Turnkey All Grain Brew Stations

Members:
I would like to take a moment and ask for the community to lend some input regarding my new endeavor. I own a machine shop in SoCal and have decided to diversify by offering custom brew stations for the novice and experienced all grain homebrewer. My goal is to construct a turnkey brewing stand with safety, efficiency, ease of use, and affordable pricing. Before I actually draft up prints for this new brewstand I would like to ask for advice and opinions. Basic idea behind what I intend to build is a tiered brew stand with three kettles/LP burners, two pumps and a wort chiller. No sophisticated or automated controls on a base unit. Please take a moment and help a brewer out.

1) Demand -- Who wants a brew stand? (Just a poll, could be any brewstand)
2) Price point -- What are you comfortable spending (shipping not included)?
3) Batch size -- What would/do you typically brew in volume?
4) Materials -- Stainless steel, low carbon steel, or aluminum?
5) Dimensions or Footprint -- Size matters.

Some basic questions and I'm sure, more to come. My description is somewhat general but I intend to construct a functional, affordable, safe and compact system. Since I have the equipment, I can make just about anything. Your comments will be appreciated.

1) I think there's a decent demand for it.
2) As long as the markup isn't outrageous I think people will buy
3) I'd make it fit a 25 gal kettle as that will give plenty of room for keggles and everything in between. I'd bet most people are in the 10 gal range.
4) I'd think aluminum would make the whole stand hot. Stainless would be cool and maybe that's an option, but I think most would gravitate to regular painted steel.
5) Small is better (obviously). I'd maybe make a single tier as well as a 3 or maybe even 2 tier system.

I'll looking at stands soon and was planning on welding my own, but we're crappy garage welders so a well made, reasonably priced stand would be considered

It doesn't seem like anyone has a bolt-together brew stand, which many of us non-welders would appreciate. The only bolt-together brew stands I've seen are built with slotted angle iron and it doesn't look very sturdy.

Anyway, in answer to your questions:

1) Yes, I would like a single-tier metal brew stand for my basement brew room. But I'm looking to go natural gas instead of LP.
2) About $350 - $450.
3) Currently we do 10 gallon batches but we would like to upgrade to 15.
4) Don't really care, as long as it's durable. Aluminum would kinda put me off, but if I could be convinced that it will last a very long time then I would not care.
5) Um...I suppose nothing longer than 7 feet wide? And 2 feet deep? Four feet tall? This is more up to the designer than the customer. As long as it works good.

I think there is room in the market for brew-systems that are affordable, and more manual than say a Brew-Magic. Your average consumer will be using a converted keg, so 15.5gal pots being used for 10 gallon batches.

I like the idea of modularity. This might include various welded sub-frames that get bolted together so that the same parts could be configured differently according to the brewer's needs / preferences. This might make shipping easier, moves using smaller vehicles and perhaps, in some cases more storage options.

One rig I built had the burner built like a drawer unit with an integral windscreen. It could be easily moved and slid into place beneath different vessels into their support frames.

I think there would be a big demand for a sub $500 stand that was modular enough to get shipping down to reasonable amount. Include the gas manifold and burners for that, charge an upgrade for banjo burners but go stock with the BG10's for cost effectiveness. For some reason, CA has more than their share of shops selling brewstands. Shipping to the midwest from there is crazy expensive. if you could solve the shipping puzzle that would be half the battle.

I traded a few emails with the guy from Badass brewstands and those guys were selling a knock-down user assembled brewstand but he said the demand wasn't there, that by the time people were going to cough up the dough they wanted $$$ bling and so forth.

Nobody prices a rig in the $300-$500 space that I am aware of. In fact once you price it out, Blichmann top tier at $850+ is one of the cheaper ways to go because you can order from brew stores and get $7.99 shipping!

LandoLincoln said:

It doesn't seem like anyone has a bolt-together brew stand, which many of us non-welders would appreciate. The only bolt-together brew stands I've seen are built with slotted angle iron and it doesn't look very sturdy.

Click to expand...

For the record, the angle iron builds are sturdy as they can be. You could drive a truck over 'em. But I agree, bolt together, ship flat, make it cheap. Nobody does that. Maybe offer one config gravity, one config horizontal.

That's the appeal of the angle iron (yes I made one....under $200 burners included), you can take them apart and try different things. Adjust shelf and burner height and so forth.

I built mine from a Lowes heady duty rack. It is very sturdy and has no bolts. The burners are the bayou classics with their own stand. I also mad a tippy thing for my MLT.

I am sure there are plenty of people out there that could use one that has a shelf for one of the burners they already own. I like the idea of pin together and ship flat.

Two Pumps and single tier would be my dream. Good luck.

If a center post design was built with carbon steel tube, arms and expanded metal for shelves, and arms with a support star for pots on burners it would be an inexpensive fabrication with paint or powder coating for a finish. With 2 or 3 designs for components the user could mix and stack as needed, or build in steps as budget allows.
The same concept could be applied to a horizontal setup using horizontal U shaped legs and a square tube at the back to hang individual components in users preferred order or spacing.
Having built a vertical tiered design from stainless pipe, the flexibility of configuration, and storage of individual components on a garage wall is handy.

Come on stand manufacturers. Get to it!

I am also in agreement that a bolt together option is something I would love to see.

1) I want one and even here in S FL where beer culture is just starting to show there is demand for such products. Most people are lazy and want easy solutions instead of designing and building there own units when possible.
2) Price also seems to be a significant factor for most people. Keep it as inexpensive as possible without sacrificing quality. If I could get in around $1000-1200 for a turn key set up I would be ecstatic.
3) I personally would love to be in the 15 gal range but see most people brewing 10 gal batches in my experience.
4) Stainless is of course the ideal but carbon steel would be acceptable as a cost saving item. Aluminum is light and that would be great but I agree that the heat would be an issue.
5) For me a balance between footprint size and ease (safety) is needed. I don't like working too much over my head with things that can do damage (like hot liquids).

I always look forward to seeing new ideas for brewing set ups. Not knowing how to weld or having any friends experienced in metal fabrication I am looking at most likely buying a system made by someone else. Can't wait to see what you come up with!

Members and fellow brewers, thank you for the response. I will try to address each possible scenario as quickly as possible and do appreciate each members input. My original goal was to target SoCal area homebrewers due to the cost of shipping large items is typically classified as freight and also is subject to dimensional weight. As a manufacturer, I have had to deal with customers who wanted to savea few buscks for whatever reason and opted to assemble components themselves. The idea of a modular based system can create some problems as I will have no control over the assembly process. This can create a nightmare if forced to prove customer competency when dealing with the likes of gas, fire and hot liquids if an accident were to occur. I have dealt with many issues from customers in the past over similar issues but in a different business. As far as the price point, I will not even attempt to bring the cost so low as $300-$500 per unit as that would require my travelling to China. China is quickly gaining ground on it's ability to produce quality product but I want to keep my money here, even if they own most of it. My plan is to introduce a base model at $1200-$1500 with all the components needed, consumables not included, to begin brewing upon receipt of the unit.

I have given much thought to a modular system and I have concluded that a nestable teired system may be an option. For storage, you would only need the height or it can easily be stored in multiple pieces. Thoughts??

In order to reduce cost of goods, would one pump hooked to a manifold suffice? Gravity feed from HLT is an option as you lauter. This scenario does not require the use of two pumps.

I have spoken to manufacturers of the various components needed and am in the process of setting up accounts with them. I hope that I can get my pricing together relatively soon after June of this year and start on my first article. I would like to say thanks to all and if the price is right, I'll setup shop on hbt and work towards bringing an affordable system to all that are interested.