The MaxOut Brew Station

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

MaxOut

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jan 8, 2011
Messages
752
Reaction score
88
Location
Hughesville
Hello, I have been visiting HBT for several months while building my all grain brew system and have finally decided to share what I call the MaxOut Brew Station. Many thanks go out to others who post here who have helped inspire me too many to mention. I have had a lot of fun building and brewing on this project and it will continue to be a work in progress. When I started this I had no idea I would go to the extent I did with virtually no actual brewing experience other than a couple of attempts with small brew kits years ago. The one thing I did know is that I love beer, love to cook and love to build things so the sickness set in rather quickly consuming all of my free time. I have read thousands of posts on this forum, brew Wiki from beginning to end and every available piece of information I could get my hand on since I started this project. At several point’s it seemed I analyzed till I was paralyzed and almost threw in the towel. I am a huge Moosehead fan and have had it on tap in my garage for many years. It became harder for me to find a reliable source to provide fresh Moosehead kegs and as each dried up I kept the last keg and moved on. Over time I had acquired 3 Euro kegs and this is when I decided to research if they could be used for something useful and how I stumbled into brewing. So officially in October of 2010 I decided I was going to build a 3 vessel, HERMS, single tier, all grain, brew system and the project began.

I originally was looking at a Brutis 10 style stand but since it had all ready been done so many times I decided I wanted something different with work space attached. So I focused on the vessels’ first and would worry about the stand as I went along. Based on information gathered here I also decided some of the minimum vessel requirements for the system I intended to build. I wanted to go completely stainless, tig welded couplers, stainless heat exchanger, camLoks, silicone tubing and min ½” plumbing. Well this is how it went….

I Phone 055.jpg


I Phone 056.jpg


I Phone 153.jpg


I Phone 113.jpg


I Phone 110.jpg
 
Got the kegs cut open with, fitting tig welded and I made the false bottoms with 14 gage stainless steel, hinged with perforated 1/8" holes on 1/8" centers. I also cut stainless steel mesh various sizes for use in mash lauter tun and boil kettle according to filtering needs. Dip tubes notched and satin finish on kegs.

I Phone 153.jpg


I Phone 216.jpg


I Phone 238.jpg


I Phone 241.jpg


DSCN7226.JPG
 
HLT/Heat exchanger completed 1/2" stainless steel 45' coil bent and installed. Remaining hardware and lids welded and completed.

I Phone 247.jpg


I Phone 248.jpg


DSCN7218.JPG


DSCN7223.JPG


DSCN7184.JPG
 
Welded couplers on keg lids and used CamLocks, bottle filler tip, short piece of silicone tubing and SS tubing to make a removable multipurpose device. I use this device during recirculation of the wort during mash, and for sparging. During recirculation I put the tip beneath the liquid surface above the grain bed and the liquid is dispersed out in all directions not allowing and O2 to get in. During sparge I Push the SS tubing through the silicone tubing into the top. This gives me a nice symmetrical sparge pattern that does not disturb the grain bed. Works great and easy to remove. (Need a SS bottle filler tip)

DSCN7220.JPG


DSCN7169.JPG


DSCN7170.JPG


DSCN7171.JPG


DSCN7225.JPG
 
While I was assembling the vessel’s I was acquiring other useful parts of the brew system. I spent allot of time on e-bay, at auctions and Craigslist but my patients paid off. First I scored a new Rinnai propane direct vent commercial grade instant hot water heater with two digital controllers for $300.00. WOW Controllers alone are worth that. I was stoked as this shaves over an hour off my brew day and will provide mash and sparge water on demand. This will be even more useful in the future when I am doing double batches. I temp mounted the heater to some lumber I had laying around. I will mount it permanently in garage for domestic hot water and a panel at the brew station in the near future. I also added a whole house filter food safe RV hoses. For now it is portable and works awesome and because it’s a commercial model it goes to 185 degrees!

I Phone 052.jpg


IMG_4747.jpg
 
I also found a True SS two door refrigerator at auction for $125.00 and all it needed was to be cleaned and a $29.00 compressor fan. I initially planned on using this for my primary fermentor but eventually got demoted to secondary. I decided to brew some lagers and found a larger primary. This one holds 3ea. 6.5 gallon fermentors with space to spare and will maintain 40 degrees all summer long. Connected to BCS and relay control compressor.

I Phone 073.jpg


IMG_4748.jpg
 
Up until this point I still do not have a stand and starting to get frustrated…I was hitting kitchen auctions looking for ideas and stumbled onto a chefs table that looked promising. It would require some serious rearranging in my garage and was a few hundred miles away so I was not able to inspect prior to auction. It was an internet auction with a company I had done business with before so I felt comfortable that it was legit and picture represented the item. I was even able to get some measurements from the auction company. This thing was huge 16’ X 36” and 8’ to top of bakers rack. Not knowing if the refrigerator worked that was incorporated into the table and having no idea how I was going to get it out of there I put $575.00 bid on it and did not even watch it end. I figured if I win it for that amount it was meant to be and I would make it happen. Well I won it and got it home with some help from my friends. Cleaned it up and placed it in the garage after a weekend of making room. Now the ideas started flowing and it was time to order materials. I finally had the missing link to the entire project and fueled my determination to finish this build. This picture is the picture the auction company had posted and the one I purchased it from.

