Not sure if anyone has noticed the links on the left side, but they say “Fermentation Status” and “Fermentation Control”. The control portion was the latest addition to the brewery and it is now controlling fermenting beer temperature  to within a quarter degree and has the ability to run temperature profiles.

The current profile is for hefeweizen yeast and starts out at 66f for three days and then ramps to 68f over three days.  The profile will stay at 68 for about ten days and then come back down to 65f for the remaining couple of weeks.

This batch will only be in the chamber for two weeks and will be replaced by another similar batch of hefeweizen that we names “Sekiu Soda”.

Everyone can click the “Fermentation Status” link and it will show you the temperature log since it began last Saturday.  The control link is unavailable unless you have a password – sorry I dont want anyone ruining my batch of beer!

The software resides on a Linux computer the size of a credit card called a Raspberry Pi.  It speaks to an Arduino UNO micro-controller card over a USB link and the UNO handles the Process and digital I/O.   The UNO has three waterproofed Dallas One Wire temperature sensors and two hardened 10 amp relays connected to it to control a 200w personal heater and a 4000 btu air conditioner.  The whole software system is called “Brewpi” and can be implemented fairly easily and inexpensively.

This page is served from a Dell Pentium III computer computer I had laying around and by reverse proxy, talks to the Raspberry Pi so that the status page is accessible on the internet.  It’s all kinda cool!  The next little project that I’m planning is a tap list server called Raspberry Pints and it will reside on another Raspberry Pi and should be web enabled.