All posts by Richard Page

Have I been Slacking ?

Well not really…. I’ve still been brewing Big Smile just not blogging what I’ve been up to !

Currently on the go is a Milk Stout  that went into the F V last wednesday, took it’t time to start but is now off like a rocket Cool

I have also  got a Plumb wine on the go, started my first batch of Cider and bottled up what promises to be a corker of a wheat beer.

I have also been busy making Labels for my bottles…

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Plumb wine
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Apples 🙂
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42 bottles of Wheat Beer

[spiderpowa-pdf src=”https://purpleogre.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/ogrebottle_RIS_shed_iv_grey.pdf”]ogrebottle_RIS_shed_iv_grey

@BrewPi Latest Brew profile histories

On Sunday   just before I Dry hopped the Citra brew I recompiled the BrewPi binaries for my Leonardo rev A and C shields to take into account the profile bug I came across. I also took the opportunity to shorten the fridge on /off delays a little , I think it’s helped in reducing the yoyo-ing a little. I am also using a thermowell (thermopocket) in the Black IPA  FV for the first  time Cool

Screen Shot 2013-08-13 at 08.04.13
BlackPi doing a profile to ferment Black IPA
Screen Shot 2013-08-13 at 08.03.45
GreepPi hitting it’s 20c target to dry hop the Citra

#Brewday Roundup

Well that was a successful Brewday. The coin was tossed  and A Black IPA was made ..
The brew didn’t quite go as planned what I Thought was a 1/2 bag of crystal Malt was Biscuit Malt so I subbed Black Malt into the mash instead !

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Recirculating the Black IPA



After listening to a Beersmith podcast on American IPA I decided to keep the mash temperature down to 64.5 and mash for slightly longer so the  OG came out  at 1.066, Slightly lower than the estimated 1.072 but hopefully it’ll be nice and light…

Sunday was transfer day / dry hop time for the Aussie Citra. Dry hopped with  21g of Citra i’ll leave it for 3 or 4 days and then Keg it ! 
OG 1.050 and at the time of transfer into the Secondary it had dropped to 1.010, so it’s 5.2% and i’m looking forward to it.

#Brewday Black IPA or a Chinook IPA Tomorrow’s choice !

Tomorrow it’s going to be a BrewDay Cool

I’ll toss a coin in the morning or if there’s enough comments  from people i’ll go with the flow…
decide if it’s going to be  the Chinook IPA or the Black IPA! ….

The Chinook has just Chinook hops where as my Black IPA has Chinook, Bullion,Summit and Cascade… both are Dry hopped Big Smile

I’ll take votes up until I start…

Something isn’t right …

Since i’ve introduced the second fridge  into my BrewShed, I seem to have had nothing but trouble with the BrewPi’s !
My latest woes have been with what is normally my rock solid Black Pi system ! The beer sensor has started to disconnect Cry
I’ve tried two during my latest brew and both have disconnected at random intervals. The GreenPi  system also keeps disappearing  from the network…

I hink the newest  fridge addition is the most likely culprit and  might be in  need some extra  suppression …..

Screen Shot 2013-08-08 at 22.15.35
 4 drop outs into idle mode

EDIT

Hey after posting on @BrewPi forum it looks like I found a Bug in the update temperature codeCool

False Bottom update

I posted about my False bottom mod with the Silicone sealant on the 13th of Jun.
Well The Silicone I used retained the petro chemical smell Embarrassed
I  did an Anchor steam Clone brew  about a month ago and it’s tainted the taste Ahh!. So the Sealant has been removed, Tricky stuff to get off the Stainless Mesh, lots of Cutting, Pulling and then Brushing with a Wire brush !

Last night I applied HA6 aquarium safe sealant , says its safe for fish and doesn’t contain or release any nasties when cured. Lets see how this goes…

@BrewPi rev c build oddities

I have a REV A BrewPi shield system up and running which has performed really well and upgrading to the latest dynaconfig Build went like a breeze. After getting another fridge/freezer I took the plunge and ordered a REV C shield to upgrade the DIY /Dev system ( and at the same time saw a cheap Mega 2650 on ebay  so I could still mess around with the planned I2C displays as the 2nd Leonardo would be permanently installed in the new REV C  system)

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 Nice Rev C Board


Once built, I pressed the Rev C system known as GreenPi to Bastogne Beer conditioning tasks and Initially set it to Beer contant mode, Beer probe duly placed on the Corny Keg under  a bit of foam and off it went, until on the 2nd of July  I came home to find the display blank. After restarting  I also put the second corny with the newly brewed out wheat beer in the fridge.

Brewpi Logs
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Wheat beer and Bastogne side by side

It wasn’t until a few days or later that I twigged the fridge temperature was now higher than the beer temperature. after a quick twitter conversation with Elco I switched to fridge contant mode but things didn’t settle down and I again came home to the display acting strangely.