I Phone 164.jpg
 
Well as you can see from the pictures there is a steam sink, wash sink and large two door refrigerator with overhead shelves and bakers rack. My plan was use the steam sink area for my burners. Convert wash sink to secondary mash lauter tun and remove shelf behind bakers rack. I was starting to see that to make this happen there would be a lot of welding and I could not afford to be at someone else’s mercy. It was then I decided it was worth investing in a welding machine so I purchased a new Miller 211 mig with all the goodies “also inspired from HBT”. Now I not only was going head first into a all grain brewing and building a large brew system blind but also into welding stainless……Oh Boy…I was so excited I could hardly sleep. First welding project was the false bottoms and then the perforated rack around the burners. I learned allot as I went along and slowly made progress many grinding discs later. I used BG-14 low pressure propane burners and Honeywell Smart Valves with intermittent hot surface ignition and pilot. I chose this set up as the Smart Valve has the ignition module integrated onto it and controls the entire firing sequence simply by applying 24VAC. This simplified the automation and was less cluttered than a separate ignition module. The next thing was a rack that supports the kegs made from 1” SS tubing 1/8” thick. I used ¼” SS rod to make pegs that stand up inside the keg rim to keep it centered on the burners and avoid accidentally knocking the kegs off the rack. There are also pegs going into perforated rack around the burners holding everything in place. One of my goals was to fasten all modifications for easy break down and without cutting or welding anything permanently to the table. Here are some picture before.

I Phone 200.jpg


I Phone 202.jpg


I Phone 203.jpg


I Phone 208.jpg
 
Used off the shelf (no pun intended) shelf braces to mount burners to existing elevated rack in steam sink. Used the perforated SS 1/8” hole on 1/8” centers to make an surround to keep stuff from falling down around the burners and also to let air in for proper combustion. Backed it with a welded SS frame made from 1” X 1 ½” angle and 1” round pipe. This also was designed to hold the entire weight of the filled kegs because it backs the rack that the kegs sit on.

I Phone 280.jpg


I Phone 281.jpg


I Phone 286.jpg


I Phone 336.jpg


I Phone 338.jpg
 
Next I constructed a support rack out of 1"X1"X1/8” Square SS tubing that serves three functions. First it displaces weight to strategic support points to support the full vessel’s across both sinks, second it raised the vessel’s to the perfect height for complete combustion and maximum heat transfer to kegs and third it has ¼” rod welded up and down holding the vessel’s in place behind the lower rim and holds the entire rack in place with rod going down into Burner surround. The entire rack has SS handles and can be lifted up and removed without any disassembly for breakdown and cleaning. For the sink false bottom I made another frame out of 1” X 1 ½” SS angle and welded the same 1/8” perforated metal I used for my other false bottoms. The sink is approx 16 gallon capacity above the false bottom and has about 3 gallon capacities below. This is for future use when I plan to do double batches. I will use the sink drain and faucet for In/Out adapting to ½” Cam locks and relocating to front of brew station.

IMG_4752.jpg


IMG_4750.jpg


IMG_4749.jpg
 
Now that I have the vessels sitting over the burners it’s time to start getting things fired up. To do this I need to start my automation panel build and settle on my controls. At first my plan was to just have manual switches mounted on the front of the brew station to control pumps and burners through 3 PID’s. I am not interested in a push a button and your done system just wanted semi-automation to heat and cool to desired temps and control pumps. As I looked deeper into the BCS and Brewtroller I realized I wanted more. PID’s are nice and simple but the ones that can communicate between each other are expensive and complicated to program. On top of that if you add them up they can exceed the cost of a BCS and the BCS has much more to offer with a nice interface. The Brewtroller is nice if you are looking for full automation but I wanted more of a plug and play solution with computer interface. So I ended up with a BCS-462. I had an outdoor plastic control panel left over from a gate repair I did years ago and decided to strip it out and use it to house my controls. Without a doubt sourcing all of the small electrical components was the most time consuming part of the project. You have to think out every piece and how it is going to fit. Then you have to find a source that can supply the pieces at a reasonable price. Originally I wanted my control panel to be mounted above the brew station so it could be seen and mount switches into the cover. That would have been a simple solution but I didn’t like the idea of having this control panel across a 36 inch table and would have too many cables exposed. I also had a hole in the face of the table from the heat controller for the steam sink (Where the burners are). So ultimately I decided to mount the panel under the table and extend the manual controls to a custom panel that would cover the hole left by the steamer control. Here are some shots of the automation build.

