Hack your own beer

Talk at the 2013 installment of geekcamp.sg about how to hack hardware to improve your home brewed beer.

Transcript

1. Hack your own beer Markus Baden and Nick Lewty Centre for Quantum Technologies
3. Make
4. Hack your beer? • Beer is not Tiger • Homebrewing - Making • Hardware hacks • Software hacks
5. Beer is not Tiger
7. You could Drink imported craft beers Go to local micro breweries ...
8. You could Drink imported craft beers Go to local micro breweries ... Or just make it yourself Full control over flavour Keeps you hacking on weekends
9. Beer basics • Water • Barley • Hops • Yeast Beer
10. THE BASIC PROCESS Beer is created when brewers yeast converts malt sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide BREWERS YEAST MALT SUGAR CO2 C2H5OH ALCOHOL CARBON DIOXIDE SANITIZING 1. MASHING 2. The most important step. Nothing can spoil a batch of beer faster than stray bacteria. Steep grains in hot (but not boiling) water to make wort, a sweet liquid that's basically unfermented beer. Bring wort to a rolling boil and add hops—the ower of the hop plant that gives the beer avor—according to the recipe. Chill wort and transfer to fermenter. Pitch yeast. Store beer away from sunlight and wait one to several weeks, depending on the recipe. BOILING 3. FERMENTATION 4. You now have beer! But it's at beer. In order to carbonate it, you must prime it with additional fermentable sugars and bottle it. Then wait at least two weeks. BOTTLING 5. DRINK UP! 6. SOURCES: American Homebrewers Association, SoYouWanna.com, Popular Mechanics, Barley Bandits
11. Recap • Mashing • Convert starch into sugar • Keep grains at target temperature (warm) • Boil to add hops • Cool down from 100 to 7 degrees • Fermenting • Convert sugar into alcohol • Keep pre beer at target temperature (cold) • Put in kegs and drink
12. Recap • Mashing • Convert starch into sugar • Keep grains at target temperature (warm) • Boil to add hops • Cool down from 100 to 7 degrees • Fermenting • Convert sugar into alcohol • Keep pre beer at target temperature (cold) • Put in kegs and drink Hacked? ✓ ✓ ✓
13. Some projects • The Recirculating Mash Tun • The Fermentation Chest Freezer • The Kegerator • The Flapibrew Software
14. The Recirculating Mash Tun
15. Getting the mash right
16. Getting the mash right • Enzymes work at specific temperature • Keep all grains at that temperature • Cycle through temperatures for different groups of enzymes • Maximize starch to sugar conversion
17. Getting the mash right
18. Getting the mash right • Water heater, Kopitiam style • Add pump to recirculate water • Add control of heater / pump
19. Getting the mash right
20. Mash electronics • Thermistor to sense temperature • Relay to switch • Power to heater (mains!) • Power to pump • Arduino in charge
21. Thermistor
22. Thermistor • Analog in - resistive divider • Could use serial chip
23. Relays
24. Relays • Off the shelf for switching mains • Could use many Arduino relay boards
25. Temperature stabilization • Read in analog voltage • Look up temperature • Adjust duty cycle
26. Duty cycle Cold Warm Hot
27. Who’s in charge?
28. Enter Arduino
29. Arduino • PID library for closed loop control • Simple serial communication • Status up date • Pump on / off • ... • Python control GUI
30. Python GUI
31. Not cool enough?
32. Enter Rasberry Pi
33. Web control • Rasberry Pi talks to Arduino • Serves web application • RasPiBrew by Stephen Smith • (FlapiBrew in the making...)
34. RasPiBrew
35. Still not cool enough? Be my guest!
36. Getting the mash right • Arduino controlled heater • Rasberry Pi based web application
37. The Fermentation Chest Freezer
38. Good fermentation
39. Good fermentation • Ales ferment at ~21° • Lagers ferment at ~7° • Singapore is ~35°
40. Good fermentation
41. Temperature control • Similar to mash tun • Cooling instead of heating • Switch mains to fridges / freezers • Don’t kill compressors
42. Don’t kill compressors • More complex logic • Cool for only so long • Wait before restarting • Threshold control instead of PID
43. User interface • Hacked laser driver • A few buttons • Hitachi HD44780 LCD screen • Speaks singlish...
44. Not cool enough? • Rasberry Pi anybody? • Tablet control maybe?
45. Good fermentation • Arduino controlled fridge or freezer
46. The Kegerator
47. Problem Lots of beer you don’t want to bottle
48. Problem Lots of beer you don’t want to bottle Solution Get second hand kegs
49. Problem Now you got kegs
50. Problem Now you got kegs Solution Build a kegerator
53. The Kegerator • Fridge (maybe Arduino controlled) • Taps (from the internet) • Tubing (from Kelantan lane) • CO2 bottle
54. The Kegerator • Ideal for hosting events • And... technology is portable
55. Flapibrew A project in need of a beer drinking rabbit mascot
56. Rasberry Pi • Control mash with Rasberry Pi • Somebody must have done it... • RasPiBrew by Stephen Smith • Dude... add a button
57. Rasberry Pi jQuery what?
58. Rasberry Pi Button done, but...
59. Flapibrew • Flask app served by tornado • Tornado handles websocket • Lightweight client jQuery • Die die must port to smart phone!
60. A few notes • Home brewing is a vibrant community • You can hack as much as you want!
61. A few notes • Home brewing is a vibrant community • You can hack as much as you want!
62. homebrew.sg
63. SUTD Brewing Club
64. meetup.com/Singapore-Homebrew/
65. Enjoy the beer but • A few thanks • Nick Lewty • (Prof. ...) Christian Kurtsiefer • Centre for Quantum Technologies
66. www.quantumlah.org
69. Drink good beer with good friends! beercanlah.com github.com/beercanlah