For craft brewers or for those who are dedicated to Homebrewing, temperature monitoring is one of the crucial stages in obtaining a good beer. There are several steps in the brewing process, including malting, mashing, washing, boiling, fermenting, conditioning, filtering, and packaging.
In particular, there are two phases in which the temperature level must be controlled: mashing (mixing the ground malt with hot water) and fermentation (the higher the temperature, the faster and more turbulent the fermentation).
According to the different needs, it is possible to choose between two paths: the methods based on home devices or the methods based on professional devices.
For example, with the open source electronic platform “Arduino”, it is possible to create a homemade temperature controller simply with a temperature sensor and a relay module (and, of course, some programming skills).
The integration with Raspberry PI regarding the “BrewPi” project allows for more advanced algorithms and interactive graphics in real time. In the near future, the device may support mixing control (BIAB, HERMS, or RIMS).
On the other hand, for more professional uses, it is recommended to purchase a specific temperature controller, to facilitate the automation of the entire process. For example, we consider the need to control two electric boilers with different time/temperature steps.
If you want to use electric heaters controlled by contactors or on/off solid state relays and need to manage two boilers independently (with different time/temperature steps and start times), we suggest a brewing temperature controller enabled to program at least 15 cycles. Therefore, the device must be designed to program cycles/curves with control of the process variable in relation to time. A useful function can be to recover the state of the controller after a power outage, to avoid the reboot process.
Instead, if you want to manage two boilers with one master controller (where a second slave controller is linked to the first controller’s setpoint, managing the output regardless of the detected temperature), we suggest two programmable controllers, connected in series. interfaces In the industry there are two serial interfaces: RS422 and RS485; Please check that the two controllers have the same interface before purchasing. The best thing to do is of course to buy two temperature controllers from the same manufacturer.
Keep in mind that programming an industrial thermoregulator can be easier than you might think: just check to see if the manufacturer has provided any inherent video tutorials, or ask the many PID/PLC communities that can help you about the temperature controller using a microcontroller.
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