passed, add next hops");//alert us 10 min mark } if (now() >= (boilStart+3300) && now() <= (boilStart+3310)){ tone(buzzerPin, 1000, 1000); //(pin,frequency,duration in ms) Serial.println("5 min have passed, add spice pack");//alert us 5 min mark } if (now() >= (boilStart+3600) && now() <= (boilStart+3610)){ digitalWrite(RELAY_PIN, LOW);//heat off tone(buzzerPin, 1000, 1000); //(pin,frequency,duration in ms) Serial.println("5 min passed, Relay off"); //alert us 5 min mark Stage2 = 0; //end stage 2 } }

This will be my last post for now, although I do plan to keep brewing when I have the time, and hopefully improve my automation and even add new elements to it (I have a few more ideas to explore). I hope this blog was informative and helpful to anyone trying something similar!

Bottling IPA and Cider Tasting (8/9/16)

I bottled my grapefruit IPA today:

This beer should have 170 calories in 12 oz, and is 5.1% ABV.

As usual, I used my auto-siphon to do so. However, as you may have seen in an earlier post, I was using the tubing as a blowoff tube for the IPA while it fermented, and because of this it got very dirty inside.

The siphon looks like this:

Just pumping water through the tube did not clean all the sediment and debris off the sides, so what I did to clean it was cut a corner off of a sponge, insert it into the tubing at the connection indicated by the arrow, reattach the connection, and pump the sponge all through the tubing, then remove it at the second connection of tubing on the right. This pulled all the debris right out so I could sanitize the siphon and begin my bottling.

I also tried the cider today! It was good, especially considering I didn't use much at all to make it (see my cider post). I think priming with apple juice was a good idea, it tasted sweet and apple-y.

Mandarina Pale Ale Tasting (8/3/16)

Today I tasted the finished Mandarina pale ale. It was really good - a light flavor, with some subtle citrus tones. It was a pretty normal pale ale, and although I think I liked the red ale better, I think this one turned out really well. 

We drank it along with a meal of schnitzel and potatoes, which it went really well with. 

I don't have much to post about since summer is coming to an end and I can't make more batches as they won't be ready before I have to go back to school. Next week I'll bottle the IPA and taste the cider, and then later taste the IPA - after that we'll see what I can get going back at school.

I also recently tried "frozen beer" at a restaurant I went to, and it was pretty good!

I ordered a summer shandy and was told they had a frozen version, so I tried it. It was basically a glass of beer with a frozen foam-looking topper. The topper is made from the beer itself, lemon liquor, and some other things the waiter didn't mention, I assume - I'd love to learn to make it though! The beer was fruity to start with, so this drink was pretty lemony and sweet, which I liked for a frozen drink, but they did also have another type that was not so sweet which would be cool to try. 

Fermentation Overflow (7/26/16)

Yesterday, I started the fermentation of my grapefruit IPA. I previously edited my heat control code to turn the heater off during the boiling stage until the temperature dropped too far, which I think caused less water to boil off during the process. This meant I had more wort to fill my 1 gallon carboy compared to with previous batches. Yay, more beer - but today I noticed that the fermenter had overflowed into the airlock:

I cleaned out the airlock, refilled it with water, and put it back on the bottle, but a couple hours later it had overflowed again. So, I rigged up a blow off tube:

This functions the same way as the airlock, but leaves more room in the tubing for foam to escape without clogging.

You can see the bubbles coming out as the beer continues to ferment.

Bottling Hard Cider - Priming with Juice (7/26/16)

Today I am bottling my hard cider, which has been fermenting for two weeks.

Normally, I prime my beer with sugar right before bottling so that the yeast eat the extra sugar and carbonate the beer over the next two weeks. For the cider, I will be priming with apple juice instead to give the final cider a more apple-y, sweet flavor.

For a 1-gallon batch of beer I use 1 oz of priming sugar, which is ~28 g. The apple juice I purchased has 28 g sugar per 8 fl oz (1 cup) so I will be adding that much juice to my cider before bottling it and letting it carbonate for two more weeks.

The cider's FG was 1.011 (and the OG was 1.063), so the cider is around 6.8% alcohol and 211 calories per 12 oz bottle.

However, the calorie count isn't exact because this was before I added the cup of apple juice - adding it changed the FG to 1.013, making a 12 oz bottle 212 calories according to the calculator from my last post. This is odd because the apple juice has 110 calories per cup, which should have added 10 calories to each of my 11 bottles. I'm not sure how that works since some of the sugars will be consumed in carbonation, so maybe I can take a final specific gravity reading on a finished bottle and find out. Still, we know it is somewhere around this level of calories.

Also, this is what happens when your bottle capper goes on crooked - don't keep pushing! To save some of the cider, I filtered it twice to make sure there was no glass in it and used a new bottle.

Calories in my Beer (7/25/16)

I heard that craft and homebrewed beers tend to be higher in calories than mass produced beers and I was curious and decided to look up how to calculate the calories in my beer.

I found this calculator which uses OG and FG - original and final specific gravity - to calculate the calories in beer. This calculation combines the calories from alcohol and unfermented sugars in the final product.

There are about 7 calories per gram of ethanol, and 4 cal/g of carbohydrates, and the OG and FG can be used to determine the ethanol and sugar content of the beer.

For more information on the formulas, check out these two sources - the first is very detailed and the second is easier to follow and calculate but it is less clear where the values in the formulas come from.

For my two batches of beer, here are the results for a 12 oz bottle:

American Red Ale = 207 cal

Mandarina Pale Ale = 179 cal

This graph from this article shows the calories in 12 oz of some popular beer brands:

Compared to these beers, it looks like mine are on the high end calorie-wise, but that may not be true for all homebrewed beer. Anyway, the first batch was delicious so I can't complain!

Also, today I brewed my next batch, a grapefruit IPA, which is now fermenting.The new setup with grounding worked with no issues. My mandarina pale ale should be done next week, and the cider the week after, so there is lots of good beer to come!