Another brew stand - 10 months in the making

This has been an ongoing 10 month build. A really good friend of mine is a welder/fabricator and has no interest in the beer making process, but loves to make things, so it worked out to be a good partnership for this project. We started in January of 2012, and I knew this would be a long ongoing project, so I decided against a thread until it was complete. We began with the Brutus 10 idea, took a little from Kal's and put some of our own ideas into it as well.

There's still some kettle work to be done, so over the next few days I'll be updating some more.

Started with 2" square tubing. We decided that this build would be a prototype for a future stand, so we can learn as we go. The next one will be all stainless.

Everything was TIG welded.

Got the wind shields all in place, pump mounts, and casters on. We then decided to change our burner design after playing with the cast iron jet burners for a while. In my opinion (there is a lot of opinion on this forum) the 10" banjo burners have a much higher level of control, so we changed things up a bit mid way through the build.

Decided to go with a gas manifold mounted to strut rather than using the back bracket as the manifold. Again, going for the highest level of control. And if something went wrong, or we wanted to change something later on, it'd be easier with strut and a manifold.

All of the gas lines/fittings were TIG welded. Didn't want to mess with gas leaks.

Nice looking stand, how tall is it?

Matt

There are TONS of great ideas on this forum. Thank you to everyone for posting your ideas.

We looked at a number of panel arm ideas, and I wanted something that would swing/fold for easy storage. So we settled for a swing type. Teflon bushings were cut out from an old cutting board, then turned on the lathe.

Originally we wanted to run all the electrical through the tubing and into conduit below, but I kept adding more components so conduit all the way was necessary.

moboy said:

Nice looking stand, how tall is it?

Matt

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With the casters it stands about 36". Just enough to be able to look into the kettles.

Very Nice!

Big thanks to mmurray for the schematic on his panel. I'm electrically challenged, so I reached to the forums for help. Decided to implement a timer and digital thermometer for the wort chiller on the panel as well.

I went through probably 15 panel designs, and finally decided to clean it up with lit switches. Main power (red), TCU Power (yellow), Solenoid Power (green), Pumps (white).

It's wired so that when the solenoids are open, the green lights will flip on as an indicator.

Rats nest in the picture is much cleaner now, don't worry. (Tags are in the mail, I'll post more of the "final pictures" when it's all done in about a week or so).

Gas manifold in its entirety pulled off the panel. Standing pilot lights for the HLT and MLT on it's own valve for control. Looking back, we would have just T'd up from in between the two solenoid legs. Main reason we went with standing lights over an electric type, was just simplicity of design. The gas used during a batch is minimal, if not unnoticed.

Electrical manifold and conduit brought off as well. I do really like that I can pull just electrical off, or just gas off and make changes if needed, without pulling the entire stand apart to do so.

Getting ready for paint!

Gas manifold got painted along with the naked stand. Then assembly!

Assembling burners, electrical and gas manifolds.

Everything fired up and worked great! I did a test batch on Tuesday and it went very smooth.

All that's left is to add a counterflow chiller to the far left side and a little more kettle work.

We're installing a tangential inlet on the BK for whirlpooling, HERMS coil in the HLT, and some other inlet fittings on the HLT and MLT for recirculating. Everything will be fit with cam-locks.

More pictures to come in the next week on all that!

beer porn. pure, unadulterated beer porn.

love it!

did you get rid of the wind shields when you switched burner types?

stillbrewin said:

did you get rid of the wind shields when you switched burner types?

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Yes, we did. The 10" banjo burners don't seem to have any issues without them. We were also worried about the standing pilot lights blowing out without the shields, but with the kettles on there, it does quite well.

I actually dig the conduit the way you did it and may steal some of it for my stand that I'm building. Do you have any issue with the conduit flexing or connectors loosening with the control panel as you swing it in?

Very nice!
I bought 95% of the stuff to build mine but am struggling to find the time to actually do it. Yet every time I brew I keep telling myself "I really need to get my stand going!"

krazydave said:

I actually dig the conduit the way you did it and may steal some of it for my stand that I'm building. Do you have any issue with the conduit flexing or connectors loosening with the control panel as you swing it in?

Very nice!
I bought 95% of the stuff to build mine but am struggling to find the time to actually do it. Yet every time I brew I keep telling myself "I really need to get my stand going!"

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Honestly I wasn't a fan of the conduit at first, but it's growing on me. Now that I've seen how functional it is and how easy it will be to add on things later/fix things, I'm sold. I'm pretty anal about clean lines and I really wanted this stand to scream "simplicity".

I haven't noticed anything loosening up when I swing the panel. I was more worried about heat with it being that close (no problems yet).

I bought the pieces as I went along, part of why it took so long to finish. If I were to do it again, I'd buy everything at once and build all in one shot. You'll love a stand though!

Very cool.

Very Nice! The only issue you might run into is the banjo's burning the paint off a little where the attach, but that's minimal!

Great Job and I dig the panel!

mmurray said:

Very Nice! The only issue you might run into is the banjo's burning the paint off a little where the attach, but that's minimal!

