+-IEEE Proceedings of the IEEE SoutheastCon 2015, April 9 - 12, 2015 - Fort Lauderdale, Florida

Arduino Controlled Brewing

Michael Weeks
Department of Computer Science
Georgia State University
Atlanta, Georgia 30302
Email: mweeks@ieee.org

Abstract-This paper details experiences in making an au­
tomated brewing system. Specifically, it focusses on the initial
brewing stage of mashing grains to achieve saccharification of
the starches by enzymes, How can we build a system to aid
brewing, specifically to control the saccharification stage? This
paper provides background on temperatures used in the beer
brewing process, then introduces a low-cost control architecture
for automatically raising and holding temperatures, based on the
Arduino. This system has been used over 50 times for a variety
of beers.
Index Terms-Bioengineering, automatic temperature control,
Arduino, Brewing.
I. INTRODUCTION
While we desire to minimize time, this is not as important as
other factors like making sure that the sugars are not scorched.
We want the system to raise the temperature of a water and
grist mixture, hold it for a specified time, then raise the
temperature to a new value. Since the desired temperatures are
higher than the ambient temperature, we will include heating
elements only. We do not have to add to the complexity and
expense by adding cooling equipment.
The next section provides background on the brewing pro­
cess. Section 3 discusses the control architecture, while section
4 examines some of the results. Finally, section 5 presents
conclusions.

Beer is made with malted barley, hops, water, and yeast. II. BACKGROUND

Some styles use additional ingredients, like oats, rye, and
wheat. The beer making process has several steps: mashing
and sparging the grains, boiling, fermenting, packaging, and
aging. Mashing refers to the saccharification stage. Enzyme
activity depends on temperature, so automatic temperature
control is very important to this process. Sparging means
using additional water to maximize the sugar collected from
the grains. The sweet liquid, called wort, is then boiled with
hops. Once cool, the brewer adds a yeast culture to start
fermentation. After this step, which can last from several days
to several weeks, the beer is packaged in bottles or kegs, then
aged typically for a couple of weeks. Of these steps, mashing is
perhaps the most difficult. It requires at least an hour of active
participation on the brewer's part, where he/she must monitor
temperatures and make adjustments as needed. Commercial
breweries automate this process, as a result. However, there is
a thriving hobbyistlhomebrewing community that can benefit
from a low-cost temperature control system, and this is the
intended audience.
The Arduino is the open-source hardware platform contain­
ing a micro-controller along with digital and analog inputs and
outputs [1]. It can be programmed with a language similar
to C. It was designed to be easy to use, inexpensive, and
extensible. The temperature control system described here-in
uses the Arduino to monitor and control heating.
This paper is concerned with the first step of the brewing
process, saccharification, where the starches in malted barley
are converted to sugars. The problem statement: how can we
build a system to aid brewing, specifically to control the
A. Enzyme Activity
Mashing holds the water and grains at specific temperatures
to allow different enzymes to work. At 113-122°F, some en­
zymes create yeast nutrients from nitrogen-based proteins [2],
while a rest at 122-140°F helps clarity [2]. In particular,
alpha-amylase (best at 149-153°F) and beta-amylase (best at
126-144°F) break down starch into sugars in complementary
ways [2]. Thus, a common temperature range for mashing is
150 to 158°F. Temperatures on the low end aid fermentability,
and those on the high end contribute to the body. See Figure 1
for a chart illustrating some of the important temperature
ranges.
Why not mash at one temperature? Then the process will
be much simpler, since a calculated amount of water can be
heated, mixed with grains, and kept in an insulated container.
The heat loss over the span of an hour is small enough to not
be a problem, and many brewers use this technique, called a
single infusion mash. However, it limits what we can do. For
example, a recipe with oats, corn or similar grains benefits
from a protein rest at 122°F before the main mash.
Typically, the mash takes an hour. We can use a simple
iodine test to check for saccharification completion. That is,
we remove a small amount of liquid from the mash and add
a couple drops of iodine. The starches in the grains would
normally turn a purple-black color, but once the starches have
converted to sugars, the color appears brown instead. Since
iodine is a poison, we dispose of the sample after the test.
B. Temperature Control

saccharification stage? This problem becomes one of heat How do we control the temperature? A traditional solution
control, and important factors include minimizing expense. is step mashing, where calculated amounts of boiling water

