Hello From MI!!! From that City that Justin can't pronounce.

[Test_Engineer]

FWIW, I'm a SW Engr too, with almost enough EE classes to qualify for a minor, but I was in the Signal Corps back in my (US) Army days.

That happens a lot. I have a Physics and a Math minor just by taking 2 extra classes.

[Brewing_In_MKE]

As we are doing a roll call of the BN Army Corp of Engineers, I thought I would check in from the Wisconsin Company. I am an electrical designer for a very large electrical contractor. I saw the post about building the stir plate and running it at 12v. I can't help so much with that, but if you want to run your stir plate at 4160v and control it with a variable frequency drive, I'll help out.

I have been brewing for about a year and half, and love it. And I am proud to be part of the BN Army.

Off topic, I was listening to the last Chris Graham tricking out your brewery system show the other day. While he was talking about his ideas for more automation in your system, I was wondering if any one would pay for brewery controls based on a Programmable Logic Controller (PLC)? Theoretically a sculpture could be fully automated. Would any one pay for it though?

[BadRock]

While he was talking about his ideas for more automation in your system, I was wondering if any one would pay for brewery controls based on a Programmable Logic Controller (PLC)? Theoretically a sculpture could be fully automated. Would any one pay for it though?

I have put some thought into this myself, I was think that you could get the cost down to about $1500 using a MicroLogix 1100 System without a HMI.

I recently completed a pump station that has 3, 1250hp 13,200v motor on Rubicon VFD's. I'd bet that would probably do the trick for your muscle man stir plates!

[skipper]

Welcome from yet another Engineer! I am of the EE variety, working in the Railway (or Railroad as you guys say over there) industry.

Something about this obsession that seems to attract Tech/Science/Engineering types.

[Test_Engineer]

Welcome from yet another Engineer! I am of the EE variety, working in the Railway (or Railroad as you guys say over there) industry.

Something about this obsession that seems to attract Tech/Science/Engineering types.

I think the big attraction for engineers is to be able to do it yourself. I never buy PC's, I always build them, if I had the space, I would build my own car. I think this is just another hobby where we get to have complete control of something....and most of us like beer. I guess spending that much time in school makes you a beer lover. AND it is another hobby where we get to build and use gadgets. And I think that it is so different from our daily grind, that it is enjoyable for us. Most of the male engineers I know are also the cook in the family. Don't know why...it just is.

[BDawg]

I call this concept "Brain Art". You have to use both sides of your brain for the solution to be a good one. Designing a great beer uses the same parts of the brain as any non-trivial engineering problem. In all these problem sets, there are parameters to meet. These parameters require us to choose to use a little bit of this, some but not too much of that, but none of that other stuff, etc, because of the known measurable qualities of those ingredients. IBUs, gravity, color, all pretty much obey some basic mathematical formula so we can mathimatically "build" our beer.
Then, everything all has to work together to form an elegant, and aesthetically pleasing solution. Sure, 1/2 lb of dark crystal will color it the same as 1 lb of the half as dark crystal, but the artisan in us will tell us which is the correct choice.
Essentially, the application of Logic & Engineering builds the base, but it's the application of the Art that provides the elegance.

my .02

[ZZ]

My "Geek alarm" is sounding loud and clear!!

[bubbahotep]

Welcome from yet another Engineer! I am of the EE variety, working in the Railway (or Railroad as you guys say over there) industry.

Something about this obsession that seems to attract Tech/Science/Engineering types.

I think the big attraction for engineers is to be able to do it yourself. I never buy PC's, I always build them, if I had the space, I would build my own car.

certainly no engineer here and I've been building my own PCs since '93. Just more cost effective and you get exactly what you pay for.