Great Job and I dig the panel!

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Haha. Couldn't have done the panel without you, mmurray!

This stand is one of the better one's I've seen on the forum in my last few days of reading through build threads!

If you don't mind me asking, could you PM me info on where you got the tubing and cost? Haven't found any pricing info online from some of the portland area metal shops and have been too lazy to call around yet as it is just an idea at this point.

Also, what size BK, MLT, and HLT are you running on that?

Edit: Nevermind. Saw the keggle's on page one. Completely forgot about those.

pdxbg said:

Also, what size BK, MLT, and HLT are you running on that?

Edit: Nevermind. Saw the keggle's on page one. Completely forgot about those.

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Yup!

Made the width wide enough to get 20 gal Blichmann's on there if we wanted to.

Very nice stand. Where did you get those standing pilots? I like them.

rekoob said:

Very nice stand. Where did you get those standing pilots? I like them.

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Robbed them off of the Cast Iron Jet burners that we originally bought. After many test and fighting with the flame/control we decided against them and got the 10" Banjo burners.

Just like these pilot lights

Welded the pilot light right into a reducer that then was welded onto the 1/4" pilot gas line.

These are some photos of the original burners before we decided against them. I highly recommend the banjos over the jets.

Nice and clean! Great job!

Thanks, I went with the high pressure cast iron burners when I made mine and I'm okay with how they work. But I have been thinking about changing my gas manifold a little and may change up my pilot light setup, but then again, it works so right now it's just a thought.

Do you get any flame control of the burner from the valves or is it simply on/off?

rekoob said:

Thanks, I went with the high pressure cast iron burners when I made mine and I'm okay with how they work. But I have been thinking about changing my gas manifold a little and may change up my pilot light setup, but then again, it works so right now it's just a thought.

Do you get any flame control of the burner from the valves or is it simply on/off?

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On the HLT & MT there's the solenoid first, then a ball valve, then a needle valve. The solenoid is obviously on/off from the panel, then the ball valve is main on/off as a backup. The needle valve is really where the control is for the burners. Then there's the air intake on the burner itself to dial things in even more.

Control for the BK burner is simply on/off with a needle valve after that. I've also got control with a dial regulator right after the tanks.

Pilot lights are equal distances from the T so that the flames are the same height, and they're controlled off a smaller 1/4" valve as well.

Small update:

Getting some butt weld nipples milled down for the silicone tubing. I'm on board with Bobby's take on the reduced port for the barbed cam locks, so I found an alternative. These will be for the straight fittings going into the hoses. I've ordered the barbed 90s from Bobby. Should be here next week!

Why didn't you just go with these? http://www.stainlessbrewing.com/12-x-1-12-S40-304-TOE-Nipple_p_96.html

StainlessBrewing said:

Why didn't you just go with these? http://www.stainlessbrewing.com/12-x-1-12-S40-304-TOE-Nipple_p_96.html

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I already had the hex butt weld fittings, so I figured I should use what I had laying around. Don't worry, I need to put in another order for some more cams soon.

More work done on the kettles. Putting a Tangential inlet on the BK for whirlpooling. The original dip-tube will be re-bent to pick up on the opposite side of the kettle. Using a 1/2" x 12" 304 S/S nipple coming out of the side. It should line up with the valve currently on the kettle.

Mash tun port for recirculating and sparge arm hook up.

Can you post a picture of the needle valve /on off valve setup? I would like to change my burner control around a little. Right now I am using the tank valve to adjust the flame amount but of course that adjusts all the burners at the same time. I would like some control of each burner independently. I have solonoid valves on the HLT an MLT also.

rekoob said:

Can you post a picture of the needle valve /on off valve setup? I would like to change my burner control around a little. Right now I am using the tank valve to adjust the flame amount but of course that adjusts all the burners at the same time. I would like some control of each burner independently. I have solonoid valves on the HLT an MLT also.

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Here's the setup. It's the same on all three of the burners, with the exception of the BK line not having a solenoid.

It's extremely nice because when another burner goes on or off, the remaining burners do not change in pressure at all. Everything stays constant.

Got the HERMS coil in place, hoses are made up, and everything is done. More pictures of that to come tonight.

I have a few more hoses to make, and I'll post pictures of those tonight as well. I wrapped the 1/2" silicone tubing with some 3/8" (stretched, it's like a Chinese finger trap) stainless braid from flex hose material. At first it was just for a 'coolness factor', but having gotten them all made up, it prevents the tubing from kinking, and will add some longevity to the tubing. Down side is you can't see through the braid, but that's not really a concern of mine.

Awesome. Thanks for the pictures. That setup is pretty much what I had in mind, thanks for the visual.
Your stand is looking great!

Simply awesome. I'll be over to pick it up next weekend. Have it by the curb for an easy grab 'n go. Thanks!

BK is done now.

Some photos of the new panel tags that just came in.

Stainless braid that is wrapped around the silicone tubing.