Build Your Own BSD Beer Brewing Control System

gnuguru writes "Here's a great use for some of your old hardware, a BSD beer brewing kit! Components: one 486, FreeBSD, a temperature logger kit, a relay board, some odds and ends from the useful box, and some time. Summer's just around the corner, so get to work gang!" You'll have to use this recipe, naturally.

Accessories?

[Eziril]

Now to put some in my Peltier Beer cooler http://www.stud.ntnu.no/~arnesen/peltierbeer/ [stud.ntnu.no]

A simple thermostat isn't good enough...

[ZombieEngineer]

The purpose from the article was to provide a temperature profile. Biological processes are a tad bit complicated with the desired product sometimes will only be produced under certain circumstances, from memory Penicilin is only formed by a certain fungus during the "death stage" of fermentation at a specific temperature. eg: all the culture is used up and the biomas starts to consume itself)

By controlling the temperature profile during fermentation it is possible to radically change the "taste" of the product. That is why the Australian / South African wine growers can churn out a reasonably good product cheaply (as opposed to the French) as they use large temperature controlled stainless steel vats with scorched oak chips rather than small wooden casks.

Zombie Engineer

Re:Coincidence?

[Anonymous Coward]

here's 15 minutes left before the toasted coriander

GODDAMNIT! CORIANDER HAS NO PLACE IN BEER!!!!!!

Fundamentally flawed

[kimanaw]

While it maybe kewl (hmm, unintended pun...), its waaaayyy overbuilt, and definitely violates the Homebrewers Prime Directive: "Relax, Don't Worry, Have a Homebrew" aka. RDWHHB.

For a simpler (albeit less sexy/techie) solution check here [tinyurl.com]

Works fine for me, but only during warm temps, since it only turns the fridge off/on, and doesn't control a heat source.

And as for "open source" beer, there are recipes aplenty freely available on the 'net (e.g., HBD [hbd.org]). All you need is a couple buckets with spigots, an airlock, a kettle, some malt, and some yeast. Far less difficult, and much more rewarding, than open source s/w!

Re:Cool

[misleb]

Energy costs? I just brewed 5 gallons of ale and it didn't take more energy than it takes to run a gas burner for 60 minutes. All the fermenting and aging was done at room temperature.

Maybe it takes a lot of energy to brew a lager, but not an ale. I like ales better anyway...

-matthew

Re:A simple thermostat isn't good enough...

[medoc]

For your information, in France as elsewhere, the fermentation phase of wine brewing is done in large containers (inox or wood or cement vats).

The wine is only transferred to casks when the fermentation is done.

The period while the wine stays in casks is called elevage (can't remember the english term), and aims at refining the wine taste before bottling (this can last up to a few years). Not all wines go through a cask elevage.

There are a few cases of fermentation in casks, but they are truely the exception.

Re:Cool

[courious1]

As a EX beer and wine maker I know by the time you factor in all the costs it is cheaper to buy. I made my beer from grain and talk about alot of labour. :( and to be able to get QUALITY BEER it takes patience and many failures.

Re:Cool

[Bush Pig]

I've been avoiding using grain for just that reason. If you make it out of malt syrup and hop pellets (all of which can be bought cheaply in bulk) and recycle the yeast for a few brews, it is considerably cheaper (about $A12 for 22 litres - which is about 60 stubbies, only I keg it these days). I don't even usually need to worry about temperature control. I brew ales in summer (the temperature gets a bit high sometimes, giving a bit of a butterscotch taste, but it's rare I have a complete failure) and lagers in winter (they ferment at around 13C, which is a bit high, but it works OK). My only energy cost is boiling about 6 litres of water with the malt and hops for about 30-40 minutes. Adelaide has a pretty good climate for brewing.