lutherslagers

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What's your input on this brew stand design? Anything I should add or consider?

My criteria:
1) use previous purchased equipment, hence the burners and kettles.
2) single tier - eye level
3) no pumps (for now)

__________________
Martin Luther -

"Whoever drinks beer he is quick to sleep; whoever sleeps long does not sin; whoever does not sin enters Heaven! Thus let us drink beer"

"At home I have good wine and beer and a beautiful wife"

awarner322

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So how will this work without pumps?

lutherslagers

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The tables are hydraulic. So when everything is at its lowest point it's 39 inches tall. When I'm ready to gravity transfer from the HLT to the MT or the MT to the BK I raise the individual hydraulic table 18 inches (my pots are all 17 inches tall), so I can gravity feed to the next vessel in line.

__________________
Martin Luther -

"Whoever drinks beer he is quick to sleep; whoever sleeps long does not sin; whoever does not sin enters Heaven! Thus let us drink beer"

"At home I have good wine and beer and a beautiful wife"

mpride1911

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I see your thoughts in it. Definitely innovative. Tables from Harbor Freight? My only thoughts are that the tables would be equal or greater than the price of pumps. Obviously you're not spending the money on the steel and welding for the stand. Maybe the cost is worth it. I like it though.

lutherslagers

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Tables are from Harbor Freight:
http://www.harborfreight.com/500-lb-capacity-hydraulic-lift-table-94822.html

I'm sure tacking on a $125 pump is inevitable. I like the hydraulic option if I have a pump failure, priming issue or just am not near an electrical outlet.

__________________
Martin Luther -

"Whoever drinks beer he is quick to sleep; whoever sleeps long does not sin; whoever does not sin enters Heaven! Thus let us drink beer"

"At home I have good wine and beer and a beautiful wife"

kzimmer0817

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Interesting that I should stumble upon this thread. I was trying to come up with a similar concept - a gravity-based system with the kettles at eye-level. I prefer the appearance of the single tier vs the triple tier systems. I don't like the idea of having a kettle of scalding water sitting atop a high rig.

I was googling around for scissor jacks that could be adapted for this. All I could find were ones strong enough to lift cars. I've also considered trying to design some kind of vertical trolley lift to which would be attached the square tables for the kettles. I can't find anything. I'd like to adapt the sort of mechanism used by some of the Genie Lift devices such as:

http://www.genie-lift.com/index.cfm?mf=browse.showPart&partClassID=1636&PNam e=Load%20Lifter

I guess I don't have the energy to try to design an adaptation of this scaled down to the loads I would use in brewing.

I would be interested in hearing more about your build - including pictures. There's a Harbor Freight store a couple miles from me.

One concern I have about these hydraulic tables: it appears that you pump the foot pedal in order to raise the table - hence the large kettle full of hot water or wort. I'm wondering if the jerking of the upward movement would cause a lot of sloshing around inside the kettle enough to make the kettle unstable.

Please keep us posted.

Thanks,
Keith

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LuiInIdaho

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I am not sure what the advantages of this design are. A pump or two would probably not cost more than three tables (I don't know the cost of the tables). Also do you batch sparge or fly sparge? I don't know how this design could work if you fly sparge without a pump. It would work if the tables have two different heights.
Those are my thoughts. Mark

lutherslagers

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Excellent point. I batch sparge.

__________________
Martin Luther -

"Whoever drinks beer he is quick to sleep; whoever sleeps long does not sin; whoever does not sin enters Heaven! Thus let us drink beer"

"At home I have good wine and beer and a beautiful wife"

aajjrs

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I was looking to do something very similar though I referred to it as a variable tier stand. Did a lot of searching and found a guy that was building a teeter totter style stand. If I remember correctly the MLT was in the center and the HLT and BK would travel up and down as required to permit gravity transfers. Never saw it completed so it may have padded seats on it now. I considered using some lifting mechanisms as well, and though I can fabricate, concluded the designs were all Rube Goldberg’s. I now have a single tier with one pump.

gpitrone

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I would not do this as I have used those lifts before and have had them fail. When they fail they come down hard and fast. I would not want to take a hot wort bath.