Advice on my brew sculpture.

yeastbound · 07-16-2009, 11:07 PM

Hey guys,

My father-in-law is a welder, and has agreed to build me a brew stand. All I have to pony up for is the materials. I was inspired by Terapin Chef's rig, and worked this design up in Google Sketchup:

Can I get an extra set (or two, or three) or eyes on this and:

1. Make sure my math is sound

and
2. Offer any advice on the design.

Chef's rig is made out of 8 gauge 2" square pipe. To keep the cost (and weight) down, I wanted to go with 11 gauge 1" square pipe. FIL says that structurally I'll be OK with the smaller pipe.

Any comments, ideas, suggestions? Thanks in advance!!

**wilserbrewer** · 07-17-2009, 02:13 AM

What type of kettles, keggles or coolers are you going to use. It bugs me when I see a three tier a foot taller than it needs to be. Yours seems pretty compact.

yeastbound · 07-17-2009, 02:39 AM

HLT: 1/2 bbl keggle. 15.5" x 23.5" Ball valve mounted at base for flow to the MLT.
MLT: 54 qt. Igloo Marine Ice Chest. 25.5"L x 15.5"W x 15.5"H
Kettle: Same as HLT.

One thing I'm not sure about is the height between the kettle and MLT tiers. The kettle actually is taller than the 20" height. Maybe it should be a bit taller?

Pintodave · 07-17-2009, 03:27 AM

The 1" should be strong enough, but my personal opinion is it will look "skinny" in proportion to the kegs and such... I'd go with a min. of 1 1/2" sq., the 2" would look nice.

8 gauge is way over kill. That is a wall thickness of .172, even .125 wall is a bit overkill. 13 or 14 gauge would be plenty strong in 1 1/2" and less expensive than .125 wall...

1 1/2" sq for the uprights and 1 1/2"x2" sq for the horizontal pieces would look really sharp too...

(that is kinda what the tubing in your first drawing looks like)

yellowcolumbia · 07-17-2009, 04:00 PM

Make sure you've considered transfering from the kettle to fermenter. If you're planning on using gravity, you might have a problem.

**Dog House Brew** · 07-17-2009, 06:41 PM

Looks just like mine. Ended up getting one pump to push through CFC and to fermenter. I put some thin plate for wind screen and to prevent heat transfer around the burners. Looks good to me.

yeastbound · 07-17-2009, 06:57 PM

I bought a March 809 last night. I was planning on using it on my immersion chiller. No reason I can't use it to go from kettle to fermenter, right?

If not, I can raise the bottom tier up a few inches.

**Whiskey** · 07-17-2009, 08:10 PM

If you have a pump, why not go double tier? You can pump from your HLT to your MLT then gravity feed to your kettle, or go single tier. It may save you some cash material wise also.

Either also keep you from messing with 10 gallons of near boiling water at or above eye level.

eschatz · 07-17-2009, 08:15 PM

Yeah, if you went single tier you might save enough money to buy a pump. Clean-up would be so much easier with a single tier.

sjlammer · 07-20-2009, 01:57 AM

If you have a pump, i would go two tier, from what i have read, it is best to go from the MLT to the Boil kettle without pumping... is this right guys?