the electronic gas valves

I know there are folks who are able to manually control the temperature of a direct fired RIMS mash, but I ain't one of 'em.  I'd get distracted and end up way overheating or scorching the mash.  If you ever saw me in my basement homebrewing 4 different 10 gallon batches simultaneously, you know that a brewday requiring me to open and close multiple gas valves over and over throughout the day would result in disaster. Someone's always gonna come by to watch, and there's beer to sample for quality control purposes.  Manual control seems especially risky when you have more than one mash going at a time, or when you're trying to conduct back-to-back mashes and need to focus on what's happening in the boil kettle and mash tun at the same time.

So I figured that if you're planning to build any kind of automation into your system, one of the first things to consider is adding electronically controlled gas valves.  You quickly find that, for this size system and smaller, the valve manufacturer choices are ASCO and Honeywell.  You have to decide next if you want a valve with a built-in safety mechanism that causes the valve to close or remain closed if a flame or spark doesn't exist to ignite the gas.  The Brutus Ten uses ASCO valves, but my understanding is that ASCO doesn't offer a valve that checks for an ignition source and automatically closes if one isn't found.

Honeywell, on the other hand, offers several types of valves that close or remain closed in the absence of an ignition source.  If you're an electronics whiz, you might be comfortable with the electronic ignition valves (direct spark ignition, hot surface ignition and intermittent pilot ignition) (for example, the Honeywell VR8245 and VR8345 products).  But these valves require separate additional Honeywell control modules utilizing trial timing and lock-out timing procedures, and I worried that these procedures might conflict with BCS-462 control.

Such conflicts may not have ultimately existed, but my concern was enough that I went ahead and opted for the Honeywell VR8300A4516 (Continuous Pilot Gas Valve, 24 Vac Dual Standing 3/4" x 3/4" Inlet/Outlet) (Supplier Link) (Honeywell VR8300A manual).  This valve works together with a pilot burner and thermocouple and will close if the thermocouple stops signalling that the pilot is lit. You can also use either propane or natural gas with this valve (requires swapping out a couple of small parts which are included with the VR8300A4516).  I chose the Honeywell Q314A4586 Pilot Burner for Natural or LP Gas (Supplier Link) (Honeywell Manual for Q314 Pilot Burners) (Honeywell Product Data for Q314 Pilot Burners) to couple with the gas valve.

Compared to the direct spark ignition models, the continuous pilot/thermocouple valves require a little more effort at the beginning of the brew day (it takes a few minutes to light each pilot), but they are equally safe (close enough for me anyway) and much less complicated.  These valves are surprisingly large, so be sure you plan for the space that'll be required underneath your kettles for the valve, piping, thermocouple and pilot gas tubing.  Also keep in mind the swing radius that would be required if you find yourself needing to thread the valve onto a pipe as opposed to threading a pipe into the valve.