Finally starting my single tier build.

Just over a year ago my wife and I sold our house. We decided to buy a new construction house not far from our old house. With a delivery date estimated around late October early November, we moved in with my mother in-law. This meant most of our stuff went into storage. Rather than put my three tier in storage, I decided to sell my equipment and build a new system. A fellow HBT member bought my stuff, and I haven't been brewing since.

We've now been in the new house a few months, and I'm finally getting around to starting my new system. Over the summer I did buy some of the new equipment. I built a counter flow chiller, and looked through the show us your brew sculpture thread more times than I'd like to admit.

Here's the start. For now I'll be using one pump, and batch sparging. Direct fired MLT.

Steel all cut up.



Top started

Nice! I really like where you're headed with the stand. Are you planning on welding caps on the open end of the tubing? Looks a lot like what I've been designing in Sketchup, but I planned on doing 45 degree cuts on the end of the main frame to avoid open tubing at the ends. How big is the tubing that you're using?

OP, looks good. I loved building my stand, it was such a fun project. Are you going to put casters on the bottom for mobility?

Mcbobs, I cut the ends of my tubes at 45 to avoid those open ends. It was just easier to weld those angled connections than trying to piece a cap on.

Thanks guys. Yes I'm going to cap the open ends. My chop saw isn't that great and I felt trying to do mitered corners and actually get the frame square was going to be a pain in the butt. As far as casters, I picked those up on the way home from work today, and then spent the last couple of hours grinding the welds smooth. We're supposed to get snow tomorrow, so the wife's car is coming in the garage, but I'm still hoping to get some work done on the stand. Next step will be the legs, and casters to get this thing rolling. Should have more pics then.

Quick update. I added the legs. Still need to cap the ends of the top and get the wheels on.

Mcbobs, I forgot the tubing size for you in my last post, anyway it's 1.5" square, 11ga thick.

What is the overall height of the stand? It really looks like you and I have similar taste in how a single tier should go together. The only difference I'm thinking about making is the angled corners. What burners do you have planned for it?

It's 22.5" tall without the wheels on it, once they go on, it will be just about 30".

Mounted the burners, and ran out of welding gas, so I cut and drilled the plates to mount the wheels. Hopefully I can stop and get more gas one day before work.

Are you not going to use windshields?

Yes, I'll be working on making wind screens. I have some sheet metal, but I wanted the burners mounted on something a bit sturdier. I should've mentioned that. Right now I guess I'm more in the mock up phase, then I'll take it apart, paint it, and then put it back together. My goal is to be brewing on it by the first day of spring. I have my kettles almost ready, just need to calibrate the sight glasses and put the markings on them. I also have to finish up my counter flow chiller I started building back in the fall.

What is the point of the three burner system? Are you not doing an HLT or why have a heat source under the mash tun?

The third burner is for direct firing the mash tun, for step mashing, or help hold mash temps during recirculation.

When you step mash you don't adjust the temp. in the HLT? You keep the HLT at a constant, then slightly adjust the MT temp. with a smaller flame?

Invader1 said:

What is the point of the three burner system? Are you not doing an HLT or why have a heat source under the mash tun?

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You do realize that MANY people have 3 burner systems?


BTW, Jafo28, nice looking rig!

JonW said:

You do realize that MANY people have 3 burner systems?


BTW, Jafo28, nice looking rig!

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It's not a question as to criticize. Still doing BIAB and looking to go all-grain, didn't know people were also heating the mash tun since a lot use coolers. So was curious what the exact reason is for.

Invader1 said:

It's not a question as to criticize. Still doing BIAB and looking to go all-grain, didn't know people were also heating the mash tun since a lot use coolers. So was curious what the exact reason is for.

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It's a great way to brew two batches back to back. As long as you have a pot for a MLT, once you collect into the BK and get that going, you can refire the MLT and get it up to strike temp quickly to dough in on beer #2.

And yes, to step mash, you would be firing directly on the MLT. I constantly recirc with a pump (so direct fire RIMS), and give just a tiny flame to increase the mash temp.

Quick update. I was only able to work on the stand today, and tomorrow's out due to family stuff.

I managed to get it rolling, put on a plate to mount my pump, gas manifold temporarily put on, and two wind screens done.

Finally got a chance to work on the stand today. I finished the last wind screen, and did some grinding on a few ugly welds. I am basically done other than paint, which will have to wait for a little warmer weather. I mounted the pump, and the gas manifold too. I think I might just give it a trial run before painting it, mainly cause I haven't brewed in over a year now, and I really have the itch.

Here it is for now.

Your pump will perform better if the outflow is above the inlet, eg. mounted vertically. I put an additional vertical support right in the middle of the frame to mount the pump. Other than that, very clean and nice looking build. Way to go! Once you get it dialed in, you will love brewing on it.

Thanks ColoHox. Do you think the pump mounting is going to make a huge difference? Looking through tons of stand pics I've seen many mounted the same way I have mine mounted. I wonder if people have ran tests, or had issues with a particular mounting configuration? I guess if I have issues, I'll be reconfiguring.

Ya just try it out. Vertical mount was my plan going in, so it's not that I had to roll out the welder again. No tests necessary really, bubbles flow up, and air gets in the line often, especially when recirculating boiling wort. Your mount may work well enough that it's not worth welding an extra piece in. Are you going to put spacers between your stand and your pots?

ColoHox said:

Your mount may work well enough that it's not worth welding an extra piece in.

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FYI - The head comes off the pump with 4 screws and can rotate 90 degrees. No need to move the pump motor.

