Wooden Single Tier Spacing

Hey guys, I've lurked here for a while. Long story short: after brewing for almost 10 years, a 'fixer-upper' house, new job, new son, and family illnesses got me out of the hobby for 5 years. Now I'm ready to jump back in, but I'm going to make sure that everything is the way I want it before I make my first batch. I'm getting my kegs welded (no more leaky bulkheads!), etc.

Anyway, I've been reading through the threads here on the wooden brew stands, and I'm designing a stand similar to Scubasteve's. Lots of great information in those threads.

However, I'd like to ask those who are using or have used a stand for one detail:

What's your spacing in between the kettle and wood on the stand? How far away should it be to minimize the possibility of charring the wood? I know that I can put a heat shield on there, and I'm considering some high-temp ceramic fabric, but I've seen some people implying that a 4" gap might be enough to keep the wood cool enough not to char.

I started building my wood stand today and have the kegs spaced six inches apart with 9 inches of space front and back and 12 inches on each side. I'm hoping this enough but I still plan on using aluminum flashing inside the rails to deflect some of the heat.

The inside dimensions of the top are 82"x35". My next step is figuring out how long to make the legs. I want it to be short enough with casters that I can easily look down into each keg.

Wow, that's big CollinsBrew. The stand I'm building is going to live on my deck for at least two years, so I'm hoping to go with something smaller. I'm thinking of testing out a 6" gap between keg and wood - so about 12" from burner to wood. That would result in a 27" deep (front to back) stand.

I'm still in planning stages - visited a small lumber mill yesterday to get some idea of lumber pricing and variety. I'm planning on banging together some 2 bys and putting a thermocouple on the wood to see what temps I get.

While it depends on the size of your casters and length of your legs, I think that around 30" high should get you in the range. You might even want a little shorter.

This is going to be living along the wall of my garage and will be on 5 inch honkin' casters. I would go smaller but I aquired these somehow and have been really wanting to use them. I'll be able to roll my whole rig down the street full of water and wort with my propane tanks on these things.

The size here has to do with the issue some have had with the wood charring. I have two 14" banjos that I'll be running on low pressure and a 6" round burner in the middle for my mashtun also on low pressure. I hope with my spacing I won't have any issues. However, if I get it together and it's too big, I can take some size out of it later. I went with 30 inches in height for the wood structure plus the 5 inch casters. I'll still be able to look down into the kettles with that height since my kettles will be slightly lowered than the rim of the stand...roughtly 2.5 inches.

Yeah, I read about the charring. I was hoping to get an idea of just how close/far the wood was when that happened, but the posts never really said. I suppose I can always get some of the thin firebricks if I need them.

i ran a wood stand for over a year, and it was not nearly that large. I added some sheet metal flashing to the wood that was exposed to flame and charring. It totally eliminated the problem.

I'm building something very similar to ScubaSteve's rig with a few of my own modifications. Like I said, I may end up cutting it down some before I bolt it all together. Also, I'm making a wood version of LonnieMac's Brutus10 system so this stand will pretty much house everything...pumps, CFC or plate chiller, storage space and extra counter space

I did a little experimenting with this, though my rig is probably a little different than the design that you are thinking about.

If you look closely you can see the original charring in the front. That was before I added the SS barrier. Since then, I have had no issues with charring, and as you can see, its a pretty tight fit. Good luck.

That stand looks great BrewBarron!

It looks like you're very close in with the wood. Good to see that stainless flashing will protect the wood. Maybe I can forget about the firebricks. Although I think they'd look kind of cool...

my keg actually sits on the wood, but it's all electric

I built a Wood Structure. Take a Peek at my pics in my album there a few in there if it helps..

Hey InfernoBrews:

I just checked out your pics. The stand looks very solid. Nice job! I see that you used PT 4x4's. I'm having trouble finding dimensional lumber that's 3x3 or 4x4 for my legs. Seems like most lumber jocks just bind two pieces to get that thickness. I'm not sure I want to do that.

Can you do me huge favor and just measure the distance from each side of your burner to the wood? Front to back would be great.

beernardo,
Yes I can get you those. I'm at my HBS working, so when I get home i will get you those..

Here another Pic of it.

From the inside edge of my stand to the center of my burner is 10 1/4" .. and from the Inside edge of my stand to the edge of my burner is about 7-8".

Thanks InfernoBrews! That's great information. I'll be able to make the dimensions I want then - yours is solidly within the range I'm looking at.

No Problem, Any other Question feel free to Ask!