Geekcamp talk

Hack your own beerMarkus Baden and Nick Lewty

Centre for Quantum Technologies

Make

Hack your beer?

• Beer is not Tiger

• Homebrewing - Making

• Hardware hacks

• Software hacks

Beer is not Tiger

You could

Drink imported craft beers

Go to local micro breweries

...

You could

Drink imported craft beers

Go to local micro breweries

...

Or just make it yourself

Full control over flavour

Keeps you hacking on weekends

Beer basics

• Water

• Barley

• Hops

• Yeast

Beer

THE EQUIPMENT

Beer is made from 4 basic ingredients:barley, water, hops and yeast.

Most items can be purchased at your local homebrew store

THE INGREDIENTS

THE BASIC PROCESS

Fermenter, usually a food-grade plastic bucket with a tight-!tting lid (more experienced brewers may use a glass carboy)

Air lock and stopper to allow carbon dioxide to escape during fermentation while keeping air out

Thermometer Racking cane & tubing for transferring beer from one vessel to another Bottles, about 50 12-oz. bottles for each 5-gallon batch, new or reused Bottle !ller to transfer beer into bottles

Bottle capper, a device that clamps bottle caps on bottles Sanitizing agent & bottle-cleaning brush Kitchen supplies—a stove, large pot, cooking spoon, strainer, measuring cup, can opener, and a cup or bowl

HOW TOMAKE BEER

FERMENTER

1.

1.

2.

2.

3.

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4.

4.

5.

5.

6.

6.

7.

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8.

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9.

9.

Beer is created when brewers yeast converts malt sugar intoalcohol and carbon dioxide

BREWERS YEAST MALT SUGAR

CO2

C2H5OH

ALCOHOL

CARBON DIOXIDE

S A N I T I Z I N G1.

M A S H I N G2.

The most important step. Nothing can spoil a batch of beer faster than stray bacteria.

Steep grains in hot (but not boiling) water to make wort, a sweet liquid that's basically unfermented beer.

Bring wort to a rolling boil and add hops—the "ower of the hop plant that gives the beer "avor—according to the recipe.

Chill wort and transfer to fermenter. Pitch yeast. Store beer away from sunlight and wait one to several weeks, depending on the recipe.

B O I L I N G3.

F E R M E N TAT I O N4.

You now have beer! But it's "at beer. In order to carbonate it, you must prime it with additional fermentable sugars and bottle it. Then wait at least two weeks.

B OT T L I N G 5.

D R I N K U P !6.

SOURCES: American Homebrewers Association, SoYouWanna.com,Popular Mechanics, Barley Bandits

Recap

• Mashing

• Convert starch into sugar

• Keep grains at target temperature (warm)

• Boil to add hops

• Cool down from 100 to 7 degrees

• Fermenting

• Convert sugar into alcohol

• Keep pre beer at target temperature (cold)

• Put in kegs and drink

Recap

• Mashing

• Convert starch into sugar

• Keep grains at target temperature (warm)

• Boil to add hops

• Cool down from 100 to 7 degrees

• Fermenting

• Convert sugar into alcohol

• Keep pre beer at target temperature (cold)

• Put in kegs and drink

Hacked?

✓

✓

✓

Some projects

• The Recirculating Mash Tun

• The Fermentation Chest Freezer

• The Kegerator

• The Flapibrew Software

The Recirculating Mash Tun

Getting the mash right

Getting the mash right

• Enzymes work at specific temperature

• Keep all grains at that temperature

• Cycle through temperatures for different groups of enzymes

• Maximize starch to sugar conversion

Getting the mash right

Getting the mash right

• Water heater, Kopitiam style

• Add pump to recirculate water

• Add control of heater / pump

Getting the mash right

Mash electronics

• Thermistor to sense temperature

• Relay to switch

• Power to heater (mains!)

• Power to pump

• Arduino in charge

Thermistor

Thermistor

• Analog in - resistive divider

• Could use serial chip

Relays

Relays

• Off the shelf for switching mains

• Could use many Arduino relay boards

Temperature stabilization

• Read in analog voltage

• Look up temperature

• Adjust duty cycle

Duty cycle

Cold

Warm

Hot

Who’s in charge?

Enter Arduino

Arduino

• PID library for closed loop control

• Simple serial communication

• Status up date

• Pump on / off

• ...

• Python control GUI

Python GUI

Not cool enough?

Enter Rasberry Pi

Web control

• Rasberry Pi talks to Arduino

• Serves web application

• RasPiBrew by Stephen Smith

• (FlapiBrew in the making...)

RasPiBrew

Still not cool enough?

Be my guest!

Getting the mash right

• Arduino controlled heater

• Rasberry Pi based web application

The Fermentation Chest Freezer

Good fermentation

Good fermentation

• Ales ferment at ~21°

• Lagers ferment at ~7°

• Singapore is ~35°

Good fermentation

Temperature control

• Similar to mash tun

• Cooling instead of heating

• Switch mains to fridges / freezers

• Don’t kill compressors

Don’t kill compressors

• More complex logic

• Cool for only so long

• Wait before restarting

• Threshold control instead of PID

User interface

• Hacked laser driver

• A few buttons

• Hitachi HD44780 LCD screen

• Speaks singlish...

Not cool enough?

• Rasberry Pi anybody?

• Tablet control maybe?

Good fermentation

• Arduino controlled fridge or freezer

The Kegerator

Problem

Lots of beer you don’t want to bottle

Problem

Lots of beer you don’t want to bottle

Solution

Get second hand kegs

Problem

Now you got kegs

Problem

Now you got kegs

Solution

Build a kegerator

The Kegerator

• Fridge (maybe Arduino controlled)

• Taps (from the internet)

• Tubing (from Kelantan lane)

• CO2 bottle

The Kegerator

• Ideal for hosting events

• And... technology is portable

Flapibrew

A project in need of a beer drinking rabbit mascot

Rasberry Pi

• Control mash with Rasberry Pi

• Somebody must have done it...

• RasPiBrew by Stephen Smith

• Dude... add a button

Rasberry Pi

jQuery what?

Rasberry Pi

Button done, but...

Flapibrew

• Flask app served by tornado

• Tornado handles websocket

• Lightweight client jQuery

• Die die must port to smart phone!

A few notes

• Home brewing is a vibrant community

• You can hack as much as you want!

A few notes

• Home brewing is a vibrant community

• You can hack as much as you want!

homebrew.sg

SUTD Brewing Club

meetup.com/Singapore-Homebrew/

Enjoy the beer but

• A few thanks

• Nick Lewty

• (Prof. ...) Christian Kurtsiefer

• Centre for Quantum Technologies

www.quantumlah.org

Drink good beer with good friends!beercanlah.com

github.com/beercanlah