ColoHox said:

Ya just try it out. Vertical mount was my plan going in, so it's not that I had to roll out the welder again. No tests necessary really, bubbles flow up, and air gets in the line often, especially when recirculating boiling wort. Your mount may work well enough that it's not worth welding an extra piece in. Are you going to put spacers between your stand and your pots?

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Hadn't really planned on putting spacers in. You can't tell from the pics, but there are some gaps around the pot in a couple of spots. I'm gonna try it out, and if I need to I can always tweek it.

Ok, I finally got the stand painted and rolled out to the brew shed.

View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1433759576.231366.jpg

Looking really good.

did you put your pump on a flat plate to offset it out (forward)? why not just move it back to the plate you welded on to keep it "inside" the stand to protect it more. Just thinking when moving the stand around type of thing and I guess when you are moving around the stand you might be hitting that pump with your legs.

You might also need to raise your pots up on spacers to get some air flow, the burners might not burn correctly but that's something you can play with once you get it fired up.

I agree about the head of the pump, no need to re-weld a support, just remove the pump head and turn 90-Degrees if you have problems priming it.

Nice work.

I originally had it mounted further back, but was having clearance issues with the gas manifold. I kinda just wanted to get it done so I mounted it further forward, so far I haven't had issues with priming the pump and the burners seem to have enough airflow to give a nice clean flame. I'm sure there will be some things that will need tweaking, but so far it's pretty good. I did run an extract batch on it prior to painting, and had zero issues.

Thanks

jafo28, do you have a video posted anywhere of this brew stand in action? I'd be curious to see. This looks very similar to the stand I'm looking at purchasing. I've been looking at a few videos on how people use it. Lots of different flavors! Finally pulling the trigger on going to a brew stand setup next week. It's a large expense, so I just want to be sure I have all the bases covered.

I'm looking at buying the manual one from www.patriotbrewsystems.com (shown below), since it's now on sale for the next couple of weeks. It comes with all the gas lines, burners, pumps, switches, etc and ready to brew. This is a good deal for someone like myself not as handy as a lot of folks on HBT. I already have 1 x 15gal SS Spike brewing kettle for my BK, and going to buy 2 more to complete the setup. The MT will have a recirculating port at the top (as shown below) and false bottom. I'm looking at doing a recirculating mash.

Here's a video of what I was looking at graduating to. Thoughts?

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufHvq07xxhg[/ame]

I don't have any videos, but the process would be similar. My stand only uses one pump, so I don't fly sparge like in the video. I batch sparge instead. As for the stand in the video, it looks pretty good. I never priced out pre-built stands, so I can't say if the price is good or not.

Thanks for helping me compare jafo28.

Anything new going on with your brewstand? Everything really looks top notch!

Thanks @Mcbobs. I finally got an opportunity to brew an all grain batch on the stand a couple of weeks ago. I just kept it pretty simple by doing a Maris Otter/Mosaic SMaSH. Everything worked great, but I need a bit of practice to get used to direct firing to maintain mash temps. I'm thinking of maybe adding a Herms coil to the HLT, thinking that may be easier, and ease my fear of scorching the wort. The only other issue is that the ground water around here is too warm, close to 80f. One pass through my CFC got me down to 82f, so I know it works pretty effectively. Gonna be brewing again this weekend, I'll try and get some video of it in action.

View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1438772278.866605.jpg

Looking good! Having three burners would definitely be great for doing batches back to back, but a HERMS coil would alleviate any worries of scorching the wort for sure! Cheers!

jafo28 said:

Thanks @Mcbobs. I finally got an opportunity to brew an all grain batch on the stand a couple of weeks ago. I just kept it pretty simple by doing a Maris Otter/Mosaic SMaSH. Everything worked great, but I need a bit of practice to get used to direct firing to maintain mash temps. I'm thinking of maybe adding a Herms coil to the HLT, thinking that may be easier, and ease my fear of scorching the wort. The only other issue is that the ground water around here is too warm, close to 80f. One pass through my CFC got me down to 82f, so I know it works pretty effectively. Gonna be brewing again this weekend, I'll try and get some video of it in action.

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I would love to see a video of you brewing on this setup please

Wreck99 said:

I would love to see a video of you brewing on this setup please

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Only took a quick video during the mash, you can see the temp all the way up at 158º was waiting for it to come down.

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urW2QQKdXIg[/ame]

jafo28 said:

Only took a quick video during the mash, you can see the temp all the way up at 158º was waiting for it to come down.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urW2QQKdXIg

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Cool man thanks for sharing! This looks very similar to my new setup...even the recirculating mash extension you have there! I'll be posting a video soon. First brew day on it is tomorrow. So far I've only done a water test run on it.

I just gotta source for a welder that is gonna hook me up with this design. Jafo. This is just spot on to what I would love to give to him as a a design. Do you have blue prints or measurements you can hook me up with??

@copperhopper I actually have the dimensions saved on my phone, so here ya go. It's 60" long, 19" wide, and 21" tall. The height is without the castors though, so add about another 6" for them. I used 1.5"x1.5" square tubing. Pretty sure it was 14 gauge thickness. Hope this helps.

Thanks man. Very helpful actually. I will be using keggles as opposed to your pots though. I don't think that will make much of a difference considering they are probably about the same diameter right?

Keggles will be fine, their a little bigger in diameter, but not much.

Awesome!! I just bought 3 of these off eBay

View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1439435658.232338.jpg

http://vi.raptor.ebaydesc.com/ws/eB...7073&category=62117&pm=1&ds=0&t=1439435584919

Should be solid for this set up.