Single Tier Brew Stand

I finally finished my brew stand.
Check out the pictures.
Tell me how awesome it is.
Tell me what I've done wrong.
Enjoy!

Hey I like your little brackets for the plate chiller, what did you use?

knightbeer39 said:

Hey I like your little brackets for the plate chiller, what did you use?

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I used some $2.50 pack of these arms from walmart.
They were only bent at 90 degrees, I added that second 90 degree bend with a vise, and some pulling. I've got another pack at home, and I can post pictures of what I started with later.

I'm going to make a list of all the questions I get and take pictures that better answer questions. So ask for close ups if you wanna to see something.

Really cool manifold idea! I like it...

Boerderij_Kabouter said:

Really cool manifold idea! I like it...

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The biggest thing that caught me by surprise was how much loss I had.
I've only brewed on it once, so I don't know an exact amount, but I'm thinking around a gallon.

dleonard said:

I used some $2.50 pack of these arms from walmart.
They were only bent at 90 degrees, I added that second 90 degree bend with a vise, and some pulling. I've got another pack at home, and I can post pictures of what I started with later.

I'm going to make a list of all the questions I get and take pictures that better answer questions. So ask for close ups if you wanna to see something.

Click to expand...

yeah send me a pic of those; I've been thinking about a way to put a chiller holder on my rig that will allow you to quickly disconnect for cleaning.

Nice Rig!

dleonard said:

The biggest thing that caught me by surprise was how much loss I had.
I've only brewed on it once, so I don't know an exact amount, but I'm thinking around a gallon.

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WHoa... how is that possible? You should be able to get almost zero loss out of that design. The only area for losses are trub loss (standard) and what is left in the chiller/pump (maybe 1 pint).

Boerderij_Kabouter said:

WHoa... how is that possible? You should be able to get almost zero loss out of that design. The only area for losses are trub loss (standard) and what is left in the chiller/pump (maybe 1 pint).

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Well my smaller two pots leave some behind, and then I feel like the plumbing stays full. So maybe a half gallon in the lines, and a quarter gallon in each of the smaller pots?
I need to measure it to be sure.

Maybe detail your process for us. I think you should be able to do quite a bit better than that.

HLT is just water, so I would count that as loss. Are you fly sparging? Because if you are I wouldn't call any of that sparge loss plumbing loss. You can always just sparge more water through... Draining the BK you should be able to close off the rest of the circuit (those are three-way valves right?) so all that should be going on is pumping through the plate....

Am I missing something?

I think it is a great design. I love the simplicity.

Ok, here are a couple of shots.







I should have put them closer together, and bent them with a tighter fit.

Brew stand envy setting in.

Boerderij_Kabouter said:

Maybe detail your process for us. I think you should be able to do quite a bit better than that.

HLT is just water, so I would count that as loss. Are you fly sparging? Because if you are I wouldn't call any of that sparge loss plumbing loss. You can always just sparge more water through... Draining the BK you should be able to close off the rest of the circuit (those are three-way valves right?) so all that should be going on is pumping through the plate....

Am I missing something?

I think it is a great design. I love the simplicity.

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Yes, I am fly sparging. But they actually aren't 3-way valves. I didn't realize it when I ordered them, but they only offer flow that moves in a 90 degrees, I can't move straight thru.
And I was counting all all liquid that gets left anywhere in my design. You know, I was coming from a all grain set up where the LT goes on the drier, and the MT goes in a chair, and the BP sits on the floor. So you can tip them forward and get every last drop.

I just started my second batch, a monster IIPA. I figure what better way to test my setup than maxing out my possible volumes right?

dleonard said:

I just started my second batch, a monster IIPA. I figure what better way to test my setup than maxing out my possible volumes right?

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Well, I used my hopback.








I ended up just putting 6 oz of pellet hops into the boil pot, thinking the hopback would filter anything out...
Not so much. I clogged the drain on the brew pot, and the chiller. I started my boil with 7 gallons. When it was all said and done I had about 2.5 gallons! I did rack what I kept off of 1.5 gallons of hops in the first fermenter it went into. I probably could have saved more, but geez, I was frustrated.

Anyway, everything but chiller went really well. I'm going to brew again tonight.

Nice looking!!!
Do you have the DIY instruction or link for the Hopback?

Agreed...I love to hear more about the hopback...great looking rig. Definitely jealous...

SAMPLER said:

Nice looking!!!
Do you have the DIY instruction or link for the Hopback?

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http://morebeer.com/view_product/15781/103677/Hop_Back_with_1_2"_Female_Threads

I put 6oz of pellet hops into a 5 gallon batch, and tried to let the hopback, with 3 ounces of leaf hops in it, filter out the 6oz. Did not work...
So, all I can say about my hopback is that I'm really impressed with it's quality. It's not really filtered like I hoped it might, and I haven't had tried beer made with it, so I don't know about imparted hop flavors. But I feel like it's going to be great.

Updates:
HEAT LOSS
Right now the best Dough In temp I've gotten is 140F. I had my water at 200....
I think that I'm loosing all the heat in my manifold. I hate to say it but I wish I would have gone with a simple set of hoses and just moved stuff around. Moving forward I'm going to try to preserve my design by wrapping all my brass plumbing in some sort of insulating tape... I haven't found any, but thats what I'm thinking.

