Show Me Your Wood Brew Sculpture/Rig

Nope, wrong again - had my first stuck sparge!! Ended up having to transfer the end of the mash into my cooler and lauter from there.

Might need to trim up the end of my dip tube, and next time adjust the grain to be a little more coarse.

kscarrington said:

Found my grain might have been milled a touch too fine for my false bottom, it's being a bit finicky but should still work.

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Hey all,
First time poster. Ive been long over this thread for a while now and over the last 2 weeks have been putting together my AG system. Been brewing for nearly 2 yrs now but mainly biab/extract brewing. Not really that exciting bt still produced a nice pale ale that ive stuck to for over a yr now. Its not finished yet. Im still waiting on my chugger pump to arrive and i still havent ordered a element for my hlt yet. Cant actually find one in shops or online. Cant wait to start brewing though.
Have made a sparge ring and the chiller(not finished yet) myself as to buy the chiller would have cost me about 100-150aus more than me making it. Plus i had left over copper for the sparge ring and about 2 metres left over. I made the chiller with 15m which i think is 45ft.
Any suggestions improvements would be a great help.

If the above link does not work the album is below
https://www.dropbox.com/sc/2wjf41t3z0769xm/vvKlXEN64x

Cheers
Macca

Not mine, but noticed it while checking out nano breweries, this is the 1/2 bbl Foggy Noggin brewery sculpture.

Ibrewaletx said:

Not mine, but noticed it while checking out nano breweries, this is the 1/2 bbl Foggy Noggin brewery sculpture.

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I see alot of people using the yellow flex tube from BrassCraft. Which one is ok for LP and which ball valve do you guys use?. Just wondering because I have a balk valve but it only says 1/2 psi on it...

Here's my 10 Gallon setup
2 HD GOTT coolers, and a 15 Gallon brew pot.
The brew pot sits high enough that it flows down into the fermenter as well.
took me a day and a half of construction, but really happy with the result and I can use it as a shelf for all this brew gear in the garage.

Constructed out of:
8 of the 8ft 2x3s
left over 5/8 pressure treated deck wood (about 5 8ft long boards)
100 of 2.5 inch deck screws
100 1 5/8s deck screws to attach the decking.
16 bolts 4" long (to go through 2 of the 2x3s) with nuts and washers. **don't forget the boards are neither 2" nor 3" they are more like 1.5x2.5 or something
I used the remaining scraps of 2x3 4 pieces about 15" long to make diagonal braces inside the top and middle shelves. Maybe it's overkill but those coolers are heavy when full, and the wood was going to go to waste if I didn't use it.
I may add some concrete board or flashing under the burner, and between the burner and the propane tank, not sure it's needed.

Built this Beauty, well lets be real and call it a Beast, in 4.5 hours of beer drinking, drilling screws, cutting wood fun the other night.





(The fridges on the right in the second picture are for homebrewing as well. Ones a fermentation chamber and the other houses 3 kegs... I might be a little addicted to homebrewing)

Here's mine you have to love BIAB.

Thefirebuilds said:

I await your feedback, HBT.

I present, Brewpocalypso:

http://imgur.com/a/n3zQ6

http://imgur.com/a/n3zQ6

CLICK THE IMAGE FOR THE FULL ALBUM OF PICTURES.

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Very cool. How does the plate chiller work doing gravity fed? Are you going to add a pump at any point?

been using this for a couple of brews now

I'm starting out in my new brewery BiaB.. if I decide to go with a 3v system, I'll just make another wheeled bench and screw 'em together.

My humble offering...

Very nice stand! I like the idea of expanding if and when you desire. I like the idea of modular carts as well.

Also like the high tech ventilation system in place...same as mine...cheers!

wilserbrewer said:

Very nice stand! I like the idea of expanding if and when you desire. I like the idea of modular carts as well.

Also like the high tech ventilation system in place...same as mine...cheers!

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Cheers!

Modular carts is the future. I'm going to do the same thing in my workshop too.. Should make life a little easier.

The high-tech ventilation system is just there to keep the basement de-mildewed... At some point I'm going to put an attic fan or something with a vent so I can completely remove the flip-up window.. My pulley needs to go there.. LOL

Helly said:

Very cool. How does the plate chiller work doing gravity fed? Are you going to add a pump at any point?

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It works fine if you filter the hops out somehow. For now I am just using a hop bag so I can remove them after flame out. Later I'll put in a screen or something.

But yes, gravity is fine. I may add a pump but really, life is complicated enough.

I've been brewing for a few years now. I used to use my buddy's old wooden three tier stand, but it didn't have wheels and was super heavy. I used this for the first time for a Labor day pumpkin ale brew (for a buddy's wedding next month). It went great! I designed the stand to be very compact to more easily brew on my own.

