Team Name
Penny Pitchers
Timeline
Fall 2020 – Spring 2021
Students
- Janine Batongmalaki
- Abhishek Dhital
- Connor Glasgow
- Elmer Rivera-Molina
- Joshua Venter
Abstract
This section describes the purpose, use, and intended user audience for our Glycol-chilled fermentation system. The Glycol-chilled fermentation system is one that aids in the fermentation stage of brewing beer. During the fermentation stage of brewing, the reactions going on within the wort create heat. To deal with this heat, brewers can manually ‘ice’ the wort. This is cheap and effective but requires human oversight. This makes the process of manually icing wort nonscalable. With a Glycol-chilled fermentation system, the human component of the fermentation process is substituted with this system. With our project, users will be able to perform the fermentation process without having to manually babysit the wort. Users can set a desired temperature to maintain, and our system will reach that temperature and keep the fermenting wort at that temperature.
Background
A glycol chiller is essentially a small air conditioner that uses the refrigerant glycol to cool a container to the desired level. Normally it is used it cool wort as a part of the fermentation process of beer or other alcoholic drinks. However, glycol chillers on the market can get very expensive and offer standard services. The home-brewers, local to Arlington, Texas do not have many options to choose from so by providing an alternative we hope they would be interested in buying our glycol chiller. The glycol chiller is going to be built with the design that it could be used in general home brewing system setups.
Project Requirements
- The system will be produced at a price that fits within our allotted budget.
- The system shall use a Bluetooth hydrometer to get the required temperature and specific gravity readings.
- The user will be able to interact with the system to manually adjust the temperature setting.
- The system shall use a specific refrigerant/coolant (R290).
- The Raspberry Pi unit shall be powered by DC, separately from the main system, using an AC to DC converter.
- For any given recipe the chiller will maintain a consistent temperature within the range of 5C to -35C with +-1C of error within the fermentation container
- The system shall output the desired temperature reading within a 1-degree margin of error.
- The control unit will properly power on and off the system in reaction to undesired temperature readings from the Bluetooth hydrometer.
- The system shall be powered by 120V AC.
- The system will be able to control/cool one fermentation vessel.
System Overview
The Glycol Fermentation system will consist of three main layers: The Control System, Glycol Management System, and the Fermentation Management System. The Control System will communicate with both the Glycol Management System and the Fermentation Management System.
Results
Future Work
- Mobile interface (semi-automation)
- Recipe reading (full automation)
Project Files
Project Charter (link)
System Requirements Specification (link)
Architectural Design Specification (link)
Detailed Design Specification (link)
Poster (link)
References
Smith, Matt. “Glycol Chiller Build.” https://backdeckbrewing.wordpress.com/2017/09/05/glycol-chiller-build/