Show us your sculpture or brew rig

here it is for now, Rims tool box below, two chugger pumps and SS table tops with galv shelves below price FREE 99.

will one day be an all Electric Rig with 240V control panel.

-=Jason=-

Those kegs are beauty, how long does it take to polish one like that?

Hours. And best not done indoors...

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/polishing-your-keg-more-than-clever-euphemism-54025/

Cheers!

First brew on the new stand and new pump this Sunday.

Here's the new rendering (it's missing the casters for some reason).

The long vertical bar is for mounting a Pot Filling Faucet on. This faucet will fill the HLT and MT with water.

Each of the burners will have a stainless steel cover with an 11 inch diameter hole cut into it. This will prevent the heat from the burners from washing up the keggle. These covers are removable to wash and access the top of the burner.

The chugger pumps will have splash guards on them to prevent any liquids from dripping on the pumps. The pumps can be moved forward or backward to accommodate a horizontal or vertical pump head installation.

The control box will be mounted on the left side. This will control the HLT temperature for the HERMS and also turn on/off pumps and accessories.

So here's the best things. All the stainless steel will be purchased at cost from my buddy's company. We will pay one of his builders to laser cut all the parts and press all the angles (he takes cash and beer as payment). I'll be posting images of the build progress as it's made.

Here's the Hot Liquor Tank with HERMS installed. I also installed a weldless fitting 2000 watt heating element that's connected to a Johnson A419 temperature controller.

jcaudill said:

Can't remember if I posted this up here or not! So just in case:

30 gallon direct-fired RIMS with Brewtroller. All kettles interconnected via hard pipe and 3 way valves control the direction of flow. All soft tubing is 3/4" ID chlorobutyl brewery hose. Ceramic coated 1" steel tube stand, combination high and low pressure propane, 30-plate chiller, inline aeration. Last mod will be hard plumbing the water into the end of the main rail instead of direct to the HLT. This also gives me a CIP entry/exit point.

Click to expand...

I'm in the process of designing my brew stand, which is similar to yours. My mechanical engineer friend and I could benefit by seeing some more images of your brew stand. Did you design/build it yourself?

Mike

EmDubeu said:

I'm in the process of designing my brew stand, which is similar to yours. My mechanical engineer friend and I could benefit by seeing some more images of your brew stand. Did you design/build it yourself?

Mike

Click to expand...

Yep sure did - contact me via PM and I'll help however I can.

EmDubeu said:

Here's the new rendering (it's missing the casters for some reason).

The long vertical bar is for mounting a Pot Filling Faucet on. This faucet will fill the HLT and MT with water.

Each of the burners will have a stainless steel cover with an 11 inch diameter hole cut into it. This will prevent the heat from the burners from washing up the keggle. These covers are removable to wash and access the top of the burner.

The chugger pumps will have splash guards on them to prevent any liquids from dripping on the pumps. The pumps can be moved forward or backward to accommodate a horizontal or vertical pump head installation.

The control box will be mounted on the left side. This will control the HLT temperature for the HERMS and also turn on/off pumps and accessories.

So here's the best things. All the stainless steel will be purchased at cost from my buddy's company. We will pay one of his builders to laser cut all the parts and press all the angles (he takes cash and beer as payment). I'll be posting images of the build progress as it's made.

Click to expand...

Two quick comments for you:

1) You may want to consider making the burner height adjustable. I designed this into my stand and have taken advantage of it several times. You just don't know for sure where those burners need to be and it gives you no flexibility if you need to make a change later that involves where the kettles will be.

2) I'd recommend elevating the kettles off your stand somehow. You don't want to trap that heat and it'll stop the stand from getting super-heated. Those burners need room to breath.

Good luck!

2)

jcaudill said:

Two quick comments for you:

1) You may want to consider making the burner height adjustable. I designed this into my stand and have taken advantage of it several times. You just don't know for sure where those burners need to be and it gives you no flexibility if you need to make a change later that involves where the kettles will be.