978-1-4673-7300-5/15/$31.00 mOl5 IEEE

+-IEEE Proceedings of the IEEE SoutheastCon 2015, April 9 - 12, 2015 - Fort Lauderdale, Florida

Degrees Celsius -

HLT

t
Degrees Fahrenheil

Fig. I. Several temperature ranges important for mashing. During the brewing
process, the mixture of grains and water is heated and held at different
temperatures, shown in blue. Not only do the temperatures increase from
left to right, one can view this chart as steps in the process over time, again
increasing from left to right. We start with the grains at room temperature,
add water, heat to the protein rest stage (if desired), then heat to one or more
stages within the saccharification range. burner

are added to raise the temperature [2]. While this is a viable

method, it is not flexible. The water to grain ratio changes over
time with this method, and there is a limit to the amount of
water one can add. Overshooting the temperature means that
the some enzymes will be denatured, though this is the case Fig. 2. Mashing with recirculation.
with any method. There will be heat loss over time, with no
good way to correct it.
Alternately, we can use a direct heating element, placing
the mash-tun on a heat source. Another option is recirculation
through a heat exchanger, where the mash-tun is not heated
directly. In this configuration, we pump liquid from the mash­
tun through a set of coils, then return it to the mash-tun, as
in Figure 2. The coils are located in a hot liquor tank (HLT).
The HLT is filled with water and has a heat element, such as
a burner.

III. CONTROL ARCHITECTURE

The parts used in this research are as follows: an Arduino, a

waterproof, heat resistant temperature probe, a power Switch
Tail II, and the other pieces necessary to make this work,
such as the wires and a 4.7 kn resistor. A small system was
created, designed to produce one gallon batches. The burner
is an inexpensive hot-plate. Two food-grade pumps have been
used. One is a 29 GPH pump made for aquariums, and the
other is a 109 GPH pump. The smaller pump is more prone
to becoming clogged, though it is pleasant to use since it runs
quietly. Figure 3 shows how the Arduino can be connected Fig. 3. Connecting the Arduino.

to a temperature probe and a power switch. The "One Wire"

reference includes a simple way to read such a temperature
probe [3]. While making a switch to turn a device on and off
may be easy for an IEEE member, your author appreciates the
simplicity and safety of the Power SwitchTail II, especially for
student instruction.
Since cost is central to the work, the following list shows
the parts and their prices.
• Arduino Uno R3 $30
• PowerS witch Tail II $29
• waterproof temperature sensor, DS18B20 $10
• USB microB cable $5
• wires, resistor, etc. $6
• hot-plate burner $20
It may be possible to use other Arduino models; both the
Arduino Uno and the Arduino Duemilanove have been used
interchangeably in this work. This list does not present the
brewing equipment, such as the pots used for the mash-tun
and HLT, insulation for the mash-tun, various food-grade hoses
used for connections, pumps and their power cables, the false-
+-IEEE Proceedings of the IEEE SoutheastCon 2015, April 9 - 12, 2015 - Fort Lauderdale, Florida

bottom or filter used in the mash-tun to prevent grains from
flowing out, the stainless steel tubing for the heat exchanger,
etc. Most brewers already have these items.
Heating control involves a way to introduce heat, such as a
burner under the mash-tun, or a heat exchanger, where a burner
is under the hot liquor tank. (Also, another type of heating
element would work in place of a burner.) There should be
a way to distribute the heat, through agitation/stirring, and/or
pumping the liquid. A pump could be run continuously, to mix
the liquid from the bottom with that of the top. Or a pump
could be used with a heat exchanger, where running the pump
means that the liquid returns to the mash-tun slightly hotter
than when it left. Having a burner under the mash-tun provides
a quick way to introduce heat, though it is prone to over­
this work as more than lOoF, then the heat will be on or off,
as needed. Smaller differences mean that the system cycles
the burner on and off, where the heat has time to dissipate,
resulting in a gradual increase and a low amount of over-shoot.
Proportional, integral, derivative control means that the
system uses several pieces of information. The integral amount
refers to the sum of the differences. A net positive amount
means that it is too hot, while a net negative amount means
that it is not hot enough. Therefore, this amount can be used to
adjust the heating by lengthening either the on cycle or the off
cycle. For the derivative, we can use the history of differences,
such as difference for measurement n and the difference for
measurement n -1. Better yet, we can compare the differences
for samples n and, say, n 10 to give us a slightly more
-

