Chris Knight's brew rig

I've been brewing with my boil keggle so long with these other 2 lonely, so I decided to start on my rig finally...




This will be a KISS single tier with a single pump, all manual control.
In my opinion, a fully automated system would be a blast to build but once finished, it takes the fun out of brewing.
I plan to recirculate the mash, and also recirculate during chilling with the Shirron. I'm also converting to natural gas at this time and have the 5.5" NG 10 tip burners.






The entire gas manifold was TIG welded. The remaining rig is MIG welded...











There is a nut welded inside for the casters...

You could literally park a semi on top of that frame.

Nice.

Looking DAMN good my friend... I like the "blocky" look with all the short pieces. I'm sure that will stand up to the task!

Keeps those pics coming...

Thanks.
Yeah, I could/should have gone with 16th inch but I went with 8th instead. No big deal. I'm not scared... At least I know that it WILL hold.

I think I'm going to powder coat it Chevy orange.

Why kill when you can OVERKILL!

Nice beefy stand you have there. Looking forward to the rest of the build.

B

Looking good. It was your videos that took the mystique out of AG for me.

It's good for when you want to melt down 45 gallons worth of lead to make your own ingot and SCUBA weights.

bad coffee said:

Why kill when you can OVERKILL!

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My thoughts Exactly!

mariojr said:

Looking good. It was your videos that took the mystique out of AG for me.

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Thanks. Glad I could give something back to the brewing community.

Bobby_M said:

It's good for when you want to melt down 45 gallons worth of lead to make your own ingot and SCUBA weights.

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I suppose if one really needed to... I take it you do?!?

More pictures.











Plugged up for the powder coat...



Shining up the aluminum shelf...

Nice! Good to see you're getting back at the brewing in style...last time I heard from you you said you hadn't brewed since being at my place a year and a half ago! I'm anxious to see how it turns out...

Looking like a GREAT build my friend! Keep the pics coming our way!

Really nice build! congrats.

Might I suggest you drill a 1/4in. hole on the underside of each one of the short tubes where the pots are gonna sit?

They look like there welded pretty solid on there,and if you build up condensation inside of them from constant heating and cooling,you could be making some nice steam powered pipe bombs!

mariojr said:

Looking good. It was your videos that took the mystique out of AG for me.

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I second that! I'm still building my keezer and two weeks away from kegging my first batch and have watched your Kegging series three times so far. Very informative and easy to follow. Thanks for the help.

BTW, your rig is looking awesome too!

I'm guessing you're welding it yourself, or you've got a buddy working for free/cheap? That's a LOT of welding for a setup like yours!

Thanks guys...

SOB said:

Nice! Good to see you're getting back at the brewing in style...last time I heard from you you said you hadn't brewed since being at my place a year and a half ago! I'm anxious to see how it turns out...

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That's correct. I have brewed 3 batches since then. One I dumped.

ReeseAllen said:

I'm guessing you're welding it yourself, or you've got a buddy working for free/cheap? That's a LOT of welding for a setup like yours!

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My brother used to weld for Honda.

SOB said:

Nice! Good to see you're getting back at the brewing in style...last time I heard from you you said you hadn't brewed since being at my place a year and a half ago! I'm anxious to see how it turns out...

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Next time we brew, we might have to do it in my back yard... There's no way I'm lugging this thing over..

Its going in to get the powder coat tonight. I have decided on Chevy orange.

Sample:


One thing I did not do is make a shield for the pump. Id want to tap a hole or weld a bracket on before the powder coat...
Any quick suggestions?

love the orange - awesome!

looks great!

You could get some of the thinner diamond plate (aluminum) and bend it over the pump. Just KISS and drill a 1/8-1/4" hole on either side of the pump, consider going through to the other side of the frame. Should be pretty easy to bolt it down with ss bolts/wingnuts/washers.

ScubaSteve said:

You could get some of the thinner diamond plate (aluminum) and bend it over the pump. Just KISS and drill a 1/8-1/4" hole on either side of the pump, consider going through to the other side of the frame. Should be pretty easy to bolt it down with ss bolts/wingnuts/washers.

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I may try to build a custom bracket and hold it off of one of the through bolt holes on the back side of the pump bracket... The hole is already there, so I won't have to drill any more holes.

Just dropped it off at the powder coat shop. I feel like a kid in a toy store....

The sample he showed me has more red in it than the image I linked to before. No worries, I kinda like it better.

I have a buddy in commercial heating & cooling. He practically forbids me hooking it up without a regulator. He's thinking 3-6wc.

Those who use natural gas, are you using regulators to regulate your manifold pressure?
Maybe this one???

