The fridge tech confirmed that things were not good for the failed glycol ice bank. At best estimate it was going to cost $750 to repair, and possibly double that. I had anticipated it might not be cost effective to repair but I was not expecting it to be that bad ...

So I had been cooking up an alternate plan. I'd been eyeing off small freezers selling on ebay. A factory second or a used one ought be suitable as all I am after is a cooling plant. I intend 'skinning' the cooling plant anyway, so cosmetics are of no consequence at this point.

While the glycol unit was an exciting addition to the home brewery, I realised that a small freezer was likely going to be more economical to run and definitely quieter. The other advantage is I could get a freezer that was the same height as the 'cellar', which means the bar top will be flat now rather than stepped.

There are quite a few bits from the old unit that are salvageable. Most importantly, the stainless cooling lines that are submerged in the glycol will find their way into the new system. They are effectively form a heat exchanger - beer flows from a keg at cellar temperature (say 11 C), and while passing through the stainless coil submerged in glycol at around -3 C, it is flash chilled to 4-6 C when it emerges from the faucet.

The next useful bit that stays is the flooded font itself. This is a three tap system which will ice up nicely if the glycol is cold enough - a good way to impress the neighbours.

And the other crucial bit that I'm salvaging is the controller which will regulate the glycol bath by temperature controlling the freezer power. Oh, and there is the stirrer as well which is used to keep the glycol and water mixed. Without it the glycol tends to settle at the bottom of the tank.

Meanwhile work has continued on the cellar/bar combination. The mini corrugated iron has been added and a wooden strip to one side now houses the two control units - one to set the cellar temperature via pumped glycol and radiator with fan, the other to set the glycol temperature itself.

The cellar we are making is simply a glorified 'Son of fermentation' chiller. It differs in a number of ways though. Firstly, it is heavier and larger because the insulated box is an old refrigerator. Secondly, the cooling is more automated. Instead of dropping in frozen bottles daily, the HERMAN cellar is using cold glycol from our glycol chiller to provide the cool air. To convert from liquid into cool air, we are using a PC cooling radiator.

The compressor shelf in our old freezer was taking up too much room. With the shelf in place there was only room for 4 kegs. By removing the shelf and patching up the holes, we could fit 8 kegs in - a worthwhile difference.

Cutting the old shelf out was much more difficult than I expected. It was certainly easier creating the new wall cavities and filling with insulated foam than it was destroying the old bits. The photo to the left shows what we started with once the shelf was removed.

We needed framing timber in place before we could skin the wall. The existing foam insulation was trenched neatly with a dremel. The job was quite messy and a mask would be good if you plan to repeat what we have done. The fine bits of foam are best vacuumed for clean up.

The framing is beginning to take shape. It was pretty much test and re-test and adjust until things seemed to fit. The PC radiator is sitting in close to final position. With glycol pumping through it and a fan forcing cold air into the cellar, we are confident it will cool the space nicely.

The framing means we can attach thin sheeting on the inside to skin the inner wall, and patch up the outer holes for the outside wall. The cavity is then filled with space expanding foam which gives both structural strength and has insulating qualities.

My mad foaming assistant is ready for the job. This stuff keeps expanding for a long time after it has entered the cavity. We had quite a lot find its way out of the smallest of holes resulting in funny foam sculptures. As long as it insulated the whole box it will be worth it.

I tested the radiator and it will definitely blow cold air if the water is cooler than ambient. I didn't record any actual figures, but anecdotally it will easily provide the cooling needed.

The font flooding pump and lines were given a test run after new seals were added to the font. All seems good there as well. With new glycol on order and the pretty skin for the cellar ready before next weekend, it seems the next major thing is regassing the glycol chiller.

Oh, and the cream ale and American wheat are both looking promising. We will brew a cross between a cream ale and pale ale this weekend - if you like it is a milder version of the pale - citrusy but with some subtlety.

The bar and fermenting areas have long been the most neglected parts of our home brewery. I guess I've been too fixated on building the HERMAN machine to put the time and effort at this end of the process. From time to time we have paid the penalty for it, with some beers fermented too warm or with spikes in temperature. The fridges we have to ferment and serve are nasty little bug factories as well, so it is time to sort these problems out.

Last blog I showed a mock up of how things will go together. Now for the serious work to put the bar together.

The photo above shows the framework that is needed for mechanical strength. This is the stuff that hold the overhangs in place, gives support where the flooded font is mounted, holds the drip tray in place, and allows clearance so the side door can open and close. The framing is built from 40x18mm pine. To make sure things were going to fit, I taped the bits together.

The font needs a 50mm hole. Two pieces of the pine provide the mounting support and the hole was drilled with a forstner bit.

I was going to dowel joint the pine framing together but realised that this was overkill. They are simply butt glued with Araldite, and this is sandwiched with 3mm particle board below and 7mm Jarrah flooring above.

With the Jarrah top in place things were looking good. Once the sandwich was glued, the edge trimming was cut to size and glued using packing tape to keep the strips in position. These were stained a Jarrah colour, and the whole thing finished in a high gloss floor finish.

