BIAB brew stand with hoist and pump

Very nice. My biab setup has also displaced my rims system. I use three thick wall conduit pipes lashed with rope. I looked up teepee knot and it holds tight. From there a cumalong (some call it a chain binder). It is enough to pick up my 40 gallon bag. Now that I have seen yours, though, I am rethinking!

My friends and wife call my homebrew Jake's Juice. Maybe I should call this "Jakes Juice Stand!"

wilserbrewer said:

Very interesting quote here...the future of homebrewing perhaps

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Quite possible.

Where did you find the hoist/crane?

beautiful system, anxiously awaiting a report after you use it.

I fabricated the hoist/ crane. The winch is just a boat winch for a jetski trailer

fortydegnorth said:

I fabricated the hoist/ crane. The winch is just a boat winch for a jetski trailer

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Gotcha...as stated before, very nice build.

All plumbed and test fired. I went with natural gas this time. I need to install the fittings in the lid for recirculation but that's all. 23 tip burner is intense!

This thing is so freakin' cool, just because it's so purpose-built.

I recommend never ever doing that with your mash bucket when it's full though

According to earlier posts he entirely plans to do that with the basket full.

Worst case scenario, I add an extension onto the side with a caster to keep it stable. I may test tonight with water in the pot to see how much it takes to make it tipsy.

Water test is done. Everyone can relax now about tipping.......including me. With 12 gallons of water in the pot and the boom extended straight out perpendicular to the stand (as far away as possible) it took 60 pounds in the basket to make it start to tip. In the position where it just clears the kettle by 3"-4" (which is what I'll always do) it took over 100 pounds to make it start to tip. A big beer, 10 gallon batch may have 30 pounds of grain. With absorbtion I could see a gallon or so being left in the grain after smashing it over the kettle. If that's the case I may have 38-40 pounds in the basket. Well within tipping. We aren't talking about 150 pounds hanging there. Once the wort is smashed from the grain and drains substantially I'll rotate it enough to clear the pot, lower it a bit and then just lift it off the hook. I never forsee having to worry about tipping this unless someone is hanging on it. For safety sake I may put a hinged outrigger on the side with a foot just to be reassured. Simple, cheap and effective. I'd recommend to anyone building one to just make the stand 6" wider on the boom side to allow the weight to be over the wheels.

I'm jealous... I'm going to have to revisit my setup now.

Subbed!

Very cool. I wish I had your crafting abilities. My one question is about the CFC, it looks like you will be pumping the wort down to nearly ground level, and then have it forced back up to whatever your fermenter-in height is, but once you run out of fluid on the pump inlet you will lose that ability. What volume loss are you expecting to be left in the CFC? Are you planning to recover it or just factor that towards your brewery efficiency?

I lose some in the chiller but never really worry about it. I make my batches large enough to have around 11 gallons going into the fermentor so after trub and yeast I have 10 gallons going into kegs. If I was worried about a little loss in a chiller I wouldn't be brewing on an $800 stand. I'd just buy beer. As much as we'd like to think we are saving tons of money on this hobby I'm convinced that we are just having fun and making great beer. I don't fret the efficiency or small losses. My chiller was always resing around a 5 gallon bucket before with my Brutus and it never made much difference to me then. The chiller isn't attached to the stand it's just resting on the aluminum shelf so it could be raised up.

Very nice! I was wondering, why do people tend to use baskets and bags instead of just using a bag. Is it issues with strength? Bling factor? I want to do BIAB but since I'm doing electric would like to do so without a basket (no need to protect the element). I figured when I was done mashing I could gather up the longer ends of the bag, wrap a rope around it (slip knot) and lift it out. Probably have something similar to your setup, but simpler to hold it above the pot as I get up to boiling.

conpewter said:

Very nice! I was wondering, why do people tend to use baskets and bags instead of just using a bag. Is it issues with strength? Bling factor? I want to do BIAB but since I'm doing electric would like to do so without a basket (no need to protect the element). I figured when I was done mashing I could gather up the longer ends of the bag, wrap a rope around it (slip knot) and lift it out. Probably have something similar to your setup, but simpler to hold it above the pot as I get up to boiling.

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I feel a lot more comfortable hanging and lifting by the basket lined with the bag than hanging the bag itself. When buying a new kettle it was easy to find one that came with a basket (I ended up getting a 20g for 10g batches and a 15g for 5g batches - both with baskets).

Thanks I am planning on using a keggle so wouldn't have a good sized basket. Is BIAB going to be hard to do a normal gravity beer 10g in a 15g pot?

You can always add more water after you remove the grains to reach your pre-boil volume.

fortydegnorth - how many inches from the bottom of the basket to the bottom of the pot?

-chris

The baskets make less of a mess when you let them drain above the brew kettle. Easier to line up over the kettle.

The basket has four areas that act as standoffs and lift the basket up maybe 1/4" off the bottom. Bolts could easily be added to lift it higher.

So how does that work with your ball valve?

Clearly the ball valve would lift it higher off of the bottom than 1/4", so how does that affect the lid from sitting properly on the top?