That is a sexy looking stand....I look at my stand in progress, and it is way ugly by comparison. I think that once I get all grain brewing down and I work all the kinks out of my system I might try to build one as nice as yours...someday. You may have already posted this, but how much did you spend on your steel for the frame/structure?

chrisknight said:

Just dropped it off at the powder coat shop. I feel like a kid in a toy store....

The sample he showed me has more red in it than the image I linked to before. No worries, I kinda like it better.

I have a buddy in commercial heating & cooling. He practically forbids me hooking it up without a regulator. He's thinking 3-6wc.

Those who use natural gas, are you using regulators to regulate your manifold pressure?
Maybe this one???

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I had a little too much natural gas pressure, once I got my connection problem sorted out. The natural gas valves that I am using, honeywell standing pilot, they have an internal adjustable regulator and I did have to choke down the flame a bit using those because it was just too much pressure for my 23 tip converted down to 13 tip burners. Then, I will have a ball valve after the auto honeywell valve that I will use to tweak the flame down further once boil is achieved, since it it pretty much impossible to control a boil with a simple on/off valve like I have, I will just keep the honeywell valve open and adjust the flame with that ball valve to keep the boil at a rice low roll. A friend of mine did spark my imagination when he suggested running the ball valve with a servo or a stepper motor and controlling it with a pot or something from my control panel....maybe someday.

Thanks for the pictures! Awesome build. :rockin:

chrisknight said:

Just dropped it off at the powder coat shop. I feel like a kid in a toy store....

The sample he showed me has more red in it than the image I linked to before. No worries, I kinda like it better.

I have a buddy in commercial heating & cooling. He practically forbids me hooking it up without a regulator. He's thinking 3-6wc.

Those who use natural gas, are you using regulators to regulate your manifold pressure?
Maybe this one???

Click to expand...

Hey Chris, nice start to a great rig! I can associate with the kid in a candy store analogy. I just brewed my first batch this past weekend on mine this past weekend. I to am using NG on mine. The only difference is that I have the larger 23 tip burners. Weather it be right or wrong, I am not using s regulator and had no problems what so ever. Now granted I live in Wisconsin so my furnace and occasionally the water heater were all running during my brew session. That might have helped with pressure but I have no way of telling for sure. I have two of my burners controlled with asco valves just like Lonnie's and those burners didn't need any regulation with the ball valve that was installed just before the asco valve. The boil kettle though has nothing but a ball valve before the burner and it did have to be regulated with the ball valve because the flame was just to much. Regulating the flame with the ball valve was no problem what so ever though. Just like controling a flame on a stove top. The flame was still nice and blue. Granted when the flame is on during the boil, neither of the other two burners are on therefore the burner has all the gas pressure. Good luck with the build! Its definitely worth it!

I gotta see it in chevy orange... Tell that powder coater to hurry up!

Probably none of my business. Do you mind saying what the powder coating will run?

looks sweet! sorry if i missed this somewhere but what are those couplings welded in with the plugs in them for?

tomroeder said:

That is a sexy looking stand....I look at my stand in progress, and it is way ugly by comparison. I think that once I get all grain brewing down and I work all the kinks out of my system I might try to build one as nice as yours...someday. You may have already posted this, but how much did you spend on your steel for the frame/structure?

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$200.00 bucks

RonRock said:

Probably none of my business. Do you mind saying what the powder coating will run?

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$150.00 bucks

ThePig said:

I gotta see it in chevy orange... Tell that powder coater to hurry up!

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Tell me about it...

That sounds very reasonable. You getting some kind of deal? I'm trying to figure out cost on my stand. That price is great.

android said:

looks sweet! sorry if i missed this somewhere but what are those couplings welded in with the plugs in them for?

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Natural Gas manifold...

1 in. 3 out.

Plugged up for the powder coat.

RonRock said:

That sounds very reasonable. You getting some kind of deal? I'm trying to figure out cost on my stand. That price is great.

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I thought the steel was a bit expensive compared to what they get it for at my brothers work. I got it through a local fabricator. ...But, it was a 1 time (unless I build another (hmmm...???)) expense, and you cant just walk into TSC and buy that much heavy steel. For the project, and a guy like me not buying this stuff everyday, it was an ok deal.

Chris,

First off, thanks for sharing this and your instructional videos! Any plans to show (video) the maiden voyage and maybe overview of the build?

Cheers!

Joe

great rig, can't wait to see it done. congrats.

Can't wait to watch the newest videos (i hope). Your vids got me into all grain brewing. Really made it look possible and gave me confidence.