2) I'd recommend elevating the kettles off your stand somehow. You don't want to trap that heat and it'll stop the stand from getting super-heated. Those burners need room to breath.

Good luck!

2)

Click to expand...

I like your idea about the adjustable burners. I'll engineer some slots for the burner to adjust up or down. My original measurements of the distance between the burner and the kettle was based upon my blichmann burner. The burner is at 2 3/4 inches away from the kettle.

I'm torn about elevating the kettles off the stand, per your suggestion. I'm really trying to keep the heat from the burner washing up on all my valves and element cable. With my burner covers that I've designed, the heat will dissipate around and outside the brewstand. I understand this may heat up the stand...

EmDubeu said:

I'm torn about elevating the kettles off the stand, per your suggestion. I'm really trying to keep the heat from the burner washing up on all my valves and element cable. With my burner covers that I've designed, the heat will dissipate around and outside the brewstand. I understand this may heat up the stand...

Click to expand...

I was concerned about the effects of heat wash in my setup as well, and initially tried to build my stand similar to yours with a closed connection to the kettles, but found that the flame wouldn't behave (would wash way outside of the burner) and the kettles wouldn't heat effectively. I ended up elevating the kettles using 3/4" square stainless bar stock and now the burners work as intended. I added a 16ga stainless windscreen to direct the heat up to the kettle, then allow it to wash out the 3/4 gap created by the bar stock. This works well, and the heat flowing up the sides of the kettles is minimal (I could hold my hand in the heat wash without issue).

Nice thing about your design is that you can add some spacers to elevate your kettles pretty easily, so no stress there. I would encourage you to consider incorporating a windscreen into your design, though, to focus all that heat right where you want it.

wilconrad said:

I was concerned about the effects of heat wash in my setup as well, and initially tried to build my stand similar to yours with a closed connection to the kettles, but found that the flame wouldn't behave (would wash way outside of the burner) and the kettles wouldn't heat effectively. I ended up elevating the kettles using 3/4" square stainless bar stock and now the burners work as intended. I added a 16ga stainless windscreen to direct the heat up to the kettle, then allow it to wash out the 3/4 gap created by the bar stock. This works well, and the heat flowing up the sides of the kettles is minimal (I could hold my hand in the heat wash without issue).

Nice thing about your design is that you can add some spacers to elevate your kettles pretty easily, so no stress there. I would encourage you to consider incorporating a windscreen into your design, though, to focus all that heat right where you want it.

Click to expand...

Is the purpose of the windshield simply to block any wind, thus directing the heat/flame up? I brew in my garage where there is no wind, so do I really need a windshield?

EmDubeu said:

Is the purpose of the windshield simply to block any wind, thus directing the heat/flame up? I brew in my garage where there is no wind, so do I really need a windshield?

Click to expand...

No, I just call it a windscreen because that seems to be the accepted nomenclature. Wind is rarely actually an issue as I'm a garage brewer as well. The main purpose of this feature on my setup is to direct the heat to the bottom of the kettle and prevent it from washing out around the kettle rather than heat it. There's still enough of a gap for the burner to "breath", but the windscreen ensures more heat ends up where I want it. It has the side benefit of keeping the heat wash from being excessive, which could damage cables, etc.

wilconrad said:

No, I just call it a windscreen because that seems to be the accepted nomenclature. Wind is rarely actually an issue as I'm a garage brewer as well. The main purpose of this feature on my setup is to direct the heat to the bottom of the kettle and prevent it from washing out around the kettle rather than heat it. There's still enough of a gap for the burner to "breath", but the windscreen ensures more heat ends up where I want it. It has the side benefit of keeping the heat wash from being excessive, which could damage cables, etc.

Click to expand...

Thank you for your input,wilconrad and others. I have ran the suggestions through my head and I'm now convinced I should add a "Windshield". I'll add this to my design model as a removable part. That way I have the option to use it or not.

