Help me with my new system!

Hi all!

So here is the story:

I now have 2 kegs converted over. One as a mash tun and on for the boil kettle. I also have another 5 gal ss pot and maybe a 7 gal aluminum (came with the burner). I have only one propane burner, I made the frame nice and sturdy to support the weight of the keg. It is maybe 2 ft tall? I just bought a 50' immersion chiller.

I am ready to go all grain but with only one burner, I am not sure how I can build a system? I had an idea of making a setup where I can move the burner under whichever vessel I need heat, instead of doing the mash on the burner, then removing the (very heavy) keg with grain and moving up from the gound the now full keg of wort back up to the burner. If I do that, it will definitely be a two man brew team.

So, since all/most of you are very intelligent builders and designers of systems, what ideas do you have for me? Remember, I have no pump so gravity will be used.

Thanks guys!

A ten gallon batch would have 30-50 lbs of grain, and at least 100 pounds of water. You don't wanna lift 150 pounds of scalding hot mash anywhere, it's a recipe for complete and total disaster. If that slips you're gonna have severe burns over a majority of your body

That being said a burner weighs all of 10 pounds and is easy to move. Build your system so that the burner is not attached and move it when you need to. As soon as the funds are available get a second burner is my suggestion!

Anyone have an idea on a rig to build that would allow the kegs to stay in place while I move the burner? I am now aware that moving hot, heavy kegs around would not be a good idea.

I am not too good of a designer but, I will give it a shot in the meantime.

Thanks!

I say get a pump. It's 120 bucks or so in the group buy through AHS whenever that happens. Best 120 bucks you'll ever spend. Then you only need 1 burner.

Irrenarzt said:

I say get a pump. It's 120 bucks or so in the group buy through AHS whenever that happens. Best 120 bucks you'll ever spend. Then you only need 1 burner.

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Seriously, I cannot afford anymore equipment. I can get wood, nuts and bolts; that is about it. I wish I could just buy a pump, that would be nice. I have a baby on the way and I shouldn't have even purchased the few things I did.

I just hope I can work something out with the equipment I have.

Build a 3 tier set-up. Make platforms for the burner to set on and move the burner from one step to the next. Search wood structures and let it fly.

Use a cooler as your mash tun to maintain your temp and you'll only need one burner for your hlt or your boil kettle

Seesaw, winch, pulley... Boil pot is your middle tier heat your water, dump to bottom tier which is your mlt, rest an hour, lift it to higher than the boil pot and drain back to boil pot and do your boil. Wash out your mlt, put it back on the ground to catch the boiled and cooled wort, pitch your yeast and ferment in it.
I've seen cherry pickers, garage rafters, exercise equipment, and even tree limbs used to lift the keg with some rope, wire or chain. Guess if you can get the wood, nuts and bolts you can put together an A frame to pulley up/down the kettle.

-OCD

beerocd said:

Seesaw, winch, pulley... Boil pot is your middle tier heat your water, dump to bottom tier which is your mlt, rest an hour, lift it to higher than the boil pot and drain back to boil pot and do your boil. Wash out your mlt, put it back on the ground to catch the boiled and cooled wort, pitch your yeast and ferment in it.
I've seen cherry pickers, garage rafters, exercise equipment, and even tree limbs used to lift the keg with some rope, wire or chain. Guess if you can get the wood, nuts and bolts you can put together an A frame to pulley up/down the kettle.

-OCD

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Damn, and I thought I was gonna be the first with the winch idea.

My plan is to buy a 15 dollar boat trailer winch from Northern Tool. Put it on the wall, run the cable up to the ceiling, through a pulley and back down to a threaded rod. The rod will have 2 hooks hanging from it that can be moved in and out, (held in place by nuts on the rod), to space them the same width as my keg/pot handles. The HLT, MLT, and boil kettle will sit on a squat wheeled platform, (plywood with a few castors on it), so it can roll back and forth. Whenever I need to put something on the burner, I roll the platform so the right pot/keggle is under the winch, hook on the hooks, winch it up, move the platform so the burner is under the pot/keggle, and lower it back down. To transfer from one pot to another, (HLT to MLT, MLT to BK), I lift one pot up, and open the valve in it to drain into the next.

The biggest "plus" i can see with this method is zero footprint. When I'm done, four ropes on the corners of the wheeled platform come up to the winch hook. I winch the whole thing up to the ceiling, BK, MLT, HLT, propane tank, and burner, and my garage is wide open again.

I haven't built it yet because I need to first invest in water sources/drains for my garage for winter brewing, (hoses aren't useful in winter!), but it's next on my list.

When money is tight, just use muscles and time.
I still use the old heave ho, and will continue until my back says no more!!!! Just because I'm cheap, but not easy.
But really, a cooler as an MLT, a ladder, steps, or anything can act as a gravity fed sculpture.
Congratulations on a baby on the way.

Kauai_Kahuna said:

Congratulations on a baby on the way.

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Thanks!

