My new 3-tier brew stand

Hello,

So after looking at as many sculptures as i could throughout the forum I decided I could build my own. My friend donated all the 1/4" angle iron and did the welding for me too. I made a few welds but he did the majority. His neighbor also happened to be a metal artist and had a plasma cutter on hand. He offered to cut my kegs for me and he even wrote my name in the keg handle for me (seen below)

I apologize for the lack of build picks... I was lost in the moment...


There are two burners, but only the bottom burner is stationary. The burner on the second tier can move to the top tier.



Cuts are still rough



The ..almost.. finished product :rockin:


It is not 100% complete, but there is always room for upgrades...

Thank you to everyone for the plethora of pictures and conversations on brew builds! All the info is greatly appreciated

Another az brewer. I dont know why seeing more local brewers excites me. Nice stand I keep thinking I should have gone muti tier to avoid paying for pumps. keep us posted.

moveable burner? awesome! genius idea

-sanch

Az brewers unite! The no pump situation might not last that long after all. I want to eventually get a full RIMS setup going but for now this is perfect. I did get a low temperature pump donated from a friend and I am going to mount it and use it for recirculating (salted) ice water through my IC. Hopefully I can use the pump on wort transfer from primary to secondary or secondary to keg

-twardnow
thank you for the positivity!!! My friend who donated all the steel and did all the welding had the genius idea. I wish I could take credit but I cannot

I moved to Seattle from Tuscon, man if i still lived down in AZ i'd have no excuses to not be outside brewing! Up here i have to gear up in the rain gear to brew a batch in the back yard! ;p

Nice build guy, I have a three tier, but my boil kettle is higher than yours to facilitate dumping into carboys when done. Of course the bottom of the hlt is 5ft in the air so i need a latter.

Also looks like you're going to be doing some grinding to clean up those plasma cuts. Did using the plasma cutter throw any metal that might have gotten stuck on the inside of the keg? I've heard about that being a problem. I generally use my 4" angle grinder to make clean looking cuts, but i'm getting a plasma cutter soon so i'm wondering if i should bother to use it or not.

edit: In that next picture with the keggles on the stand, they look pretty clean, guess you grinded them already.

salmonhouse - I haven't had a problem with the plasma cutter leaving anything behind but we did clean up the cuts on the kettles. I was thinking about making them all nice and shiny but thats another project for another day.

I have a friend help me lift the boil kettle to the mid position to facilitate getting the beer into carboys. Im working on mounting a pump to move the wort to carboys.

good luck with the rain man!

Do you move your burners around? Maybe i could see a better pic of that?

I used 1/4' angle iron on the whole stand. Both the top and the mid section have the angle iron welded to make a groove for the burner. It was part of an old camping stove that had two burners... so i cut it down the middle and my friend welded handles on either side. You can take/replace the burner from either side.



This is what the burner looks like. It just so happened that the old stand fit nicely, almost exactly, to the size i was looking for.

Cool, i think you'll appreciate being able to heat your mash, i know i do.

do you direct fire the mash??? does that lead to scorching? I wanted too the first time I brewed on the stand but I was afraid of the scorching factor

why cut the top hoop off the kegs?

Checkin' in from the NW part of the Valley. Nicely done lad, nicely done.

jlaureanti said:

I have a friend help me lift the boil kettle to the mid position to facilitate getting the beer into carboys. Im working on mounting a pump to move the wort to carboys.

Click to expand...

That's what I was thinking when I looked at the stand - little low to gravity feed in to a fermenter. But you're on the right track - the pump will get you there. As you previouslly mentioned that pump will also circulate the cold water through your IC - that's how I do it, though I don't use salt. I use tap water on my first pass and then depending on the time of year I roll with either 20lbs or 40lbs of ice!

why cut the top hoop off the kegs?

Click to expand...

Because I am short and I don't want to lift things any higher than I have too. The top ring is only like 3-4 inches tall but in total it takes 8 inches off the total height of the brew stand which is definitely awesome for the short guys.

jlaureanti said:

do you direct fire the mash??? does that lead to scorching? I wanted too the first time I brewed on the stand but I was afraid of the scorching factor

Click to expand...

Oh ya, i direct fire it! Protein rest and all of that junk!

I have a false bottom on mine, some use a manifold, so whatever. You just have to remember to constantly stir while you are heating and probably to use enough water. I recommend a wooden paddle, my stainless one scratches the tun, no biggie but i mean...

A direct fired mash + stirring = good efficiency. =]