This is the third post in a five part series on the updates made to my beer stand for the Jan 3rd brew. Here are links to the previous post:

• Brew Stand Update #1 - The Stand
• Brew Stand Update #2 - Panel, Wiring, and Power
• Brew Stand Update #3 - Gas and Water Control

Gas Control

Gas control is one of the key new components to the system because it will allow me to keep the HLT at a set temperature without me having to watch over it. This works for keeping the water in the HLT a particular set temperature by using the main thermowell in the side of the tank, or can be used to control the wort exit temperature from the HLT coil during HERMS by using the thermowell on the back.

To do this I am employing the temperature controller in the panel, and a Honywell V800A1088 gas solenoid valve. The valve is designed for use with a gas heater, but works great for this application too. The valve has two 3/4 in ports, one for input and one for output, which can be reduced to 1/2 in (which is what I am doing). It supports both liquid propane and natural gas (conversion kit is included), running at low pressure. It has a built in pilot and thermocouple connection. The pilot is very convenient to have, but the thermocouple is a bit annoying because it requires about 1-2 mins of heat before it will allow sustained gas flow. This is a safety mechanism for when its used in the home. I'm working on something that would trick the thermocouple port into thinking it has heat, which should add some convenience to the process. The gas solenoid is activated with a 24 v signal, at which time the gas opens and the pilot lights the burners. 

The burner is a cast low pressure with a 1/2 inch pipe fitting and approximately 21 little burner jets. It's very similar to the 92K BTU burner that MoreBeer.com sells, but the one I have has a pilot port and came with the two fitted pilot pieces that screw in. The solenoid and burner is connected with a 12 in piece if steel gas pipe, and the pilot is connected with 1/4 in copper tubing that is rated for higher heat. The cool part about all this is that the new burner fits into the old burner stand pretty snugly. If that didn't work out I would have had to fabricate a new metal stand to hold the kettle, which would have been a pain in the ass. To feed the solenoid I am using a standard 11 inch water column low pressure regulator. I think I got it from ace, or I may have just purchased it directly from Mr. Heater. Either way its a pretty simple and cheap part.

Water Control

The water control features I added probably weren't that necessary but it definitely adds some time saving features. The primary change to the water control was the addition of a water solenoid. This is hooked up to the water inlet so that no water can enter the system unless the solenoid has been opened by the panel. Next I switched over to a 3-way ball valve to redirect flow between the filter housing and chill water and added a singular ball valve for the water feed to control the rate. The water inlet also has a stainless steel quick disconnect that we tried out during last brew.

The filter housing was moved directly under the HLT portion of the stand to make room for the gas solenoid. This works out fine because it allows me to bolt the casing to the stand, which turns out to be much sturdier than using the mounting bracket I have for it. I also added a plastic quick disconnect on the outlet of the filter housing that has an auto shutoff. This way we won't spray water all over the place when removing the hose from the filter housing when the water is still on.

The last important feature of the water control is the float switch. The float switch sits at the top of the HLT and is used to shutoff the water flow during filling when the water reaches the top of the tank. In essence, its my auto-fill component or overfill protector. It works by keeping a closed circuit when the water is lower then its position. When the water gets high enough it lifts the float device and opens the circuit, which triggers the panel to close the water solenoid. Pretty cool.

Next Brew Stand Update Post

Next post I will be going over the inline oxygenation and probe management components.