Thanks for all the tips guys. I can't do the cooler thing (that would be purchasing new equipment). The winch thing sounds cool but....I see danger! I will try a three teir design with somehow moving the burner under each teir. I will let you know how it goes. Wish me luck!

beerocd said:

Seesaw, winch, pulley... Boil pot is your middle tier heat your water, dump to bottom tier which is your mlt, rest an hour, lift it to higher than the boil pot and drain back to boil pot and do your boil. Wash out your mlt, put it back on the ground to catch the boiled and cooled wort, pitch your yeast and ferment in it.
I've seen cherry pickers, garage rafters, exercise equipment, and even tree limbs used to lift the keg with some rope, wire or chain. Guess if you can get the wood, nuts and bolts you can put together an A frame to pulley up/down the kettle.

-OCD

Click to expand...

I am a bit confused on the "ferment in it" idea. Are you saying to ferment in my MLT?

An alternative to using a pump is to use graduated buckets......

Use your boil kettle to heat mash water. Transfer by bucket to MLT. Mash grain

Use your boil kettle to heat sparge water. Transfer by bucket to MLT as needed.

Collect mash runnings in bucket until boil kettle is empty, transfer to empty boil kettle. Repeat until desired boil volume is achieved.

There is a lot of moving liquid but it is typically at five gal or less volumes so it is managable. A few buckets will only set you back 20 bucks.

I typically brew two ten gall batches at once and use this method to fill both mash tuns then two boil kettles. Staggered apart by about an hour and everything comes off just right at the end.

Hope this helps.

avwfreak said:

I am a bit confused on the "ferment in it" idea. Are you saying to ferment in my MLT?

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Absolutely, why not? It'd just be sitting empty anyway, right? It's a frugal contest right? You can do a 10 gallon batch, (KEG 1) heat, (KEG 2) mash, (KEG 1) boil, (KEG 2) ferment.
2 keg system, just add rope.

-OCD

well, no, it isn't that frugal of a contest. I have 2 6.5 gal glass carboys, two buckets, bottle tree, bottles, cornies, etc...

I am just trying to stop buying equipment!!!

ErikN: Thanks for the transfering idea. It never came across my mind to do that!

ErikN said:

An alternative to using a pump is to use graduated buckets......

Use your boil kettle to heat mash water. Transfer by bucket to MLT. Mash grain

Use your boil kettle to heat sparge water. Transfer by bucket to MLT as needed.

Collect mash runnings in bucket until boil kettle is empty, transfer to empty boil kettle. Repeat until desired boil volume is achieved.

There is a lot of moving liquid but it is typically at five gal or less volumes so it is managable. A few buckets will only set you back 20 bucks.

I typically brew two ten gall batches at once and use this method to fill both mash tuns then two boil kettles. Staggered apart by about an hour and everything comes off just right at the end.

Hope this helps.

Click to expand...

I do this too (for now). You can brew AG with one large kettle, as long as you have plenty of buckets for moving water and wort around in. It adds a little time to the brewday, since you can't start the boil until the last sparge is in the MT, but it does work, and I've made some tasty beer this way. Here's a quick run through of how I do it, for a 5 gallon batch. I have done ten gallons by the same method:

1) Heat mash + sparge water to strike temp + 10 degrees.
2) Fill MT with hot water, let stabilize, adjust to strike temp, if necessary.
3) During mash, heat sparge water to 180 - 190 F
4) Drain MT into bucket. Use another bucket to move sparge water to MT.
5) Continue the "bucket shuffle" until the last of the sparge water is in a bucket.
6) dump wort into kettle, and let the burner rip. Boil as normally.

The sweet spot for me seems to be three five-gallon buckets. That's enough to hold 7-9 gallons of wort, plus an extra bucket for sparge water.

You have to be able and comfortable lifting a heavy bucket of 4 or so gallons of 170F wort to dump it in your boiler, so it does require a strong back and probably a thick skull, but it does work.

That said, after seeing a Blichmann Top Tier in action last weekend, I can see a tree-type stand in my future. What a smooth brewday.

avwfreak said:

I am just trying to stop buying equipment!!!

Click to expand...

Baby will take care of that - you don't need our help.

-OCD

All I can really add is where there is a will, there will be a way.
Your real challenge will be finding time and energy to do any brewing.

jds said:

I do this too (for now). You can brew AG with one large kettle, as long as you have plenty of buckets for moving water and wort around in. It adds a little time to the brewday, since you can't start the boil until the last sparge is in the MT, but it does work, and I've made some tasty beer this way. Here's a quick run through of how I do it, for a 5 gallon batch. I have done ten gallons by the same method:

1) Heat mash + sparge water to strike temp + 10 degrees.
2) Fill MT with hot water, let stabilize, adjust to strike temp, if necessary.
3) During mash, heat sparge water to 180 - 190 F
4) Drain MT into bucket. Use another bucket to move sparge water to MT.
5) Continue the "bucket shuffle" until the last of the sparge water is in a bucket.
6) dump wort into kettle, and let the burner rip. Boil as normally.

The sweet spot for me seems to be three five-gallon buckets. That's enough to hold 7-9 gallons of wort, plus an extra bucket for sparge water.

You have to be able and comfortable lifting a heavy bucket of 4 or so gallons of 170F wort to dump it in your boiler, so it does require a strong back and probably a thick skull, but it does work.

That said, after seeing a Blichmann Top Tier in action last weekend, I can see a tree-type stand in my future. What a smooth brewday.

Click to expand...

I was going to suggest something along these lines, too. With a single burner, I think it makes the most sense. You DO NOT want to move around full, heavy pots of scalding wort/mash. Moving around several smaller buckets is much more managable.