Real cool, I haven't seen anyone with this type of design...Did you come up with this Idea yourself? I ordered my brew stand due to the hassle of welding and getting it the way I wanted. Nice build

dleonard said:

Updates:
HEAT LOSS
Right now the best Dough In temp I've gotten is 140F. I had my water at 200....
I think that I'm loosing all the heat in my manifold. I hate to say it but I wish I would have gone with a simple set of hoses and just moved stuff around. Moving forward I'm going to try to preserve my design by wrapping all my brass plumbing in some sort of insulating tape... I haven't found any, but thats what I'm thinking.

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Are you recirculating through the plumbing when you mash ? It look like a neat setup but thats a lot of valves sometimes the k.i.s.s. method is the best.
Pat

GillandCo said:

Real cool, I haven't seen anyone with this type of design...Did you come up with this Idea yourself? I ordered my brew stand due to the hassle of welding and getting it the way I wanted. Nice build

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Yes, I've never seen one like it. It's so easy to just brew on it. Not moving stuff around is great. The only major problem I've had is major temp loss in the manifold. Which all I can figure out is that because it's brass it's really exchanging allot!

lehr said:

Are you recirculating through the plumbing when you mash ? It look like a neat setup but thats a lot of valves sometimes the k.i.s.s. method is the best.
Pat

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No, no recirculating... My plan was to cover the outside of the mashtun with some sort of insulation after I felt like I could hit my mash temps without heating.

Honestly if I hadn't dropped some major dough on the plumbing I probably would have already tried a brew with moving some longer hoses around, and bi-passed the manifold.

YOu keep working out the bugs man!!! so when it perfect I can build it

cruckin78 said:

YOu keep working out the bugs man!!! so when it perfect I can build it

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Fair enough.
So let me ask you this: I want some sort of tape, or similar stuff that I can easily wrap around the manifold that will help slow the heat loss. Thoughts?

So you mash in at 200 and when your done stirring the grain in its down to 140. The manifold would be closed at this time right, if so I don't see how it could be the manifold. Are you sure you didn't have grain packed around your temp probe ?
Pat

Well thats what I thought, but I made sure to stir it around, and I used another thermometer in different places to make sure.
I was really caught off guard with the entire thing.
Potentiality my LT's thermometer is jacked, so I'll have to check it's temp with another thermometer.
I had also thought about running boiling water thru it before the brew to help bring up the temp...
Anyone else had this sort of a problem? Lots of temp. loss in plumbing?

With my system I mash in at my mash temp with my RIMS running and it might drop 2 degrees. You heat your mash water in the mash tun correct with the valve to the manifold off ? This is the same method you used prior to adding the manifold and you didnt have a big temp loss.

Pat

dleonard said:

Fair enough.
So let me ask you this: I want some sort of tape, or similar stuff that I can easily wrap around the manifold that will help slow the heat loss. Thoughts?

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Lowes.
In the back of the plumbing dept., by the copper pipe and heater exhaust ducting.... foam pipe insulation.
It's black and comes in 8-10 foot lengths and is split down one side.

As Billy Crystal would say..... It's Marvelous.

lehr said:

With my system I mash in at my mash temp with my RIMS running and it might drop 2 degrees. You heat your mash water in the mash tun correct with the valve to the manifold off ? This is the same method you used prior to adding the manifold and you didnt have a big temp loss.

Pat

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No, I was heating water in the LT, and then transfering into the MT. I was using some high temp. hosing. In that config., using gravity, I was loosing 10 degrees.

tlael said:

Lowes.
In the back of the plumbing dept., by the copper pipe and heater exhaust ducting.... foam pipe insulation.
It's black and comes in 8-10 foot lengths and is split down one side.

As Billy Crystal would say..... It's Marvelous.

Click to expand...

Fair enough. I was hoping for something more tapish, but I haven't found anything. I'll try to get over there this weekend, and get some. I bet with that and running boiling water thru before the brew I could do allot better with temp. control.

dleonard said:

No, I was heating water in the LT, and then transfering into the MT. I was using some high temp. hosing. In that config., using gravity, I was loosing 10 degrees.

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But you have three burners why not heat in the mash tun ?

Pat

lehr said:

But you have three burners why not heat in the mash tun ?

Pat

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I don't know, I never did it that way...
Do you put in the grain and the water and heat? or just heat the water and then dump in the grain?

Heat water then dump in grain...you don't want to skortch te grain.

Looks really good man!

Yes I heat the water and then add the grain.

about the temp loss if you have enough room in your HLT, Or MT even better why not run a gallon or so slowly through the manifold/plumbing to help warm things up?

+1 to heating in the tun... it will stop the tun from absorbing so much hear (like preheating a cooler).

Heat up to strike temps then add the grains

GillandCo said:

about the temp loss if you have enough room in your HLT, Or MT even better why not run a gallon or so slowly through the manifold/plumbing to help warm things up?

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Thats what my plan is on the next brew day.

NNatic said:

+1 to heating in the tun... it will stop the tun from absorbing so much hear (like preheating a cooler).

Heat up to strike temps then add the grains

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If your grain is room temp 70 degrees about how my temp loss do you expect?

Depends on your system and what your using for a MT it could be anywhere from 6degrees an hour or as little as 1-0 it really depends on your system...if you use BTP or BS you can calibrate your temperature loss...it will varry from holding just water to when having grains in it. Your best bet either way for sustaining the heat is pre heating your strike water in the MT then transferring whatever you don't need into the HLT. I was planning on insulating my keggle but after doing this decided not to...you may still loose some heat but if you can direct fire you'll be good!

Check Bobby m's video for checking your system losses. It's not the most exciting video in the world but it gets the point across.

And grain temp doesn't Really matter to much. Unless you dumping in freezing grain.
As long as you pre-heat your MT you should be fine.

If you just heat your water in the mash tun your problem is solved.

Pat