Single Tier No-Pump Brew Stand

What's your input on this brew stand design? Anything I should add or consider?

My criteria:
1) use previous purchased equipment, hence the burners and kettles.
2) single tier - eye level
3) no pumps (for now)

So how will this work without pumps?

The tables are hydraulic. So when everything is at its lowest point it's 39 inches tall. When I'm ready to gravity transfer from the HLT to the MT or the MT to the BK I raise the individual hydraulic table 18 inches (my pots are all 17 inches tall), so I can gravity feed to the next vessel in line.

I see your thoughts in it. Definitely innovative. Tables from Harbor Freight? My only thoughts are that the tables would be equal or greater than the price of pumps. Obviously you're not spending the money on the steel and welding for the stand. Maybe the cost is worth it. I like it though.

mpride1911 said:

Tables from Harbor Freight? My only thoughts are that the tables would be equal or greater than the price of pumps.

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Tables are from Harbor Freight:
http://www.harborfreight.com/500-lb-capacity-hydraulic-lift-table-94822.html

I'm sure tacking on a $125 pump is inevitable. I like the hydraulic option if I have a pump failure, priming issue or just am not near an electrical outlet.

Interesting that I should stumble upon this thread. I was trying to come up with a similar concept - a gravity-based system with the kettles at eye-level. I prefer the appearance of the single tier vs the triple tier systems. I don't like the idea of having a kettle of scalding water sitting atop a high rig.

I was googling around for scissor jacks that could be adapted for this. All I could find were ones strong enough to lift cars. I've also considered trying to design some kind of vertical trolley lift to which would be attached the square tables for the kettles. I can't find anything. I'd like to adapt the sort of mechanism used by some of the Genie Lift devices such as:

http://www.genie-lift.com/index.cfm?mf=browse.showPart&partClassID=1636&PName=Load Lifter

I guess I don't have the energy to try to design an adaptation of this scaled down to the loads I would use in brewing.

I would be interested in hearing more about your build - including pictures. There's a Harbor Freight store a couple miles from me.

One concern I have about these hydraulic tables: it appears that you pump the foot pedal in order to raise the table - hence the large kettle full of hot water or wort. I'm wondering if the jerking of the upward movement would cause a lot of sloshing around inside the kettle enough to make the kettle unstable.

Please keep us posted.

Thanks,
Keith

I am not sure what the advantages of this design are. A pump or two would probably not cost more than three tables (I don't know the cost of the tables). Also do you batch sparge or fly sparge? I don't know how this design could work if you fly sparge without a pump. It would work if the tables have two different heights.
Those are my thoughts. Mark

LuiInIdaho said:

Also do you batch sparge or fly sparge? I don't know how this design could work if you fly sparge without a pump.

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Excellent point. I batch sparge.

I was looking to do something very similar though I referred to it as a variable tier stand. Did a lot of searching and found a guy that was building a teeter totter style stand. If I remember correctly the MLT was in the center and the HLT and BK would travel up and down as required to permit gravity transfers. Never saw it completed so it may have padded seats on it now. I considered using some lifting mechanisms as well, and though I can fabricate, concluded the designs were all Rube Goldberg’s. I now have a single tier with one pump.

I would not do this as I have used those lifts before and have had them fail. When they fail they come down hard and fast. I would not want to take a hot wort bath.

I am waiting for pumps but built my single tier and temporarily using gravity to move everything around. The drawbacks as of.today are
- having to finish sparging before I can start the boil
- lifting keggles with up to 7.5 gals in it... this isn't a problem as I lift properly and usually have a friend close by if needed.

My stand sits 24.5" with the castors. This is prefect because the kegs are roughly 23.5" tall. The spigots are also a few inches up on the keg so its perfect for this temporary gravity system.

Cool design. It's a neat mix of a single and two tier system.

If it was me, I would put the hlt on a platform so you could have a three tier configuration. It's safe to assume it will always be the highest vessel. That puts it up higher than you're looking for but just a suggestion. If the castors come off the lifts you should probably rotate them or move them around so you can roll it length-ways. Need to fit it through a doorway if possible.

3 x $160 for the lifts could be redistributed as $140 for a pump and $320 leftover for Unistrut and fittings for a weldless brew stand. I'd recommend buying one of those tables to test on a kettle full of water first. At least they have a liberal return policy.

Pumps just have to much utility to avoid by design.

gpitrone said:

I would not do this as I have used those lifts before and have had them fail. When they fail they come down hard and fast. I would not want to take a hot wort bath.

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Excellent feedback, thank you.

aajjrs said:

I was looking to do something very similar though I referred to it as a variable tier stand. Did a lot of searching and found a guy that was building a teeter totter style stand. If I remember correctly the MLT was in the center and the HLT and BK would travel up and down as required to permit gravity transfers.

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Thanks for posting this. It gives me a great idea. I can see how this would work. I do agree with you, though, that, by the time you get finished with the mechanism, one might as well use pumps.

Keith