I Phone 189.jpg


I Phone 292.jpg


IMG_4767.jpg


IMG_4756.jpg
 
I also modified the temp probes purchased from Brewers Hardware and Embedded Control Concepts and covered them with fiberglass mesh and heat shrink. I highly recommend calibration of ALL probes to ensure accuracy across the entire temperature range. I found through testing that the coefficients needed to be adjusted for all probes connecting to the BCS. Almost cost me my first batch but I was trusting and testing with a known accurate thermo and had to change temp settings on the fly in the BCS while mashing and sparge. Another reason I like the BCS. March 809 with SS Chugger heads mounted and wired check. Placed pop up outlet strip over pre existing hole for wiring to pass through to top of table. More Pictures.

IMG_4758.jpg


IMG_4779.jpg


IMG_4780.jpg


IMG_4787.jpg


IMG_4788.jpg
 
That is a nice clean looking build there dude! Thats what I call an investment!
 
Well here’s the curve ball. The refrigerator (Primary) built into the table was a no go. The refrigeration unit is a sled type mounted to the right side of the box. Inside the box is the coil and two circulation fans. Well plugged it in and no fans, no compressor and no cooling fan on compressor. Called my boy Matt (HVAC Guru) and it was bad. New Compressor, New Compressor Fan, New Circulation Fans, Pump, Recharge and Test. About 24 Mooseheads and $350.00 in parts the primary was breathing life. This was not part of the budget and slowed things for a while. The refrigerator will hold 5ea 6.5 gallon fermenting buckets. Time to wire to BCS. I wired a box in there with 4 temp probe connections (XLR) then wired to BCS. Ran output from BCS to SSR in an outlet box and plugged compressor into outlet. This way the circulation fans run constant and I am only controlling the compressor as needed. Worked out the thermostat built into the refrigerator did the same thing and the compressor all ready has a plug wired to it. This gives me a back up to use the refrigerators thermostat simply by switching the outlet the compressor is plugged into in an emergency.

Here are a few pictures of the primary. Got three lager batches in there chilling. One week apart in schedule getting the pipeline flowing. Got a batch going into secondary today and brewing again tomorrow morning. The temp probe controlling the compressor is sitting in a glass of distilled water. The last picture is my ice machine and some new corneys I scored off Craigslist. Ice machine kicks out 350 lbs of ice in 24hrs. I’ve had this for a while as I am avid camper and fisherman. The ice machine has paid for itself several times and has helped out with cooling the wort.

DSCN7157.JPG


DSCN7158.JPG


DSCN7160.JPG


IMG_4761.jpg


I Phone 069.jpg
 
So basically I ended up with a self contained, semi automated, BCS-462 controlled, 16 foot by 3 foot by 8 foot, single tier, HERMS, gas fired HLT/heat exchanger & Boil Kettle, brew station with primary fermenter, bakers rack, secondary mash lauter tun and work surface. Here are some pictures of the MaxOut Brew Station as it sits today. (Sorry about the fuzzy photos)
As of now I have two 6 gallon lagers in primary and one in secondary. I have learned allot leading up to my first brew day and much more through the coarse of the three brews sessions since. Each brew looks better and easier as I fine tune the equipment and processes. Can’t wait to taste the final product. The sample I pulled to read FG tasted SWEET!!! (Moosehead Clone) Hope it makes it to the serving keg!

IMG_4753.jpg


IMG_4760.jpg


IMG_4789.jpg


IMG_4792.jpg


IMG_4793.jpg
 
!Using this Beverage Air serving cooler as a temporary secondary on the first batch. Soon as its ready, hook up gas, adjust temp, transfer to serving keg and liquid line to tap (can’t wait). The small containers go to an instant carbonator I use to make sodas. So I can blast the beer with carbonation and sample. Included are some misc pictures of hardware I’ve acquired including 4 med grade O2 tanks with regulator and SS diffuser, MM3 1.5 Monster Mill set at .039 with 15lb hopper, scales and other stuff. This has now become a hobby and will always be a work in progress. I will be brewing tomorrow and will get some action shots.

IMG_4802.jpg


IMG_4777.jpg


IMG_4775.jpg


IMG_4776.jpg


IMG_4770.jpg
 
This looks like a SERIOUS setup, man. I like the color-coded rings on the hoses too.

You're in Hugesville? I grew up in Waldorf.

May need to come by and crash a brew-day the next time I visit my folks. ;)
 
This looks like a SERIOUS setup, man. I like the color-coded rings on the hoses too.

I made color picture flow charts and my son is the official "Hose Changer" during brew days. He just flips throug the pages and looks at the colors. Part of the reason I do not desire a hard piped fully automated system. I like getting involved.


You're in Hugesville? I grew up in Waldorf.

Yup, lived in So.Md. for 32 years. Originally from the Great Lakes are of NY.

May need to come by and crash a brew-day the next time I visit my folks. ;)

Sonds great. Im sure I could learn allot from a more seasoned brewer. I going off text and nothing like hands on. Give me a shout when your in the area.

Thanks.
 
DUDE!, thats a for real Man cave / brewery!

Thanks! I live near a main freeway many of my friends travel on frequently. They allways try to tell SWIMBO a beer keg rolled into the highway and diverted them to my house :) They call it "Garagemahall". Many of good times with close friends. I am in the garage more than I am in the house:) Lets just say my friends wives are not to fond of "Garagemahall" at times.:D
 
Back
Top