Show Me Your Wood Brew Sculpture/Rig

I thought I saw a rooster. Nice touch.

It is a chicken, her name is Maybell, she is the mascot for Chicken Spit Brewing

I stand (sit) corrected. Nice use of a mascot. Very fitting!

Happy brewing, and I hope your new rig treats you well for many batches!

TiberhappyfourthofjulyBrew

Here's my 3 tier setup. $40 for casters, shelving and sealer. The rest was scrap wood.

heckels said:

Here's my 3 tier setup. $40 for casters, shelving and sealer. The rest was scrap wood.

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That looks nice. Any chance you could rotate the pic and maybe take another without the brewing equipment so I can see how it was constructed?

Here is mine; I've been brewing on it for about 10 months. It is based on Morebeer's 1550 off-set 3 tier design - and it is kind of a pump/gravity hybrid. Very small footprint, one burner, and I can easily see into the Orange MLT, so no steps or ladders involved. I can also break it down to two pieces (the tower holding the MLT can be unbolted) and pack the whole thing into my small Volvo to brew at my buddy's house. I was also able to integrate my old SQ14 burner, kettle, and coolers.

The other thing worth noting is that after I run the whirlpool chiller, I can clamp on a sanitary tri-clamp 90 and gravity drain the wort from my kettle right into a carboy. The entire height of the system is built around the ability to perform that function.

The wood was dirt cheap, construction took about 2 weeks, but the QD's were the real money pit. Those things add up quickly.

Here is a full write-up, but the best pics are attached below. I've posted elsewhere, but I wanted to get on board with the wooden-rig pride.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f36/my-ag-rig-1550-lite-240483/

Beats balancing buckets!

Joe

Here's some photos of my wooden rig:

This will be a propane/electric RIMS system...well some day it will.

Really nice rigs everyone. Im envious of even the shabbiest looking rig. My apartment rig consists of kitchen counter, chair, and step stool.

FirstStateBrewer said:

That looks nice. Any chance you could rotate the pic and maybe take another without the brewing equipment so I can see how it was constructed?

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I have a thread for the build. Sorry if the link isn't clickable...I sent this from my phone.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/homemade-3-tier-tower-244145/

I spent hours pouring over this thread and others like it getting ideas and now I'm proud to finally be able to post my own rig that I've been putting together the last few months. I just finished getting everything running and I brewed my first AG batch on it Sunday, an Irish Dry Stout.



The base of the structure I made from all leftover 2x4's and decking screws I had laying around. There's sheet metal on the bottom of the platforms and some more around the top ring of 2x4's. I put casters on the bottom so I can wheel it around the garage easily (highly recommended). The burners are from blichmann and hooked up to a black iron gas manifold I made to run off of one tank. 2 March 809 pumps wired up to a simple switch box. The fittings are all weldless that I got from bargain fittings along with the quick disconnects, and the sight tubes and thermometer are from Bobby.

I still have a lot of little things I want to do like relocate the pumps and add more hoses and a sparge arm, but this was enough to get me going. The plate chiller will eventually get mounted better and I also want to plumb some sort of a hose and filter for a water supply. Brew day went pretty well for my first AG batch considering my digital thermometer wouldn't calibrate and I didn't have BeerSmith setup correctly for my equipment.

Very nice!

MrNate said:

Here's mine, apparently it's kind of ghetto. Oh well, I thought it was cool.

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Im pretty sure this is how castles were defended back in the day

Here is my front porch brewing setup. It is still a work in progress. It is way overbuilt ,and a little bit ghetto, but it has really made life easier. I would like to put in a hard line for gas, so I only have to use one tank, and I'm going to be moving to a bigger MLT this weekend, and maybe add a 2nd pump so I have the option of fly sparging, and maybe replace the CFC with a plate chiller. So many plans, so little time.

here is my setup, done 2 batches on it so far.. looking to do a new one this weekend.. its custom fit to wedge nicely in my basement when not being used.. i have a removable handle, the sides pull out for extra space, and a spot to hang my tubing so it says sanitized and to easily dry when not being used..

jeffdietzler said:

Here's some photos of my wooden rig:

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I love the storage bins under the HLT. Brilliant!