shoot. Some form of mixing should be done: stirring, pumping stable view. This term tells us about how the system responds;
or both. Figure 4 shows how the set-up with direct heat values small in magnitude imply that the system changes the
would work. The Arduino reads the mash-tun's temperature, temperature slowly. Also, this term gives us a sense of whether
and controls the burner. The Arduino programming software the system is closing in on the correct temperature. Weights
provides a serial monitor, with a two-way serial connection for the proportional, integral, and derivative values allow the
with the Arduino. A simple way to get the temperature data system to be "tuned" to give the response that we desire.
is to select all the output, and copy and paste it to a text file.
The laptop on the left of Figure 4 is not really necessary,
however it allows the brewer to change the target temperatures
and durations, monitor the temperature and system state, and
override the computer control. For example, if the pump
becomes clogged, the brewer can turn it off. Alternately, a

[
lower-cost machine can be used in place of the laptop, such
as a Chromebook. Figure 5 shows how the Arduino can be
used to control recirculation through a HLT. Laplop

LaplOp Fig. 5. Mashing with recirculation and Arduino control.

OFF i!ow
ON
-
-- l threshold

burner

Fig. 4. Mashing with direct heat.

y-0)
Outside low-high band:
LOO cold
7'T r ,
Temp>= low OUlside low-high band:
too hot
Types of control include On/Off control, proportional User says to
turnoff.
control, and proportional, integral, derivative (PID) control.
On/Off control means that the system turns on the heat when
-2 BCOU01<=O
temperature is less than the target, and turns the heat off when bcount<=O

User can cause the state to change

the target temperature is met. This approach is very simple, but Target to on/off for a small time

it leads to overshoot and undershoot. The system can switch I

Temperature
frequently.
In proportional control, "control effort is proportional to the Fig. 6. On/off temperature control.
error" [4], page l. Proportional control is where the system
takes the difference between the measured temperature and
the target temperature, and makes an adjustment based on IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

the result. This idea comes from an early study on ship This system has been used approximately 50 times, and it
steering [5]. While this sounds much like the on/off control, it has evolved during this time. At first, it simply provided a way
allows us to handle the heating differently depending on how to record the mash temperatures. Manual controls were added,
big the difference is. If the difference is large, defined for then computer control. As the system went from a direct-heat
+-IEEE Proceedings of the IEEE SoutheastCon 2015, April 9 - 12, 2015 - Fort Lauderdale, Florida

OFF ON

and on, respectively, except that these states are reached only
through user control. They expire after a set amount of time.
States -3 and 3 represent off and on, and that the difference
between the measured and target temperature is large enough
that the system will not change it until it becomes smaller.
Below are several figures that include the observed signals.
Figure 6 shows the on/off temperature control. The diagram
for proportional temperature control appears in Figure 7.
Notice how it is based on the simpler on/off control, and
essentially adds states -3 and 3 to deal with large differences
between the set temperature and the measured temperature.
Next, Figure 8 provides a diagram of PID temperature control.
Figure 9 shows an example plot of proportional, integral, and
derivative (PID) feedback signals for a protein rest. Figure 10
shows a plot of PID signals for an example mash. The step
uw,,,",,"w th"t,,eto 'h, , �hown in the top graph at minute 6 indicates that the desired
g
to 2 o>-lfmm "y oth",,,,,.
temperature changed as one stage ends and the next begins.
Outsidelow-high baml
Finally, Figure 11 shows a plot of PID signals for an example
Fig. 7. Proportional temperature control. sparge stage (heating the liquid before ending the mash). These
graphs are given as examples of the PID control signals.
Changing the weights of the Kp, Ki, and Kd values shown
farge!
in Figure 8 would greatly affect the response.

measured temperature (red) versus target (black)

:��:=:A�:= 1
5 10 15 20
Proportion
25 30 35 40

I
�E:�l
I i;::"t'" --
---.J

I
Fig. 8. PID temperature control. o 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40
Integral

set-up to a recirculation, the control software had to be redone,

primarily to adjust the timing of the stages.
�1/2:= : . :: : II
o 5 10 15 20
Derivative
25 30 35 40