While I was doing all this, Ani was out at a local market and came home with a sign for the new bar. And below we have a near finished top-side of the bar. There is work to do on putting a nice looking skin on the old freezer, and there is quite a bit of work to do on the cooling side of it as well.

Today is a holiday in Melbourne because it is Cup Day. I don't care for horse-racing, and I don't even know who is running this year, but I do know the sun is shining and it is a perfect day to make beer and cook up a bbq.

I cooked my usb-serial adaptor on the weekend, and although yesterday was a normal trading day, I was down the coast with friends so wasn't able to access my normal places for a $15 replacement. I found a shop that had one and had to fork out $40 for it (ouch). I think the old one fried when I plugged the download cable into the picaxe. The picaxe was powered at the time and I had one of those moments of thinking 'this is not a good idea' ... but then it was too late.

The good thing about getting a replacement was I didn't have to quickly code the picaxe to show info on the LCD (which is finally working).

The brew day today has gone fabulously. HERMAN has pretty much worked without missing a beat, and the data log will give me some good info as well. The control panel is still not as reliable as I would have hoped for ... so I might try a zener diode on the supply line to see if that helps.

I did a pre-heat of mash liquor via the recirculation loop. I turned the machine on at 6am with cold liquor and it was ready by 7:30am. Not too bad for a cold start. I intend to code in a start delay on the picaxe. The dough-in temperature was spot on which was satisfying.

The mash essentially sat at 65C for nearly an hour without the recirculating loop running. Any overtemp causes the pump to turn off. The mash sat at 65.1 for about 45 minutes. When the pump fired up, there was sufficient 'cold' liquor in the loop to drop the mash temp to 62.5 before restoring it again quite quickly. I think that an additional bit of logic that runs the pump for 30 seconds if it has been off for 5 minutes might help. Something to test anyway.

Speaking of the pump, I need to fix a bug in code. At the moment the pump can be turned off on the control panel and still run if a mash target has been set.

I was interested to see how effective the kettle's auto power settings would be at preventing a boil-over. It certainly helped, but 5 minutes into the boil the system surged and would have boiled over without intervention. If this is to be a fully automated machine, it looks like additional sensing (possibly ultrasonic) will be needed. A brief pause in kettle power was all that was needed to 'break' the protein layer that causes boilover.

Another note regarding kettle functioning is that I need to tweak the duty power code to improve the way it operates. Currently a 50% power duty has the kettle off for 10 seconds and on for 10 seconds. I am sure this increases the likelihood of boilover, and it is not all that elegant a way of controlling power. If the picaxe is run at 16 MHz instead of 4 and the interrupt timing sequence is recoded, I am sure that it will help.

I am brewing a double-batch today, so the cooling liquor was directed into the hot liquor tun and mash tun, ready for the next batch. The water collected was slightly less than needed but very close to ballpark. The advantage of being able to do this is that the liquor comes out of the plate chiller at around 54 degrees C, so most of the heating has already been done.

Brew one was an American Cream Ale. Brew two will be an American Wheat. Each batch will be around 45 litres. We have actually run out of beer and these ought to ferment quickly and be nice 'lawnmower' beers suitable to the warming weather here.

On Monday I tackled the old freezer that I am going to use as my 'cellar' storage and fermenting area. The compressor shelf took up a lot of room, so the idea was to cut it out and then re-seal it as an insulated box. The cooling is to come from a separate glycol chiller and a PC cooling radiator.

The photo above shows the hack job in progress. I'd figured this would be a 2 hour job, but it actually took the best part of the day. They are not designed to rip apart. It was a lot more solid than I'd imagined.

With the angle grinder, a hack saw, power nibbler and various miscellaneous tools, the box began to take shape.

In the distance you can see the closed 'lid' of the freezer. This will be the access door for kegs and fermenters. The lined wall can be clearly seen in the photo minus the compressor shelf. I will be building a new straight wall and filling it with a foam expander to act as insulation. The radiator will be fitted into this fabricated wall.

It is not yet pretty, but a concept of the final product. The top of the box will be made with Jarrah flooring (a deep red Australian hardwood), and coated with a high gloss floor finish to create a durable bar. I will put a timber finish on the front of the box as well to pretty it up and get away from that whitegoods look. If the glycol chiller can be fixed, it will get a similar top that will also hold the English beer engine. I will put both on castors so that it makes the whole setup easier to move.

At the HERMAN end of the brewery, I've finally completed the LCD installation and went to connect my usual laptop to the picaxe via a USB-serial adaptor. It appears the adaptor has failed . So I've spent an extra hour or so tonight getting an old machine with a serial port loaded with the latest software so I can use it to code the LCD display.

I have both Monday and Tuesday off this week, but Monday will be spent down on the coast with friends. On Tuesday I'm planning a double brew to catch up. Currently we are a house with no beer . I'll be brewing a cream ale and an American wheat. Both ought be quick and easy to ferment out and light and easy to drink as our weather warms up. After that I intend to brew some more lagers once the 'cellar' is ready to go.