Trying to decide what type brew stand to build (help!)

I'm trying to figure out what type of brew stand I should build... 1 tier or 3 tier.

Here is how I brew currently:

I heat my strike and sparge water in a 9 gallon pot that has a valve.

Once it gets to temp I pick it up and set it on top of a short coke machine in my garage and gravity drain the strike water into a rectangular cooler/mash tun. I batch sparge. The cooler is sitting on top of a chest freezer next to the coke machine.

When the mash is finished I drain/sparge into an 11 gallon pot (with valve) that is sitting on the floor.

Then I pick that pot up and sit it on a turkey fryer burner and proceed with my boil.

I use an immersion chiller and a march pump (for whirl-pooling) to cool the wort.

I then drain from the boil kettle into a fermenter that sits on the floor. The burner stand isn't quite high enough to gravity drain completely, so I either have to pick the pot up to help the last bit drain or use my pump (which worked pretty well last time).

So, I like the process I use (mostly gravity), I just don't like all the picking up and moving of pots.

I was thinking of building a 3 or 4 tier stand, with the strike water pot and burner on the left, then a place for the cooler to the right of that, then the boil kettle and burner, then a place for the fermenter a few inches from the floor or on the floor.

The problem I see with that setup is that I will pretty much have to be on a ladder dealing with the strike water pot. Not a huge deal since I basically just fill it up and drain it, but it might be annoying. Each tier has to be about 20 inches below the previous tier in order for gravity draining to work, so that setup would be pretty tall.

The other option I can think of is a 1 tier setup, but I'm not crazy about pumping everything around (though I could be talked into it). Seems like most people use two pumps on a 1 tier system, so that's another pump to have to clean and take care of. Also, I don't understand how draining and sparging work with a pump since you don't want to do that at a high flow rate. Do people just throttle the heck out of the pumps for that? Also, why are two pumps usually used?

Anyway, any input would be appreciated. Especially a good description of the brewing process on a 1 tier system and the pros/cons of each. Pics are also great!

If you go 1 tier and stick with one pump, you will be restricted to batch sparging unless you manually ladle sparge water on top of the grain while you pump the wort out of the mash.

I think the most utility per cost (value) is to have at least one pump. Given that, the most flexible setup would be a two tier so that you can batch or fly sparge. Also given the pump, you can lower the whole thing even such that the BK cannot gravity drain to a carboy. You don't need gravity at that point because you can use the pump.

HLT MASH
-----------BK

Seems like most people use two pumps on a 1 tier system, so that's another pump to have to clean and take care of.

Click to expand...

I single tier with 2 pumps. One pump never sees anything but hot water so cleaning it is not an issue.

I was in the same boat as you are right now. I pretty much did the same thing as you but didn't have a pump at the time. I used two coolers HLT/MT and a nice polarware pot for BK without drain.
I think I looked at just about every stand on HBT over what took a very long time. I started out wanting a 3 tier system cuz I saw a few being used at a local brew day that I really liked.
I started thinking about what I wanted in the future and I knew lifting 5 or 10 gallons of hot stuff wasn't what I wanted and climbing a ladder to stir or fill wasn't what I wanted in the long run... aka as I get older... It took me a long time to decide and now that I have it built and operational and have pretty much all the items I want (yeah right) I am very happy with my choice.
So, what I'm getting at is that it's your choice what to end up with, just think about the pro's and con's for you for each stand and what you want in the future. Once you have an idea what you want in the future, work toward that. You can always add items when they become availible to you, you already have one pump, you can make anything work between now and when you reach your fully finished stand.
Good luck.

disney7 said:

The other option I can think of is a 1 tier setup, but I'm not crazy about pumping everything around (though I could be talked into it). Seems like most people use two pumps on a 1 tier system, so that's another pump to have to clean and take care of. Also, I don't understand how draining and sparging work with a pump since you don't want to do that at a high flow rate. Do people just throttle the heck out of the pumps for that? Also, why are two pumps usually used?

