My new brew sculpture

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Lil' Sparky

Cowboys EAC
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Well, here it is. I'll post some updated pics once I get the burners mounted and propane plumbed in.

The steel was some 2" scrap that I was given, and I welded it with some help from my brother, so the total cost of what you see is $0! This was my first attempt at welding EVER, so I'm very proud even though the welds are ugly. Total time to cut, weld, grind, paint < 3 hours. I can't believe how easily everything went. It's not quite commercial quality, but I don't care. I get a much bigger kick out of things I do myself.

I can't wait to use it. No more stacking crap up to get one pot above another, and no more lifting scalding water above my head! The other thing is I've got the capacity to do 10 gallon batches now and I think this will make that process much easier.

I've got an idea about how I'll do the plumbing, but I'll take any advice you have.

Cheers!

brew_stand.JPG
 
Congrats on getting it done. Nice job.

I really like the fact that you put long legs on it. I look at some brewstands and wonder why they don't fall over.

I find welding very easy to do and its not what I do for a living. There are some pictures of my welds in my gallery. I don't understand why more people don't make their own brewstands. You can build a lot with a welder, a grinder, a drill press and a saw of some sort.

A word of advice, if I may... sometimes welds look stronger than they are. Being that this is your first weld job, you might want to test the strength of everything, by, say, hanging 2 or 3x the weight of a full brew kettle on each of the levels. If you have a teen age person in your house, have them hang and sit on each level !

I'd just hate to have it fail in use.
 
Actually, I've tested each level with my 225 lb butt and they seem to be more than strong enough. Good advice, though! It would suck to have one break loose during a brewing session.
 
beer4breakfast said:
Looks great! How tall is it? How far off the ground is that bottom level for your boil kettle?

I should do a vertical like that because I don't have a lot of space, but I'm sorta thinking I'll do a two tier.

Thanks. I didn't want it to be very tall. The bottom level is 8" off the ground and there's 24" between each tier, so the top level is 4'8". I have a CFC and I use a wort wizard to get the wort into the primary. I may cut off the center post at the top tier, but I left it for now in case I want to secure the kettles to it somehow.

I don't have a pump, so I went with 3 tiers.
 
desertBrew said:
Wort Wizard. I'd recommend! :rockin: I can drain 5.5g from a kettle thru the CFC in about 7 minutes. 200 to 70 degrees.

http://www.wortwizard.com/
I got one at Petsmart I think for less than $10. It's a green thing that goes on the outlet of the CFC. I think its intended function is for draining fish tanks.
 
Lil' Sparky said:
I got one at Petsmart I think for less than $10. It's a green thing that goes on the outlet of the CFC. I think its intended function is for draining fish tanks.

I couldn't find one at my petsmart except for some packaged fish tank thing for like $38 with hoses and such in it. The 1st time I used the one I bought from Morebeer ($28 after shipping) I didn't care that it cost me a bit extra. That was the deal of the year for me in how cool that thing works & saving me time on brewday. They also give you the drilled bung, aeration tube (although I got o2 system) and the hose line adapter for the vaccum line. Make it yourself or buy pre-made, if you got a CFC it's crazy not to use one of these if you don't have a pump. Preaching to the choir for you though eh?

I'm right behind you in building my tier system and love the fact that I could reduce the height by a good 18".
 
beer4breakfast said:
The Wort Wizard requires a sealed container for draining the wort into, right? The water venturi draws air out of the sealed carboy, and the negative pressure then draws wort from the the boil kettle into the carboy, right? So it wouldn't work if you were trying to drain your wort into a non-sealable container, true?

Correct. (more characters...)
 
desertBrew said:
I'm right behind you in building my tier system and love the fact that I could reduce the height by a good 18".
Have you settled on a design for your stand? I went with my design because I had the strong 2" steel and could put it together in a simple, compact way with only a few places to weld together.
 
Lil' Sparky said:
Have you settled on a design for your stand? I went with my design because I had the strong 2" steel and could put it together in a simple, compact way with only a few places to weld together.

Pretty much. Here's my thread :)

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?p=208627#post208627

I intend at sometime to hack off the top tier and get a pump so I went "standard format" other than the materials. I do like your design though. much like the brew sculptures from morebeer(?)
 
Yeah, I remember seeing your design now. I'm sure aluminum will be WAY lighter than the thing I built.

I guess my design is similar to morebeer's B3-750. :)

1867.jpg


I've seen other stands that are similar, too. I also think I'm going to plumb the propane like they do with the B3-750. It looks fairly simple, although that pic doesn't really show it.
 
Well, here's the (almost) completed result. I've also added wheels since I took this picture, and I plan to cut ~ 12" off the center post.

I test fired it last night and it's awesome seeing all three burners bellowing blue flame at the same time!

I'll be brewing on it for the first time this weekend. My old man's coming down and we're going to christen it with a 10 gallon batch of Fat Tire. I can't wait!

brew_stand_complete.JPG


I wasn't able to build the plumbing completely rigid as I had planned. The orifice I got for the burners had a 3/8" male flanged fitting. For the life of me I couldn't find a fitting to convert it to pipe threads. Plenty of male flanged fittings, but no female. Anyway, the flex hoses aren't as neat and tidy, but they'll work just fine. Here's a pic of he plumbing up close if anyone's interested.

brew_stand_plumbing.JPG
 
Very nice...I like the wide base. A lot of stands like yours have a very narrow one and I always think they'll tip.
 
Pretty sweet rig! Congrats! I'd keep an eye on those burners for the boil. It may scorch due to the surface area of the burner is so concentrated.
 
Very nice work

BTW, you have inspired me, my pop has a shop and can help with the welding and I can't wait.

I like the idea of having long legs as well, once again good job- way to stick it to the man!
 
EdWort said:
I'd keep an eye on those burners for the boil. It may scorch due to the surface area of the burner is so concentrated.
Actually, since the kegs are concave on the bottom, the flame spreads out all around. I hope it won't be a problem. If it is, I can hang them lower.

TUCK said:
BTW, you have inspired me, my pop has a shop and can help with the welding and I can't wait.
All right! Just come up with a good, solid design based on the materials you're using and the setup you want, and putting it together will be easier than you think. I actually enjoyed the welding. It kind of geeked me out since it was my first time. Hopefully your pop has 2 welding masks so you can watch. I think that would've helped me.

beer4breakfast said:
It has a compact space-saving footprint.
Yeah, that was the main reason I went with this design. I like how it really doesn't take up that much room. It should fit in my garage in front of the cars (once I move some other stuff).
 
One came with my turkey fryer. The others are 4' and I got them for $10 ea. locally. There were several places in town that sold them. The ones I got had the flare fittings on one end and 1/4" threads on the other. Some of the others would've required the flare adapter I couldn't find! Look around at the propane/gas places. They should be fairly easy to find. At one time I even think I saw them at Lowes or HD, but they were out when I went to put everything together.
 
I made a long two tiered design last year. It takes up a somewhat large footprint in my garage so this intrigues me. Couple questions for you:
1. does the bottom H pattern need to be that big for stability you think or can it be smaller?
2. Did you ever add something to hold pots/kegs more stable on the shelf like angle iron (I store mine on the stand as well)
3. Now that you've used it, do you think the levels be shorter to lower overall height (I've seen halfbarrel brewers measurements which shorten it to about 5'4").
4. You used 2" bc it was free. but since the pot supports are short, you think 1 1/2" square of 16 ga would suffice?
 

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