First State Brewers Blog

Been busy the last couple of weekends. I spent Father’s Day de-labeling and de-funking about 8 cases worth of bottles that I have amassed over the past 6 months. 6 cases were 12oz bottles, and about 2 cases were belgian-style 750mL bottles / Champagne bottles. It took me about 6 hours, a 1/4 cup of PBW, and a whole lot of scrubbing… but in the end, I have bottles for another 20 gallons of whatever I deem worthy of going into a bottle instead of a keg.

This weekend I broke in my new 28 gallon Hot Liquor Tank by brewing 20 gallons of Travelers & Tourists Belgian Red Ale. I won 2nd place at the Buzz Off competition in the Dubbel category, but I really didn’t intend for it to be that (it just fit that category best)…. I just wanted it to be a damn-tasty belgian-style brew, which it is. It even seems to satisfy Oliver’s picky palate. The HLT has a cool site glass on the side that shows the current liquid level, and ultimately I’ll get digital readings from the site glass too. This time around, I mostly just used it for no reason at all (Could have used my kettle)… but I really wanted to break it in.

The equipment was pretty much the same as my other 20 gallon batches - I used the pump skid to move hot water around (From the HLT on the burner up to the 10 gallon cooler reservoir), split the mash into 2 different tuns, and used my 14 gallon kettle as a measuring grant. The after first 13 gallons sparged, I pumped the remaining hot water into the reservoir cooler, put the kettle on the burner, and then pumped the wort up into the kettle. Then it was time to start sparging the second 13 gallons using the second tun.

The wort was an absolutely gorgeous reddish-brown color, and smelled heavenly. I tried to be careful not to get too much air into it during the pump transfer, but some happened anyways - hopefully not enough to cause hot-side aeration.

Boiling 26 gallons of wort is just such a cool feeling. It was a really long brew day (about 9 hours), but in the end I got some pretty great beer (and alot of it). The hop additions did a really good job of catching hot and cold break (they formed their own filter bed ontop of the false bottom), and about my only big mistake was forgetting about the Candi Syrup and Corn Sugar addition until about 5 minutes from the end of the boil (were supposed to be added around 15). I had to scramble a little and didn’t incorporate them as smoothly as I wanted to, but in the end I didn’t have any scorch marks on the bottom of my kettle and the wort was the correct target gravity (1.070 SG by hydrometer).

Fermentation is nearly done at this point - almost 48 hours later. The kraeusen has started to subside, and the airlock CO2 bubbles are coming more slowly. The yeast was pitched at 66 degrees, and rose to about 73 while fermenting. I don’t want the yeast to prematurely crash… so I have wrapped some sleeping bags around them to try to retain some of the heat and let the yeast finish up.

I love 20 gallon batches.

…Or as we refer to it in the US, Murphy’s Law, was definitely in effect for my trip to Fayetteville. I won’t recount the whole experience, but needless to say I will never fly through Charlotte again if I can help it, particularly on US(eless)Air. I put some highlights of the business trip debacle at the end of this post, so you can read the good stuff and then listen to my whining (if you are interested in doing so). Man, do I hate business trips.

So at any rate, I did none of the things I wanted to on that trip. I am lucky to have just survived it. The past couple of nights I have worked out a demo for part of my missing pipe functionality - a routine that aligns the defining points for a pipe routing and will re-align everything if one of them is moved. In the screenshot, point 8 (in blue) is moved by either right-clicking in the new location, or holding down the right mouse button and dragging the mouse around. This will ultimately translate into clicking and dragging the pipe control points around (See Memorial Day Activities for some screenshots regarding the control points). I have made the VB2005 source code available if anyone is interested in trying it out.

This weekend I also got something working that I have been meaning to - the pressure sensor proof-of-concept circuit. I am stunned by how well the MPX5010GSX fits the system requirements - simplicity is a beautiful thing. For the test circuit, I ended up using a PICAXE 18X although I could have managed it with an 08M or 14M. I will have to decide how I want to implement when it comes time to print the circuit boards, but for now I’ll punish my 18Xs a little more. I did opt to test out the smaller 2-channel analog-to-digital chips (MCP3202) since the SPI communication protocol is a little different than for the 4 or 8 channel versions.

I included some captions in the picture so you can tell what is what… hopefully.
 
The data sent back to the PC indicates that I probably won’t even need to use the AD620 instrumentation amplifiers. In the screenshot to the left, Channel 0 is the digital temperature sensor, and Channel 1 is the pressure sensor (as I am slowly letting the liquid level drop). I wouldn’t really need to amplify the signal more than 1.2 to 1.5X of what the raw reading is, and I’m not sure that the amplification would really buy me additional resolution. A simpler design means fewer things that can crap out when in use. Again - I *LOVE* these MPX5010GSX sensors.

So how do I plan on working the pressure sensors into my sculpture design? It just so happens that my test rig was put together with a very specific layout for one reason - it directly mirrors the physical orientation of my new 28 gallon Hot Liquor Tank. It has a site glass fitting (brass right now, soon to be replaced with stainless) that has a 1/2″ threaded plug on one end. I plan on drilling a hole in a stainless 1/2″ plug, and having the pressure sensor right there at the end of the site glass fitting. The circuitry will most likely be in a small sealed stainless project box, with only a wire/cable running back to the main control board.

