brewce: Brewing Beer with Zephyr, Android and Thingsboard¶
brewce is a combination of home-brewed hardware and software for home beer brewing with a simple induction cooker. The basic setup consists of an Android app, a remote controlled induction cooker, a remote thermometer and a remote controlled switch connected to a pump.
The communication is based on Bluetooth Low Energy between the electronics. The Android app additionally can send all the information to Thingsboard with MQTT.
This documentation describes the hardware and software developed and links to the respective source files.
Beer Brewing¶
Brewing beer is the whole process of making the delicious fermented drink. Beer is one of the oldest know beverages and was already made by the ancient Egypts. The beer brewing process typically consists of the following steps:
- Mashing
- Lautering
- Boiling
- Fermenting
Especially the first, the mashing phase, needs a specific cooking procedure to activate enzymes from the malt to dissolve the starch which later is necessary for fermentation. This can of course be done manually, but having an automated process helps to keep the temperatures at specific levels. This in turn helps to created consistent results. brewce is especially designed to automate the mashing phase.