-Chris

I've done up to 25 lbs with my biab keggle, no basket. With a good stitch I wouldn't worry about the bag ripping. You will have to add more water after the mash though. I doubt you could fit full volume and the grain. Also make sure your keggle top is as wide as possible. Don't want the bag catching on the cut edge.

OP I would love your setup. Very efficient. How long does that burner take to reach mash/boil?

fortydegnorth said:

Water test is done. Everyone can relax now about tipping.......including me.

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Tipping was never a concern to me...one could merely unhook the basket while it is still over the kettle. Rather than an outrigger, adding weight to the stand would give added stability...like a crane w/ counterweights. Already said it once...but worth saying again...nice build!

TacoBrew said:

I've done up to 25 lbs with my biab keggle, no basket. With a good stitch I wouldn't worry about the bag ripping.

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I have to agree, w/ a well stitched bag, ripping is not really a concern...someday soon I will load test a bag...but I would guess 100 lbs plus before a problem.

The basket sits down in the kettle, without measuring I'd say over an inch. Right now I don't have a diptube, just a weldess valve. There is enough room for the basket to fit without disturbing the valve so the basket still sits on the bottom of the kettle. To get all the liquid out I would have to tip the kettle while the pump sucks it out. I will eventually raise the kettle or modify it to allow a diptube to drain the kettle nearly dry. The lid would still fit even if it was raised off the bottom within reason.

A little creative plumbing would allow a bottom drain so the basket would still be nearly on the bottom. I'd worry about the heat on the valve at that point though.

"Tacobrew"- I haven't brewed on the stand yet so I'm not sure on how long to boil or reach temps. I'll try it out in a few weeks when my fermenters and kegs get empty.

I don't have read all the previous poste and I don't know if someone already told you but the horizontal angle that hold the bottom of the crane was not a good choise. For the same amound of steel, a square section will be 10 time stronger than this angle. With the bucket full, it will cause torsion in the angle and angles are not good to resit to torsion. It may work, all depend of the size of the angle and the weight of basket. Trust me, I have enough structure classes to know what i'm talking about. But it's a nice build, good job.

Very nice build!

Thanks for posting the eye candy for us all to enjoy. Please let us know how that first batch comes out.

I understand all the structural things that are being talked about but you have to remember that this hoist is going to be holding 40 pounds. I could duct tape a dowel rod to the side of the stand and it would hold for a while. Most of these brew stands are incredibly over built to hold very little weight in relation to there structural stability. I would guess most Brutus stands could hold a few tons if they didn't have cheap casters. I just used what I had and I was hanging over 100 pounds off the side and the stand didn't budge. I'm willing to take the risk of using a 6" long piece of 3"x3" angle to hold less than 60 pounds for ten minutes.

fortydegnorth said:

I understand all the structural things that are being talked about but you have to remember that this hoist is going to be holding 40 pounds. I could duct tape a dowel rod ....

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Yea I hear ya. But if you had done the stand differently, you could use the hoist to lift the front of your truck while changing out the brakes

I love this stand!

Nice build. I love the simplicity of this stand. Nothing but the essentials.

Mark

Update please!

Can you give me details on the natural gas burner? This is exactly where I want to be - BIAB over natural gas with 5 or 10 gallons final output.

Have you Brewed with this rig yet? If so how did that go? Im Looking to build something based on this design, It looks fantastic.

I hate to admit it, but I haven't brewed with this stand yet. Last year I was on a roll brewing and this year has been filled with other projects and it's been incredibly hot for here. I recently built a fermentation chamber so the heat won't matter as much. I'll be back to brewing soon. The burner is a typical wok burner and it puts out some serious heat. I have no doubts that this will brew the same quality of beer that my Brutus system did. Thanks for the compliments.

Looks like a winner design which should be manufactured real soon. Nice ideas in action and compact! Great for guys like me with lifting issues!

Very cool idea. It reminds me of two things...the 200L Braumeister and this shop crane I have in my garage. Please pardon the mess, I was working on my boat.

You have inspired me sir! I'm totally into overkill just because it's fun to build stuff big, I usually love how it looks, and peoples reactions are great (especially the "why didn't you do it this other way, it's WAY easier" people)

I'm planning a all in one eBIAB set-up, with your stand and crane idea as inspiration. Don't know when I'll actually get this project off the ground, but keep an eye out!

Maybe it's just cause my favorite colour is red. . .

Hey Fortydegnorth,

I have attempted something similar with a aluminum kettle and the inserted basket. The problem I found, on a 10 gal BIAB setup, is that the weight and the handle are incompatible. When raising the basket, the handle pulls the sides in. This was with only about 20 lbs of grain. I'm curious how a fully loaded basket like yours will work with the weight of the grain and water. Have you tried a dead pull yet? Toss a number of weights into it, to simulate grain and water, and pull it up with your winch?

A cross beam handle would evenly distribute the weight. The rest of the rig is gorgeous. My next brewery build, I would like to incorporate some of your ideas. Very well done.

I have one word... WOW!
Awesome build.