The AutoBrewer
The AutoBrewer totally automates my brew day for those times my kegs are empty and my schedule is full. After having kids, it became harder and harder to find six or so hours to spend brewing. I began looking for ways to make my day shorter, or to at least reduce the amount of time I had to be standing next to the kettle. I was waking up at 4 a.m. to try to squeeze in a whole brew day before anyone else woke up. I would be tired for the rest of the day, trying to hold it together while spending time with the family. Then I had an idea, an egg timer to release additions during the boil. Did it work?
No.
But from there, the AutoBrewer was born.
Boiled down, the AutoBrewer is a series of relays, switched by an Arduino to control a hoist and some solenoids. The Arduino gets its timing signal from two ITC 308 Wi-Fi Inkbird temperature controllers. One controller monitors the temperature of the kettle — controlling the heating element and the glycol chiller pump. The second controller has a 5v phone charging block plugged into the heating relay that is used to signal the Arduino to do the next thing. The smart controls in the app already have everything needed to automate the brew day.
It’s not a short cut! The brew day still consists of a full-length mash and boil, real hops and additions added according to the recipe schedule, and the wort comes out the same as it would if I were physically adding the additions by hand. The difference is I’m not adding them by hand and don’t even need to be present.
The system has three parts:
The hoist or gantry crane. I have always used it for pump-free gravity transfers, and for picking up and moving heavy objects such as full kettles and fermenters. The hoist is wired to two relays so the Arduino can tell it to lift the bag at the end of the mash time.
The main base, where the scoops, relays, and Arduino are mounted to make additions during the boil.
The glycol never gets above around 80 °F (27 °C) while cooling wort, it takes about 5 minutes to get the wort down below 180 °F (82 °C). It takes another 60–90 minutes to chill wort to 70 °F (21 °C).
Of course I still need to set up the brew day in advance. It takes about 30–45 minutes to prepare the night before. I collect water from the carbon filter on my refrigerator and then add the mash water and water additions to the kettle and set up the Inkbird to have the water hot when I plan to wake up. I also weigh out hops and any other additions the night before.
The next day, it takes about 15–30 minutes to mash in and set up. Setting up is pretty simple:
- Unplug my heater.
- Mash into my Brew-In-A-Bag (BIAB), latch the bag to the hoist hook.
- Put Fermcap in the “Fermcap injector” (a plastic syringe) and hop or other additions in the scoops.
- Plug the hoist into the relays.
- Hit the “start mash” button in the Inkbird app, which starts the mash timer. Turn on the necessary automations.
- Make sure the temperature sensor is not heating or cooling, plug the heater back in, and I’m finished brewing for the day.
The AutoBrewer takes over from here. I usually do a 1-hour mash, which makes the total brew day 5–6 hours long. However, I can make this as long as I want. One time I even set it up at 10 p.m., set the mash for six hours and went inside for the night. I came outside at 10 a.m. to wort ready for the fermenter. It was a great feeling.
Once my mash timer is up, the Inkbird controller signals the Arduino to raise the bag just enough to drain, but not splash, ending the mash. Then the controller sets itself to 212 °F (100 °C) to begin heating.
The next few actions rely on wort temperature.
When it reaches 180 °F (82 °C) the bag is lifted again, this time all the way out.
At 191 °F (90 °C) the Fermcap injector pushes Fermcap to prevent boilovers.
At 206 °F (97 °C) my wort is boiling and the AutoBrewer starts to add my additions. I use four scoops that can be set to delay any amount of time. The additions are scheduled using the automations on the Inkbird app, so the Arduino code never needs to be changed, it just waits for a signal to do the next thing.
I generally boil for 1 hour, but this can also be adjusted to any amount of time through the delay on the Inkbird.
Finally, the controller sets itself to 68 °F (20 °C). This turns off the heating element and turns on the glycol pump.
Once I get home from the zoo, or disc golf, or just spending the day with the family, it takes me 30 minutes or so to transfer and clean up. With a full-volume, single-kettle BIAB setup, cleanup is as simple as dumping and rinsing . . . once I’m done the dishes of course.
See More
•You can see the AutoBrewer in action on the Brülosophy Show.
•I also created a free how-to guide to detail how I made this device, complete with all the programming, just in case you want to get a little free time too!