And now, let the whining begin:

• My flight from Philly to Charlotte was late in departing, and arrived at the gate 10 minutes AFTER my connecting flight was supposed to depart. That was OK though - the connecting flight was ALSO delayed.
• Connecting flight to Fayetteville is cancelled after waiting 2 hours. We are told to go to the “Customer (Dis)Service desk and rebook.
• 150 people in line before me at the US(eless)Air Customer (Dis)Service desk - Quick head math tells me I will talk to someone in about 4 hours, at which time no more flights out will be available (not to mention everything being booked solid from the other 150 people going first).
• We quickly call our company travel agent and get booked on a flight to Raleigh. We fly into Raleigh without incident, and drive down to Fayetteville (about 60 minute drive, not bad).
• We arrive in Fayetteville at 10:30pm, a full 5 hours later than anticipated, without our luggage, and immediately go to bed.
• My luggage arrives in Fayetteville the following day, but my collegue’s bags get sent to Raleigh for some ridiculous reason. Baggage (Mis)handlers strike again!
• I’m so tired on Tuesday from the previous day’s ordeal (and working a 10 hour day at the plant) that I eat a quick dinner and pass out at 8pm. I wake up at around midnight and realize no coding is gonna happen for my brew sculpture on this trip.
• Wednesday our departing flight out of Fayetteville gets cancelled 10 minutes before we’re supposed to board. Fortunately this time around I didn’t try to check my bag, so we get booked out of Raleigh direct to Philly.
• We go rent ANOTHER car (since we had turned in the previous one hour earlier) and drive to Raleigh, catch the flight in plenty of time, and get to Philly around 9:45pm.
• Driving home on I-95, I hit the road construction around 476 (exit 7), and sit in bumper-to-bumper traffic as they squeeze 3 lanes down into 1.
• I arrive home at 10 minutes to midnight, a full 5 hours after I was supposed to.

…So this weekend I finally got around to doing something that I have been meaning to for some time - Building a test rig for the MPX5010GSX pressure sensors. You guys have already seen my temperature sensor test rigs in previous posts like Electromadness Continues, and I’ve had the pressure sensors for a while but have not actually done any testing with them yet. Instead I have been pondering how to proof the concept of pressure level sensing, and build accurate test circuits.

I built the mechanical portion, as shown in the picture. The 28 gallon (~100 L) kettle is included for a scale comparison. It consists of a plastic 1/2″ T, plenty of 1/2″ vinyl tubing, an old brass drain valve (long since replaced with stainless in on my kettles), and a wood support. This will let me test the pressure sensor with a very small amount of water, as opposed to filling up and draining 28 gallons at a time (not like that was ever even considered).

The circuit portion is going to require a little more time. First I need to find and purchase a 4 or 6 socket header that I can plug the sensor… I will run some wire back to a breadboard, and from there use my AD620 instrumentation amplifier IC to make it full-scale. I am thinking of taking it from the AD620 through a 12 bit SPI Analog to digital IC (MCP3202) and then to a 08M PICAXE chip. I haven’t worked out details, but I should have enough inputs and outputs on the 08M to bit-bang the SPI protocol and implement an interrupt / serial communication back to a master PICAXE chip when requested. If not, I’ve got a couple of the 14M chips that will definitely have enough power to do so - or I may even try playing around with the 28X1 and 40X1 parts that have native SPI support - haven’t really decided yet.

I also did some minor work on the VB.NET user interface - mostly getting the basic functionality for the “Designer” control to work. The biggest gap at this point dragging the pipe points around the screen, but I have a plan on how to do that. Cut/Copy/Paste is all working, the Zorder (bring forward/send back) is all working, as is shift-dragging and ctrl-dragging. Soon I’ll start work on the designer form (not just the control that displays and implements the changes). I don’t have any good / new screenshots to share, but I hope to complete a good quantity of work this week while on a business trip to Fayetteville. Once the workday is over and we’ve eaten dinner, I plan on locking myself in my room and working on the application rather than killing time, money, and brain cells in an overpriced and understocked pub. Seeing as Fayetteville is a military town, I do not have high hopes for the local craft brew scene.

Other things beer-related from this weekend:

• I racked 10 gallons of Witbier to secondaries, 5 gallons of which went onto about 5lb of cubed mangos (the “Mango Mama” witbier).
• I participated in the 2007 BUZZ-Off Competition and took 2nd place in the Belgian Dubbel category for Travellers & Tourists (TnT). My amarillo pale ale did well too (38.5), but did not place.
• I carelessly broke my favorite belgian glass (a Dogfish Head tulip glass, given to me by Sam Calagione at a book signing) and they are not made any more - DRAT!

The unfortunate demise of my tulip glass is most tragic. You were good to me - RIP.

This weekend I brewed the 10 gallons of belgian pale that I referenced in my last post - using the out-of-date Wyest 3864 Canadian Belgian strain that Joe and Marlana from HDYB had in their fridge. I propogated the heck out of it - stepped it up using almost a gallon (4 qts) of starter wort. I should have plenty of yeast for the next 20 gallon batch of TnT Belgian Red in a couple weeks. I am really hoping for good things from this starter batch too - I went a little wacky, as I tend to do from time to time. I used Magnum for the bittering hops (which is not wacky), but used Sorachi Ace for both flavor and aroma at 10 minutes and 3 minutes (1 oz per addition). This hop is Japanese, apparently from the Sapporo brewery, and is supposed to have a lemony character - and I thought to complement the hops, I would also add 0.5 oz of bitter orange peel (no big deal - 0.25oz per 5 gallons) AND over 1 1/2 oz of fresh chopped ginger root.

As it is fermenting, the ginger aroma is definitely wafting out the airlock. I just hope there is enough ginger character left in the finished beer that you can either smell it or taste it. We recently used more than that in a Teriyaki marinade, so I am assuming 1.5oz in 10 gallons won’t overpower the beer, but rather subtlely compliment the other “summery” aromas of lemon and orange peel. I thought about zesting some lemons and throwing that in the secondary, but that is probably too much.

The 2007 Buzz Off is this coming Saturday - I am curious to see how my 3 entries do. I am not expecting any ribbons, but since this is my first time entering into the belgian styles, I am interested to see what the feedback is.