Click to expand...

I use one pump to recirculate my HLT to keep temp at set point, also same pump to move water to MT or BK.
2nd pump to recirculate MT to keep temp at set point and to batch sparge to BK.
I could also fly sparge from HLT to MT with pump 1 and from MT to BK with pump 2.

So really I have one pump for water and one pump for "beer".

and yes, throttling back the output of the pump to restrict the flow rate is how you adjust to the flow rate you want.

I really like my two tier stand with one pump and you already have all the expensive parts.

I like the looks of that!

Do you have any trouble with heat from the burner getting to the mash tun cooler while you are heating sparge/batch water?

I was thinking of building a Brutus 10 stand, not installing the center burner, and putting my mash tun there (Coleman cooler)... but I was wondering how I would keep it from melting while I heated the sparge water.

Looks like I could use your approach and add an extension to the Brutus design.

I was planning on using a 3 tier with an electric PID controlled HLT and a pump for fresh water to the HLT, a rectangular cooler for the mash tun since they are shorter, then my 30 qt boil pot. For me height isn't the issue the footprint of the brewstand is, i am going to build it around a central column made of unistrut or superstrut (same thing).

but I was wondering how I would keep it from melting while I heated the sparge water.

Click to expand...

I fabbed a simple aluminum heat shield for mine and it works great. I can have both burners running wide open and the cooler doesn't even get warm.

I built a 3-tier, even though I have a pump. I use gravity to go to the MLT and to the BK, and I use my pump to go into the carboys.

If my pump ever breaks down on a brew day, it won't be that big of a deal.

disney7 said:

I like the looks of that!

Do you have any trouble with heat from the burner getting to the mash tun cooler while you are heating sparge/batch water?

I was thinking of building a Brutus 10 stand, not installing the center burner, and putting my mash tun there (Coleman cooler)... but I was wondering how I would keep it from melting while I heated the sparge water.

Looks like I could use your approach and add an extension to the Brutus design.

Click to expand...

I haven't melted anything yet but a heat shield would be a good idea. I have only brewed Three batches since building.

I built a three tier and it is only 72 inches tall total. I added a sight glass to the top HT and gravity fill my cooler MLT on the second tier and gravity drain my MLT into my BK on the bottom under the HT. I have a march pump and installed QD fittings on everything so I just swap my hoses to change direction or swirl. I have a seperate line for RO water to the top of the HT and a tap before the RO filters for my immersion chiller with a valve to control the flow. Absolutely no lifting and a tippy to dump out the spent grain and rinse it out. Since I am in a wheelchair I can't stand to lift the kettles so I did it that way......
Wheelchair Bob

Well, here is what I built. I brewed on it this weekend and it went pretty well. I still need to build a gas manifold and mount the pump and a few other things. Found out the hard way that it is a little difficult to open the valve on a march pump that's lying in the floor while holding a hose in a pot with the other hand!




Btw, does anyone have any good ideas on hangers for hoses? Seems like I'm always trying to keep water and pump hoses from flopping out of kettles.

I ran into the similar issue with hoses flopping, I drilled and added bulkhead fittings, a bent tube and a cam lock fitting. It was probaby way over board in the $$$ department, but eventually I will automate all of it so it is really just an investment in the future...
Wheelchair Bob

I did the same as Bob on my kettles but keep a couple of spring clamps handy for pumping water into my mash tun.

Stand looks great!!!

+1
Bulkhead fittings and camlocks or your choice of QD's. Trim your hoses to length and you will ease your pain a little.
All my hoses are a little long but I wanted to be able to use any hose for any hook up, just grab and go so to speak.
I am to the point I will be cutting them to length cuz I am always moving them around. I have camlocks on each end so no worry about them disconnecting or slipping out of the keggles. I just think it would look better and be out of my way more if all the hoses were cut to length.
I was trying to hold off until I got new hoses but it's one thing that bugs me on brew day.