[r8rphan]

My official "Poor Mans Brew Stand" Build thread..

I can't afford the money or headache to even think about the shiny Brutus systems and tippy dumps and what not...

But I'm about to go AG, and I though I best put at least a 'little' effort into making it somewhat efficient and easy to use...

So the goals were to:
A) Get all this crap outta my house
B) Store it all in one place as neatly and compactly as possible
C) Don't spend much moola
D) Use gravity as much as possible to move liquids around
E) Simplify Cleaning and brewing on brew day..

So here is the space I am choosing to do this.. It's on the service porch where I store hardwoods for burning.. It's right next to the laundry/utility room, which is right off of the kitchen, so it's a good spot.. And it also has a hose bib for water, and a power outlet right in the corner I want to put it....

Yeah, I know.. I gotta sweep up all the firewood bark..

I can use this spot until the bugs come out in mid-to late spring, by which time I hope to have my back covered patio finished screening in, and can move the operation there... That's a better place anyways, because I have tunes there, and I BBQ there...not to mention it's right off of the party room/bar where the kegerator is..

Anyways, here's the temp location:

[r8rphan]

So here are some pictures of the initial progress of the PMBS...

There are a couple pockets built into this that don't make a lot of sense at this point... and I could label all this in Photoshop.. but rather than go through that hassle, I'll just keep posting pics, and they will all become self explanatory in a day or so..

So here I have cut and assembled the base and interior dividers..

[r8rphan]

And here it is turned right side up, with a 6.5G carboy and a bucket in it to show the size and purpose of the main storage area..

It's got enough space in there to store two of those carboys, as well as 4 food grade buckets, and still has space for yet another 6.5G carboy or two more buckets...

It also has space for a 5G propane cylinder..




I put the top on today and brought it home (I had been building it at a customers job as all my tools were there already and I didn't want to bring them back and forth every day)..

Will post pictures of that tomorrow in its intended location.. and you'll get a better idea of what the plan is..

[michur]

Looking good. I'm looking to do something similar.

[r8rphan]

So here is the basic set up....
Nothing fancy, just practical..
Plenty of room for storage...


And here is the basic set up for mash and collection

After collection, the wort is poured back into the BK, and brewed... After boil, wort is chilled and drained into carboys...


So I gotta throw a coat of paint on it, build my lautering manifold, move it to where it goes and then try it out... I can dress it up a little after that...

After that, I gotta build the tool box/step... and then onto a counterflow chiller that will be mounted flat on the underside of the whole assembly.. which will bring up a whole new set of questions from me...


Need to have another coupling welded into the keggle so I can move the thermo and install a sight glass.. as well as buy one of those fancy FBs from Jaybird....

[WildGingerBrewing]

Sweet! Good job.

[EarthBound]

Quick, easy, cheap, and most importantly, it makes beer! Good job, bro.

[KCBrewer]

Nice work. If you happen to come across a cheap/free mini fridge you could always turn the storage area underneath into a ferm chamber.

[r8rphan]

Thanks guys... Sometime down the road, I'm gonna try and make it look antiquish cool... was also thinking of routing a channel around the edge on the top with a little routed bowl and drain in one corner to contain and drain away spillage..

Might take a torch to the whole thing and wire brush it and use a green stain before sealing.. Then build a little cabinet front on it out of carpenter ant damaged cedar planks and an antique glass door.....

want to build a flat counterflow chiller on the thing, and mount it underneath where the wheels are, but still trying to figure out how to do that without a pump...

Considering putting it inside the cabinet under the top, but don't know if the loss of head space will cause problems...

Appears to be no way out of lifting buckets of runnings up high and manually dumping them in the BK... Maybe I can figure out how to not do that too at some point.. Will probably involve a pump though...

Hoping to have it ready to use this weekend for my first 10G AG brew.... but I gotta figure out what to do with the pale ale that is fermenting in one of the carboys first though...

Might try using a corny as a secondary.. kicking that around...

[r8rphan]

Here it is primered, painted (to match house) and in place.. did a test fire of heating 12G of water to boil night before last... took 22 mins to heat from 125 degrees to 170 degrees with ambient temps in the mid twenties and some wind, and an additional 20-25 mins to get to boiling...

Getting ideas flushed out in my head as to where to go from here, combination steps/equip box is next, then an integrated/hidden gravity fed CFC...

Want to brew a 10G AG IPA later today if I can come up with the handful of parts I need to take care of a couple loose ends..