Heating to a target temperature is a more difficult problem

than it appears. We may think of the mash-tun as having
one temperature, but the reality is that it varies somewhat
throughout. Heating is not instantaneous, so adding heat can
o
:E : === : 1
-50 "--_----'-__
5
- -'---_----
10
--
15
__
-'- --'---_---'__---L-__'---_-'
20 25 30 35
-
40

easily result in over-shoot, especially if we expect to keep

heating until the sensed temperature meets the target. Heating
water is difficult enough. Heating a mash-tun has an additional
challenge in that the medium is not uniform. Grains can be
compacted, and grains absorb heat. The brewer crushes the
grains before the mash process, so the bits of grains vary in
size. In addition, grains of different sizes such as rye and wheat
may be used. Thus, an adaptation is to cycle the heat on and
off.
The proportional control model does cycle the heat, with
state 1 meaning that the heat is on, while state -1 means
the heat has been temporarily turned off, to allow the heat to
even out. It switches between these two (and state 0) until the
measured temperature matches the target. State 0 represents
a transitional state, where the system determines which state
to go to next. State -2 and 2 also mean that the heat is off
Fig. 9. PID Protein rest (#101).
V. CONCLUSIONS
A vital part of beer brewing is temperature control. Certain
temperatures trigger enzyme activity, leading to starch to sugar
conversion. Control should provide a consistent temperature.
Cooling occurs over time, so the system must be able to
periodically introduce heat. We desire quick transitions from
one temperature stage to the next, with minimized over-shoot.
The total cost for the Arduino, power switch, and temperature
sensor is $80. Compared to the "Tower of Power" module
from Blichmann Engineering at $575, the Arduino provides an
inexpensive solution for temperature monitoring and control.
+-IEEE Proceedings of the IEEE SoutheastCon 2015, April 9 - -
12, 2015 Fort Lauderdale, Florida

draw conclusions based on eliminating variables by holding

them constant.

:k; ::='''':-(�=:
5
I 10 15 20
Proportion
25 30 35
l
40
[1] "Arduino
REFERENCES

Introduction", Last accessed

http://www.arduino.cc/en/Guide/lntroduction.
March 3, 2015,

:�: . =c9
[2] Charlie Papazian, The Complete Joy of Homebrewing, Avon Books, New
York, 1984, page 259.
- -----=' - - -----=' -----=' ----,J [3] Adam Meyer, "One Wire Digital Temperature. DSI8B20 + Arduino",
- 20 L- -:':,-------
0 10
--
2O
-: L ,-----
30
L
4O
----=' ,----------,
50 S0 70
,-----
-- :':-
8---, 0 ,-----
90 :':-
100 bildr.org, published July 8, 2011, Last accessed July 19, 2013,
http://bildr.org/2011/07/ds18b20-arduino/.

J?: : : , : : : :J
[4] E. J. Mastascusa, Control Systems Lessons: Proportional
Control (on-line material), ELEC 105 Instrumentation
'. "
& Measurements, Bucknell University, Spring 2009,
o 10 20 30 40 50 SO 70 80 90 100 http://www.facstaff.bucknell.edu/mastascu/econtro
Derivative lhtml/intro/intro2.html

l� : : ':: :�
[5] Nicolas Minorsky, "Directional stability of automatically steered bod­
ies," Journal of the American Society for Naval Engineers, vol. 34, no.
2, pp. 280309, 1922.
o 10 20 30 40 50 SO 70 80 90 100

Fig. 10. PID for Mash (#101).

:�� : l
So L------='--�---L--�--l---L------='--�
o 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40
Proportion

1� : : : : • == 1
o 5 10 15 20
Integral
25 30 35 40

:�� ' 11
o 5 10 15 20
Derivative
25 30 35 40

J\£N0A01V� 15 10 15 20 25 30 35 40

Fig. II. PID for Sparge (#104).

This paper presents work done making an Arduino con­

trolled mashing system for the conversion of malt starches
to sugars. It is a preliminary work, demonstrating how the
system could be set up. While it has been used over 50 times
for a variety of beers, and one sake, the system configurations
have been different enough that we do not draw conclusions
from it. Variables include the size of the pump used, whether
it used direct heat or recirculation through a heat exchanger,
whether the pump was controlled or ran continuously (i.e., to
mix the mash instead of pumping it through a heat exchanger),
how hot the water was at the beginning, how much water was
used, how much grain was used, and system parameters like
cycle on time and cycle off time for the burner as well as
the pump, etc. Future work will examine these variables and