I'm still brewing Ghetto style, but the brewstand will be built this year and installed in the brew haus for some winter brewing as I work to finish up that project. In the mean time, I'm still brewing with a simple setup.

harten74 said:

Thanks gents. I used Google Sketch Up to design it and I'd be happy to share those plans with anyone that is interested.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/7265982/BrewRig.skp

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Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Thanks for the detailed plans. You can see I'm well into the build.

Bob

Finished mine a couple weeks ago!

I'm starting mine today or next weekend.
My wife was going to throw out these folding wooden chairs we have and I took a look at them and suddenly the idea popped in my head to use them.

They're quite sturdy and squarish/cube-like in shape so they stack together mudularly. I just need to make some minor modifications and make some removable shelves to support things like the propane tank, HLT and MLT.

The best part is that they fold away to save space, which was a primary requisite with my wife if I were to build a brew stand.

I'll post pics of the build process as I build them.

Rcole said:

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Thanks for the detailed plans. You can see I'm well into the build.

Bob

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Laid on 2nd coat of stain and poly.

Almost finished. Need to run the gas line, make a small side shelf, and add some hooks for brew tools.

Very nice! It looks great and I am so glad the plans were useful.

Clark

Added a drawer.

krenshaw said:

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Those slotted tube holders are brilliant! I will definitely be stealing the idea to use somewhere in my brewing room. Cheers!

Rcole said:

Added a drawer.

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Very nice! I may borrow that!

Automated outdoor herms that breaks down and tucks away leaving a cooking stand behind. Just finished batch number 5 on this thing. Lovin it

Lost Pirate said:

Finished mine a couple weeks ago!

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Looks nice and compact, with good utilization of space that puts everything within easy reach.

so ive been wanting to get mine done for some time... its still not there but its close... I still have a pump mount to put on, stain and the plumbing.

Here is mine from the other day with Rochefort 10 clone boiling away....

The burner goes right at the end of the rig, turkey fryer. $10 in wood, turned brew day into a much more enjoyable and easier affair.

just got done building mine... water test and brew today/ tomorrow

Following this thread for reference later.

Wooden Herms

Single Tier HERMS that I finished last summer. Makes life so much easier and after spending that much time/money I make sure it gets plenty of use. There is no way I could have done it without this site.

Bubba70 said:

Wooden Herms

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Hey Bubba70;
I like this a lot. The tile top is what I've been thinking about using for clean ability and heat shielding. It also makes it look nice for not a lot of money. I also think it’s great the way the kegs store in the shaped racks below. I would think the lose hoses and bobbles and bits would store in the kegs. I would think a plastic cover over the whole rig would keep the dust and dirt out till brew day.
:rockin:

I think that I've gone through this entire thread about 4 times now. Mine seems totally lame! The joy of mine is how easy it collapses and how simple it is. Where mine falls short is how simple it is. The plastic horses were cheap and have 2x4 slots, which I used to create a the table top for. All of the wood was extra. This is a very beginner setup which I plan to replace in a few years ... I like what I see here!

Just used my new woody for the first time yesterday, its not quite done as I'm waiting to add the blichmann tower of power to automate the mash temp if it ever gets done. And have to wire the pumps to a more permanent solution as well.

Got a ton of ideas from this thread and finished mine a couple months ago.

I'm only doing 5 gallon batches now and I'm batch sparging, but I left room in my build to add a 2nd burner on the top left above the mash tun and enough space to fit a full keg or a much larger brew kettle on top of the right side burner.

My landlord had a few extra ceramic kitchen tiles in the garage that fit perfectly in the spots below my burner and between the burner and the vertical posts. I don't know if they are helping with heat or not, but I figure it didn't hurt. I was actually somewhat worried about the glass sliding door right behind the burner, but I don't know anything about heat conduction. I've brewed 2 batches and it hasn't seemed to be putting off that much heat.