Brewmatic – Introduction and Problem Statement

Beer and I go back a long way. Much of my early relationship with beer revolved around the cheapest and easiest to obtain lager. After graduating from computer engineering and attaining professional employment, I finally found myself with a disposable income. I soon came to think of Heineken as a sort of luxury brand, even a status symbol, since it cost a buck more than the other swill at the bar. It only tasted a little different than the other common options, when it wasn’t skunked.

I can’t exactly remember when I discovered ales, but I do recall thinking they were the beer equivalent of Thai food. Ales have so much more flavor. However, before the recent craft beer revolution, the good ones weren’t easy to get. Eventually it dawned on me: I could brew my own beer, any kind I wished, and maybe even as much as I cared to drink. A quick web search turned up howtobrew.com (now defunct, sadly) by John Palmer. A man of my own heart — a fellow engineer and the undisputed godfather home brewing. I instantly became his disciple.

At that time, I had recently moved from a 2100ft² townhouse in Waterloo, ON to a 710ft² condo in downtown Toronto, ON. Brewing in the small condo seemed unfeasible. I thus gave the not-so-hard-sell to my very good friend, and single detached home owner, Rory. He agreed that we must brew our own beer, and that we must begin immediately.

So as an engineer does, I wired up a commercial food service induction plate to Rory’s dryer outlet. We stayed up until 4am brewing two 5-gallon batches. We came close to drinking as much beer as we made. This key subprocess was referred to as “making bottles”.

We bottled three weeks later and celebrated two weeks after that. It turned out fantastic! However, we now had four very serious problems:

1. We drank or gave away all one hundred bottles of it pretty much right away.
2. It took about ten hours to brew a 5-gallon batch. Weekends only!
3. It took three weeks for the beer to ferment and another two for carbonation. Much less than that to drink! See 1 above.
4. We needed a name.

Excalibeer was chosen as the brand name, and is another story altogether.

The capacity problem was relatively straight forward to solve:

As soon we drowned that demon, an even worse one ascended. Excalibeer had entered its first English Brown Ale, named Mercenary, into a local beer competition and won a medal!

I suddenly craved competition medals like Genghis Kahn craved countries. I resolved to dominate the Canadian beer competition circuit. To satiate my barley lust, I would need control of the entire process from grain crush through carbonation.

It became imperative to brew faster, more often, with precise control, and repeatable results. I required a computer controlled brewery. Importantly, it needed to fit within the confines my new condo without exceeding the limits of my similarly new marriage.

Problem Statement

Repeatable brewing depends on measured inputs and controlled processes. The space confines of a single bedroom condominium precludes the use of an off-the-shelf, digitally controlled, 3-stage brewery. Such equipment is typically installed in a fixed or dedicated location. Moreover, dedicated 240V electrical service is usually required but not available in most condominiums. Boil kettle steam exhaust, as well as water supply and discharge requirements, result in additional challenges in a high-rise domicile.

An ideal solution realizes a mobile, 5-gallon, electric, digitally controlled brewery that is stowable within the confines of a 74″ tall x 69″ long x 45″ storage locker. The electrical, hydraulic, and mechanical needs of brewing must be adapted from the utilities available in a typical condominium unit. System control must be available though PC, mobile phone or voice when a brewer has full hands.

Read about the resulting solution: Brewmatic – Design