

Brewing beer with Raspberry Pi - dangoldin
http://www.element14.com/community/groups/raspberry-pi/blog/2012/09/19/brewing-beer-with-raspberry-pi

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cmurdock
As both a hacker and a brewer this is extremely interesting. Building a
temperature controller fermentation chamber is something I want to do at some
point.

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monstrado
I did something similar, but with just a webcam and a laptop, and instead of
beer it was mead. Basically, I pointed the webcam at the air lock, which
produced a bubble every 15-30 seconds (depending on the fermentation process).
I wrote a small Python program using PIL which processed webcam frames and
detected sudden changes in the image (a bubble). Each time a bubble was
detected, it would write an entry to a database (date,
time_delta_from_last_bubble).

This was really cool when I went out of town because I could login and see the
delta between bubbles gradually increasing, and once I saw it sitting at 40-50
seconds between bubbles for a day or so, I bottled it.

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gavinlynch
Nice! :) Although I have to interject: Air-lock activity is not always a great
indicator of the fermentation process. You can have active fermentation
without bubbling, so it's always Best Practice to instead take Gravity
Readings. When the brew has produced consistent measurements for 3 days, it's
safe to say your fermentation period is over and the beer has reached it's
Terminal Gravity.

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monstrado
Absolutely, I agree with you 100%. This was a quick hack I had to do because
of short notice trip. I wanted to be able to detect the amount of gas being
released, but I had no time :(.

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flurie
This seems much more complicated than is necessary. It costs ~$200 for a 7
ft^3 chest freezer and ~$50 for a fridge thermostat with the required
temperature setpoints.

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trafficlight
People don't do these things for the practicality of them.

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Zenst
Totaly true, I'm thinking he could then look at expanding it into a beer-
cooled PC setup. Practical would be a heating system that used hot water you
heated up via a water cooled PC/running pipes via the cooling grid of the home
freezer. That would be practical and yet has not been done but I think you
will agree the beer-cooled PC does stands a better chance, just because it
involves geeks and beer and I'll drink to that.

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elliottcarlson
I love all the various uses for a raspi. Our goal at the office is to build a
raspi based kegbot - we will open source it once we are done (if we get around
to finishing it!)

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gavinlynch
That's awesome! I wanted to add: There is a brewer/dev who has created an as-
of-yet-conceptual project called "BrewPi", with a goal of producing an all-in-
one amalgamation of Raspberry Pi and useful brewing tools.

[http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/interest-check-brewpi-
raspbe...](http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/interest-check-brewpi-raspberry-pi-
fermentation-controller-data-logger-332705/)

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scottvanhess
This is great. I just setup my Pi with XBMC and now I'm realizing the
possibilities are endless. You can't beat brewing beer and watching movies!

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Tipzntrix
Raspberry Pi: Knocking the "king" Budweiser off its throne. Coming in 2013.

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ryanhuff
The only thing keeping Budweiser on its throne are uninformed consumers and
noncompetitive practices.

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habosa
And a consistent brewing process like nobody else in the world. And a taste
that, while not satisfying to a heavy beer drinker, is palatable to almost
everyone.

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ryanhuff
Taste is not limited to "heavy drinkers". But water is also incredibly
consistent and palatable to almost everyone.

