New brew rig.

I have been brewing for almost a year now and decided to jump into all grain a while back. Well, the turkey fryer was not cutting it anymore, and I decided to make the process simpler. I welded the rig out of 1 5/8" pipe(free from my brother) and the burners are 6" natural gas conversions( thanks to Agrisupply and Williams). I got tired of worrying about running out of Propane. The burners work great. I would not have known about these if it were not for you guys.
The two tier system is gravity and pump fead. Brewed on it the first time today(my first imperial IPA). As expected a few bumps in the road, but worked great and actually made brewing easier and faster as planned. Along with the new CFC, im set Thanks to everyone for all the knowledge. Cheers.

Sick

Nice. Might be the first stand I've seen made out of round stock, I'm sure someone will prove me wrong though.

Are those exhaust clamps mounting the casters?

-cheers

brewingmeister said:

Nice. Might be the first stand I've seen made out of round stock, I'm sure someone will prove me wrong though.

Are those exhaust clamps mounting the casters?

-cheers

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Yeh, probably because over 20 pieces had to be coped on both sides. Hugh PITA. But I'm semi used to it being I worked for a fence company years ago making gates from time to time.

Exhaust clamps? I bolted the casters with U-bolts to the frame.

Looks like you have a lot of work in it.
Did you tack weld the U part of the clamp to the stand or do they hold the casters enough so they don't turn? I'd hate to hear they twisted on you while you were moving it.

-cheers

brewingmeister said:

Looks like you have a lot of work in it.
Did you tack weld the U part of the clamp to the stand or do they hold the casters enough so they don't turn? I'd hate to hear they twisted on you while you were moving it.

-cheers

Click to expand...

Naw. They hold. That would suck though. It doesn't move much anyway. The thing is HDepot sells the u-bolts labeled wrong. 2 1/4" is 1 3/4". Had to make an extra trip with a tape measure. I go to the Depot every day(I'm a contractor) and this is the only flaw in the system I've ever found.

Well I added a switch for the pump and a outlet for radio or whatever. And a in house filtration system with quick-disconnects. Next up is a hinged side table. The projects never end, do they? I'm also building a fermentation chamber. Thanks everybody.

Looks like a nice solid frame. Good work.

Nice stand. Agrisupply is a good source for burners, I got my 4" HP LP burners there.

Well figured I would update the thread in case someone was/is interested.
I've since added a few things as well as made a few modifications.
1st: Scrapped the CFC for a custom herms-type heat exchanger for cooling. Its an old stainless 2.5 Gallon pressurized water fire extinguisher. I cut the top off, rolled the old 3/8 copper from the CFC around a CO2 tank and inserted it in. It was kinda a PITA to get it through the stainless wall and had to make a much bigger hole than I wanted to originally. Welded the top back on and added water hose fittings. Used a my MIG welder which didnt do a great job. Had a few pin holes in the weld so I coated it with a thin layer of JB weld to finish sealing it up. Does'nt look the greatest but better than payin someone to TIG it for me. Works pretty good. 5.5G from boil to 60 in about 20 min..


2nd:Got a Rims tube from Mikelikesit. Got the PID, SSR, and new control panel. Replaced the old house-type switches with LED rocker-types cause I managed to hit the element switch on while moving hoses around and burned out the element. Also added three terminal buses with home-made jumpers. Kinda fun wiring all that stuff in one spot as I'm used to residential home wiring(all spread out). The left switch is for the PID. The middle switch is the element overide and will not energize till the PID parameters are met through the SSR. The right switch (same as the middle) is for the pump. Basically the element will not turn on until the PID parameters are met, then signaled to the SSR, then power to the switch which is manual turned on. Thought about wiring it in line with the pump switch but decided against it cause I liked the concept of the manual override. The wiring is kinda cramped and resembles a rat nest despite my efforts to keep it clean. Anyway thanks again to everybody.

Figured I'd put everything together. And a few pics of my grain mill and 4 tap tower.

I love it. I really like the round tube stand. I, of all people can really appreciate all of the work that went into that. I am glad I could help you and be a part of your build. Cheers Stevo

So I got the sight glasses/gauges from BobbyM today. I installed them on my BK and HLT. I went ahead and made a heat shield, similar to the Bobbys and others, to keep the flame off my already scorched ball valve handle and the new thermo. Used the extra aluminum insert from my Radio Shack project box from my stir plate project. It required an O-ring in between the plate and kettle and one between the fiiting and plate. I love re-purposing things. Then I calibrated the HLT, then pumped from there to the BK in increments, so it was a lot easier to label. Props to Bobby. Cheers!!:rockin:

Pics. Update from BobbyM. Sight gauges.

I got off early today with some inspiration. I soldered a bunch of copper cause its cheaper than stainless, No shipping and readily available local. The goal was to hard plumb it so I could go from RIMS heating to counter-flow chiller easily, without switching a bunch of hoses. The hoses can get confusing at times. So now I pump everything through the RIMS tube (On or Off) and optional through both (Counter-Flow and RIMS). This makes system cleaning cycle easier as well. The Brew-Rig has a new name: DARWIN, Constantly evolving.

Update: The upgrades continue. 50 Plate. Boil to 74 in 7 min

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I have to get a plate chiller. Period.