HLT on the left, MT in the middle, BK on the right. The white unit is a water filter. The hooks in the back are for drying the tubing. The MT needs to be propped up for 10+ gallon batches until I get a new pump. Both propane tanks fit under the MT for storage. The attachments on the pump are for priming and sampling.

Next upgrade will be to add HERMS to the HLT and then a second pump - these should be done in the next few months. Right now I circulate through the HLT for mash step temperature raises (while heating strike water in the BK).

Nothing to see here

Built stands from mostly scrap wood laying around the garage, and I place them on my work bench on brew day. Breaks down for storage pretty well so SWMBO can park in garage when done brewing.

Updated mine... Still have to finish second mash tun so that brew day is more efficient use of my time.

Here is the result of my summers work

Electricity and Wood is a great combination!

emribecky said:

Electricity and Wood is a great combination!

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Do you mind sharing a flow diagram so we know how it works? Also, how are you using your valves? It looks like there are only valves on your pumps and one of your hoses - were you just trying to save money on the valves or is there some other advantage here? Looks great btw.

I'm super jealous of the electric route. I just set up a 220 volt circuit in my basement, which was easier than I had anticipated. Since I could easily vent to my chimney from our basement, I'm going to look more into going electric. Do you use a spa/hot tub GFCI cord for yours?

Cheers,
Roger

I finally finished mine.. At least for now.

benbradford said:

I finally finished mine.. At least for now.

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Wow! Not what I expected to see in this thread at all.

Finally got a house this summer so what was one of the first things I built? Works fine... so far...

Here is my hybrid gas/electric BCS controlled 2 Tier.

My woody

Gumbys_Brew said:

My woody

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Wow.. do you fire that burner right there, around all that wood?!

Here's mine. Built it out of scrap lumber from pallets. Total cost <$6.50. Still puting together an EHERMS setup.

[/ATTACH]

BeerGrylls said:

Wow.. do you fire that burner right there, around all that wood?!

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Oh no i pull the table out away from the walls when doing a brew

Here is my thread with more details... there are a lot more components to the rig than that little picture shows!
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f170/budget-friendly-control-panel-2-pid-2-element-317787/

Also, here is a general flow diagram I put together... its all very straightforward HERMS.
View attachment Visio-Flow-v.2.pdf

beerandbourbon said:

Do you mind sharing a flow diagram so we know how it works? Also, how are you using your valves? It looks like there are only valves on your pumps and one of your hoses - were you just trying to save money on the valves or is there some other advantage here? Looks great btw.

I'm super jealous of the electric route. I just set up a 220 volt circuit in my basement, which was easier than I had anticipated. Since I could easily vent to my chimney from our basement, I'm going to look more into going electric. Do you use a spa/hot tub GFCI cord for yours?

Cheers,
Roger

Click to expand...

emribecky said:

Also, here is a general flow diagram I put together... its all very straightforward HERMS.
View attachment 155853

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That's one of the best organized system flow diagrams I've seen on here, great job!

emribecky said:

Here is my thread with more details... there are a lot more components to the rig than that little picture shows!
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f170/budget-friendly-control-panel-2-pid-2-element-317787/

Also, here is a general flow diagram I put together... its all very straightforward HERMS.
View attachment 155853

Click to expand...

Nice flow diagram and thread! I've been spending all of my money lately fixing up our house, but hopefully I'll be converting to electric before long. I'll definitely be using your build as inspiration for a cheaper control panel. Thanks!

Hey, I finally found a guy that had a really bad idea for a wooden brew rig. Check it out.

Bad idea for a wooden brew stand

LandoLincoln said:

Hey, I finally found a guy that had a really bad idea for a wooden brew rig. Check it out.

Bad idea for a wooden brew stand

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Wood burns ? How surprising! Next thing is a ducktape brew stand...

Holy pinewood Barman, lumber burns? Since when ?

Little bit of ginger.

Didn't post the whole thing... Duh

Wow, that is super tall.
It looks fantastic.

My new system just took it's maiden voyage on Friday!!

11kW electric 1bbl blichmann system w/ 3 55 gallon kettles
2x 35 gallon conicals + 2" tri clamp butterfly dumps + racking ports + thermowells + tc blowoffs
50a brew controller from theelectricbrewery.com (totally worth the $)
2x chuggers
stained/polyurethane stand
insulated ferm chamber -> base made from plywood/2x4/casters; johnson a419 + lasko myheat 200w heater

sorry about the upside down photos.. not sure why that happens??

Btw - how is your temp control performance with your fermentation setup?