Iowa Brewers Union

Advancing the art and science of home brewing in central Iowa

Started electronic brewery build - control panel

Here are a couple photos of the control panel I am building for my new electric brewery. I am still waiting for some Asian parts to arrive before starting in on the wiring. Unfortunately (or fortunately if you know my electrical skills) the plans are not mine. I am using the plans found at http://www.theelectricbrewery.com/, should be a nice system (mid-life crisis) when completed.

I have a couple coats of paint on the panel but an not satisfied with the results so I didn't post any photos. I am going to redo the paint with a higher quality product. I used a Rustoleum primer and paint that has hammered metal finish and it is pretty "soft" and easily chips. This sucks because I all of the components installed and ready for wire. Oh well, I seem to have time while waiting for more parts.

I'll post my progress here.

.:. @iowabrewer

Tags: control, electric, panel

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Bill VanZante on January 24, 2011 at 10:12am

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Permalink Reply by Dave Rost on January 24, 2011 at 10:57am

The panel is starting to look good!

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Permalink Reply by Josh Conley on January 24, 2011 at 6:54pm

Nice, were are you going to have this located? in a garage, home, shed?

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Permalink Reply by Mike Edwards on January 24, 2011 at 9:06pm

Sweet! It's the sort of thing I'd like to hook up someday. I'll be interested to see your progress.

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Permalink Reply by Andrew Determan on January 25, 2011 at 9:59am

what can you all control with this panel?

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Permalink Reply by Bill VanZante on January 26, 2011 at 9:37am

The plan is to use the e-brewery in my garage but I am also adding electrical to my in-door brewery space so I can brew in comfort during Iowa winters.

The control panel will power (2) 5500w 240v heating elements, (2) pumps. (3) temperature probes and controllers, voltmeter, amp meter and timer. Should be pretty nice when complete but I may not have any brewing money left to make beer!

I'll update this thread with more photos as the build progresses.

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Permalink Reply by Bill VanZante on February 24, 2011 at 9:11am

Here's the control panel after powder coating and wiring. Still need a few tweaks to get everything lit up. The wiring photo looks like pretty scary but I will be tidying it up after all the components are functional.