[videojs mp4=”https://purpleogre.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/IMG_4147.mov” width=”480″]

After  more advice and suggestions from Elco,  I  stripped the the GreenPi system down checked connections and reflashed the Leonardo with a freshly downloaded precompiled Hex. This has Improved things but there are still oddities. Temperature probes disconnecting etc….  So after lots of probe swapping and resetting device slots, to try and keep things simple… The  probes are still acting up ……
here’s a sample of the log…

Jul 08 2013 10:27:20 Arduino debug message: WARNING 2: Temperature sensor disconnected pin 22, address 28703057040000C2
Jul 08 2013 10:27:20 Arduino debug message: WARNING 2: Temperature sensor disconnected pin 22, address 28AF305704000022
Jul 08 2013 10:27:23 Arduino debug message: INFO MESSAGE 0: Temp sensor connected on pin 22, address 28703057040000C2
Jul 08 2013 10:27:25 Arduino debug message: INFO MESSAGE 0: Temp sensor connected on pin 22, address 28AF305704000022
Jul 08 2013 10:35:16 Arduino debug message: INFO MESSAGE 18: Negative peak detected: 11.6, estimated: 10.6. Previous cool estimator: 0.000, New cool estimator: 0.000.
Jul 08 2013 10:40:41 JSON decode error: Expecting object: line 1 column 102 (char 102)
Jul 08 2013 10:40:41 Line received was: T:{“BeerTemp”: 7.12,”BeerSet”:null,”BeerAnn”:null,”FridgeTemp”: 11.87,”FridgeSet”: 10.60,”FridgeAnn”:null
Jul 08 2013 10:40:42 Cannot process line from Arduino: ,”RoomTemp”: 26.81,”State”:5}
Jul 08 2013 10:44:44 JSON decode error: Expecting object: line 1 column 102 (char 102)
Jul 08 2013 10:44:44 Line received was: T:{“BeerTemp”: 7.15,”BeerSet”:null,”BeerAnn”:null,”FridgeTemp”: 12.02,”FridgeSet”: 10.60,”FridgeAnn”:null
Jul 08 2013 10:44:44 Cannot process line from Arduino: ,”RoomTemp”: 26.69,”State”:4}
Jul 08 2013 10:48:19 Arduino debug message: WARNING 2: Temperature sensor disconnected pin 22, address 28703057040000C2
Jul 08 2013 10:48:19 Arduino debug message: WARNING 2: Temperature sensor disconnected pin 22, address 28AF305704000022
Jul 08 2013 10:48:21 Arduino debug message: INFO MESSAGE 0: Temp sensor connected on pin 22, address 28703057040000C2
Jul 08 2013 10:48:23 Arduino debug message: INFO MESSAGE 0: Temp sensor connected on pin 22, address 28AF305704000022

The latest lead could be interference  from the fridge switching on but after looking at the latest logs this doesn’t quite match up !  Although it could be from the fridge next to it, but the Rev A shield system controlling this does’t seem to be effected, I’m confused  the Rev A system ( BlackPi) has less mains filtering on the mains input but is essentially the same build …
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Fridges next to each other
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The BrewPi systems
It will get sorted thats for sure, but it’s put my small attempts at getting my I2C displays going on the Mega2560 on the back burner, so far I’ve re hacked the hacked DIY shield, took a slight detour into testing  a DHT22 humidity sensor against the DS18B20 and started to change some of the latest Stable code in line with MDMA’s post on his findings but I’m keeping it local as I’m not sure I  have the coding skills to fork  a branch of the code for the Mega2560 version..

IMG_4138
Rough pin definitions
IMG_4144
Testing the Probes against each other

PS ..It’s been a warm day in the shed today just look at the temp chart !
it’s also just occurred to me that with both cornies in there in effect blocking and absorbing the cold it’ll probably need a fan to move the air past the refrigeration panel .

Screen Shot 2013-07-09 at 17.34.11
 ouch it’s a scorcher even with roof insulation

 

 

Bastogne Ale Bottles and Kegged and @BrewPi

This morning I managed to get 20 bottles full with 7.82 % Bastogne/Trappist Ale, the rest went in to the Keg.
OG 1.080, FG 1.020….

Looking forward to tasting this in 3 or 4 weeks time.

Yesterday there was a nice new REV C BrewPi shield kit waiting for me when I got in from Work. Elco was kind enough to also send me a bare  Rev B Shield PCB to build up, which, once I manage to get it up to our Technical Support Services SMD facilities and build it, I plan to hack around and play with on the mega2560 and the  I2C displays Cool
Piccies to follow when my phone is charged Sad

False Bottom modified

After my last mash, I decided to make some changes to my Mash Tun False bottom. Last weekend I applied Silicone Sealant .

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It’s been curing for a week now and i’m wondering if it’s ok to do a mash with it yet ?
The Acetic acid smell has gone but it’s got a petro chemical  smell about it Angry

I used Homebase general Purpose Silicone Sealant, the one with a 25 year guarantee, I wondering if I should have used Aquarium/ fish safe sealant Sad
I plan to have a #Brewday either tomorrow or over the weekend, maybe a test soak is in order …..