Brew Stand Rebuild

Okay, so I started my stand build with a cross between the Brutus and the “wallace” slotted angle stand. However, while testing the burners (one banjo and two six inch) I became a little concerned with the stand’s durability. The slotted angle didn't seem strong enough and it would droop and twist in some places when it got hot. So, it was back to the drawing board. I decided to use a Brutus style design with 1 ½ x 1 ½ inch square tubing (not stainless). I should’ve gone this route to begin with but I didn’t know how to weld I didn’t want to pay someone to do it. So, now I have a stronger sturdier stand and I know how to weld (kind of). They weren’t pretty welds but they’re solid. I had someone with welding experience check my work and after fixing a couple of bad welds I cleaned it, painted it and transferred my gas and electrical stuff over.

All I can say is this has been an experience. I have had a lot of fun building these stands and a lot of cussing and headaches too. But, I now have some electrical, gas, and welding experience. I still need to add my pilot burners and do some testing before I can brew my first batch on it but for the most part it is done.

Here are some pics of the first one (now it’s a storage stand in my garage) and the new one.

Take THAT, erector set brewstand!

Both of those look like pretty sweet setups. The second obviously looks better. Good job!

Your garage is too clean.


Nice stand btw.

It appears that you switched from the green Chugger pumps to regular March 809's? Did you not like them?

They had some issues. Evidently, they were part of their initial test lot that were not suppose to go out to the public so they replaced the motors with actual March 809's.

I think they've got some new ones in now. I'd give them another try. The guys at Tri-State Pump have been really good to work with. They have great customer service.

mjohnson said:

Your garage is too clean.


Nice stand btw.

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Notice you don't see the right side of the garage. Thanks

Yes. Their prices seem more than resonable on both the chugger and the March.

I am currently building a brewstand from very similar material as your weldless. You issues have me concerned. How bad was the twisting and sagging? Just enough that you wanted something better or not a chance in hell this will work?

Fritztheelephant said:

Yes. Their prices seem more than resonable on both the chugger and the March.

I am currently building a brewstand from very similar material as your weldless. You issues have me concerned. How bad was the twisting and sagging? Just enough that you wanted something better or not a chance in hell this will work?

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Mostly the sagging occurred on the front and back sides (mostly the back) where the banjo burner was located. It would get glowing red. I think a heat shield may have helped but I didn't want to chance ten gallons of boiling wort collapsing on me. Could make for a bad combination; boil liquid, open flame, gas and electricity.

To be honest, the square tubing was cheaper than the slotted angle. I got 60 feet at a local metals yard for $84.00 ($28 each, stainless was like $123 each). They cut it into 6 foot lengths for me and said they'd cut the exact lengths I needed but I didn't have my design sheet with me.

Nice job JMichael, I think your new stand looks great! You can now brew in confidence as the steel you used is more than strong enough. That's quite a control box you got there, where did you get it?

jcav said:

That's quite a control box you got there, where did you get it?

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Thanks. It's a 12x12 PVC box I found at Lowes for about $30.

Good information to know on the stand material. Looks like I may need to reconsider my build as well

JMichael said:

Thanks. It's a 12x12 PVC box I found at Lowes for about $30.

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Thanks, I think that might be a solution for my build. I will check them out at the store.

Well I brewed my first batch on Sunday after doing some tests and a dry run. Everything seemed to run much easier and smoother than my cooler and 7.5 gallon stainless pot on one burner. One thing though, I think the thermocouples or the PIDs got off synch. I'm not sure if it was that or the fact that I was recirculating my mash and sparge water. The PIDs were showing the temps to be about 5 degrees off on my mash and about 9 degrees off on my sparge water. I checked the temps against a dial thermometer on my tests and dry runs and the seemed to be right on. I may opt to pick up RTDs instead of the thermocouples (which I sould have gone with anyway).

The other thing I ran into was matching the flow rate during the sparge. I let my sparge water flow rate get a bit too high at one point and I had too much water in my mash tun. I slowed it and got the water level down but I don't know what effect it had (this was my first non-batch sparge too).

nice job , Im right now on the process of building something like this , I have almost everything but on the set up Im not sure what digital controller used with the solenoid valves my question is? where exactly do you instal de sensors of the digital controller and what digital controller you are using ? Can you please tell me which is the right way to go thank you I will help o lot !!!!