Designing the part to fit the burner and my brackets, as well as laser cutting and rolling it, won't be that difficult either.

I'll post my new design as soon as I've modeled it. Also, my plan is to have this entire brew stand built by the end of January. I'll post the final version once it's done.


Cheers!

Awesome, looking forward to seeing how it turns out! Enjoy the build!

I suggest starting your own build thread, as this thread is for showing off rigs...

Cheers!

day_trippr said:

I suggest starting your own build thread, as this thread is for showing off rigs...

Cheers!

Click to expand...

Got it.

That's awesome, nice work!

My first, non dress rehearsal, brew day after completing the project.
Propane burners sit atop a layer each of felt pad, mdf, large ceramic tile. I took temp readings throughout and was very surprised at how well the tile worked. I don't even need the felt and mdf, except to protect the wood top.
wood top is coated with latex based wood finish (clear gloss). any spills wipe off easily with no effects to the wood.
The control box holds a BCS462. Contrary to what seems to be popular, the empty spot on the bottom is not for a placard, but for a few more switches when I expand to include some automated valves and float sensors.

ssgross said:

My first, non dress rehearsal, brew day after completing the project.
Propane burners sit atop a layer each of felt pad, mdf, large ceramic tile. I took temp readings throughout and was very surprised at how well the tile worked. I don't even need the felt and mdf, except to protect the wood top.
wood top is coated with latex based wood finish (clear gloss). any spills wipe off easily with no effects to the wood.
The control box holds a BCS462. Contrary to what seems to be popular, the empty spot on the bottom is not for a placard, but for a few more switches when I expand to include some automated valves and float sensors.

Click to expand...

Whats the IP rating of those switches? I would be cautious about using my control panel as a beer table... at least put a coaster down
Seriously though nice build!

the pint is just for scale The enclosure, all switches, lights, and connections are water and air tight. The PID displays have a rubber gasket under the cover. I had some rubber orings left over from when I replaced the ones on my pumps that fit perfect!

Next step is to mount the burners and throw on some wheels

In flippy-flops? Brave man!

Yeah, well, I figured that as long as i didn't drop the grinder on my feet I'd be fine

But there is always that moment when the grinder catches on something and jerks... and slices off a toe... haha.
happened to me once almost, was grinding some exhaust pipe on the garage floor, the grinder jumped and cut through about 3" of the top of my shoe... scary as hell...

Man, grinders aren't anything to take lightly. My last job there was a guy grinding with a large grinder. It jumped on him and before he knew it his testicles were gushing blood!

Huaco said:

Man, grinders aren't anything to take lightly. My last job there was a guy grinding with a large grinder. It jumped on him and before he knew it his testicles were gushing blood!

Click to expand...

I just threw up a little in my mouth!

think twice before working in the shop in sandles. My brewstand fell on my big toe when I was in vans..Thought i was going to lose it. Nothing like drilling through the nail.

Huaco said:

It jumped on him and before he knew it his testicles were gushing blood!

Click to expand...

I think I went to school with her............

Stealthcruiser said:

I think I went to school with her............

Click to expand...

Err. Don't you mean "it".
Bwahahaha

You're probably right...but i'm done now anyway. Toes still in tact.

Finally done!

My newer $29.99 brew stand!!!

My BrewTree's maiden voyage!
Needs some modifications, but a successful brew day.

^Classic brew pic man. 100% homebrewer right there. Something that just makes sense about a spartan, gravity rig.

Broke this in today. Very happy with the results. Doing two batches tomorrow back to back. My (michigan) basement is about as unfinished as it gets so I'm including a pic of my more "refined" serving setup

You have any issues with propane in the basement? Or steam up into your floor boards?

oldstyle69 said:

You have any issues with propane in the basement? Or steam up into your floor boards?

Click to expand...

Running of my houses natural gas, and there's a giant vent hood (air/moisture tight) with a hydroponics vortex fan venting gases and moisture. Nobody upstairs could smell the boiling wort.