johns

Recipes 

Can I ask where did you get the crane and what kind of Little Giant pump do you use?

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Beauty lies in the hands of the beer holder
WC Fields

Kegged: AIR

Bottled: Founders Breakfast Stout, APA Nelson Savin, APA Cascade, Vanilla Porter, Mambo in your mouth, Cranberry mead, Peach Ginger mead.

Primary: Amarillo IPA

Secondary: Two Hearted, HopSlam

limulus

Recipes 

You can buy a shop crane at Harbor Freight Tools. They recently had a 1ton model on sale for $99. I paid $169 for mine. The bottom legs fold up and is easily moved out of the way. http://www.harborfreight.com/catalogsearch/result?q=shop+crane

My pump is a Teel that I bought 15-16 yrs ago. Back in the 90s, I read an article in Zymurgy or Brewing Techniques on RIMS and it was the same pump they used.

I bought the crane a couple of years ago to lift my new boat motor on and off of my wooden boat. The motor was 320lbs and I mounted it all by myself. I still had to have a pro program the engine management system though.

Now, it makes a great mash tun lift!

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Hog Mountain Brewing Co.
Keg 1: Hog Mountain Pal Ale - Tap 1
Keg 2: American Wheat - Tap 2
Keg 3: Dunkelweizen - Tap 3

On Deck: Bourbon Barrel Porter (to be aged 6-9mos in brand new 1L flip-top bottles) and Pliny the Elder!

"Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth shut."
-Ernest Hemingway

limulus

Recipes 

Brewed Ed Worts Hause Pale Ale this morning and hit the bullseye on OG. Now all I need to do is build a proper winch support so I can eliminate using the shop crane.

__________________
Hog Mountain Brewing Co.
Keg 1: Hog Mountain Pal Ale - Tap 1
Keg 2: American Wheat - Tap 2
Keg 3: Dunkelweizen - Tap 3

On Deck: Bourbon Barrel Porter (to be aged 6-9mos in brand new 1L flip-top bottles) and Pliny the Elder!

"Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth shut."
-Ernest Hemingway

speedoguy

Recipes 

@limulus, that set up in the first video you posted is pretty freakin sweet!

ScubaSteve

Recipes 

I understand the desire to have a dedicated stand, etc. for brewing, but there is really something to be said for multitasking in a small garage.

I have the 2 ton shop crane and also a 5500 lb pallet jack. If you spend the money on a shop crane, you won't be sorry. Mine has paid for itself many times over, lifting machine tools that weigh thousands of pounds (another hobby of mine). These things will laugh at a wet bucket of grain.

The boat winches are good because they lift straight up....versus the crane which will move slightly as its angle changes. But, you could set the height of the crane and use a simple pulley and cleat arrangement as the German guy in video #2 above is doing.

Really, for the money spent, a shop crane is a much more valuable tool than a purpose built BIAB winch....if you wanted to, you could use the crane as your stand (no direct flames, obviously)....zip ties could hold stuff like chillers. The legs fold up for easy storage, too.

When the need arises, you have a shop crane. You can't say the same for any other brew stand!

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UNIBREW 5500 SINGLE VESSEL BREWERY
WOODEN SINGLE TIER

limulus

Recipes 

I keep saying I'm going to build that dedicated stand. But right now I can store everything pretty easily and it does give the shop crane a purpose. Until I started using it for brewing, it was all folded up and I wondered if I would have any use for it again.

BTW, ScubaSteve, what ever became of your system that you were building couple of years ago?

__________________
Hog Mountain Brewing Co.
Keg 1: Hog Mountain Pal Ale - Tap 1
Keg 2: American Wheat - Tap 2
Keg 3: Dunkelweizen - Tap 3

On Deck: Bourbon Barrel Porter (to be aged 6-9mos in brand new 1L flip-top bottles) and Pliny the Elder!

"Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth shut."
-Ernest Hemingway

ScubaSteve

Recipes 

The stands fold up into a really small footprint. It's one of those things....when you need it; you need it! I hoisted a 900 lb lathe into the back of a truck a few weeks ago...it wasn't happening any other way.

My system? Well, it was such a long and expensive build that once I reached the top of the "mountain" I brewed a few times and kind of got bored with it. I ended up getting out of brewing for a few years and used the money from the sale to buy a few machine tools. I kinda got bitten by the "old iron" bug....finding the really old, really well built stuff and fixing it up. So, I've restored a few machines here and there, but I kind of missed brewing.

I'm getting ready to move so I had to downsize on some of the tools. The money was burning a hole in my pocket so I bought a sweet welder and some other stuff. Currently I'm working on restoring a milling machine and building a mobile "power station" that will provide 30A&50A single phase 220, plus 3 phase 220 for my tools.

As far as brewing, I got a few BRAND NEW MODDED KEGS and have a 2-vessel system in the works...but haven't done much with it. I'm not really interested in going full-bore with the brewing like I used to...there are a LOT of other things I'm interested in....metalworking, knifemaking, gearmaking, gunsmithing to name a few.

I currently only have one batch aging....that'll be it until I move in May and get settled into the new house.

__________________
UNIBREW 5500 SINGLE VESSEL BREWERY
WOODEN SINGLE TIER

241

Recipes 

Awesome stand. Seems totally doable and practical

JUST_BREW_IT

Recipes 

nice design!!!