Compact 3 Tier Stand Build

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markklug

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I've searched for some examples of a build I came across while researching and designing a new brewstand and not had much luck. So I am starting a new thread and hoping for some feedback. I am interested in a compact design, 3 vessel system. 5 gallon batches for now, but room to go to larger vessels.

I came across a different concept that intrigues me. A compact 3 tier system explained at this link:

http://halfbarrelbrewer.com/the-brew-stand/

I am trying to decide if I could lower the mash tun and kettle, and remove the burner from under the grant to make this even shorter. If I intend to recirc while mashing, I don't see why I couldn't just pump directly to the grant. Is there a big advantage to being able to gravity drain from the mash tun? My understanding is the single tier systems all pump from the mash without issues of grain bed compaction by throttling the pump outlet.

The height of the stand would essentially just be the height of the pump, grant tank, room for one burner, and the boil kettle. Assuming 20 inch tall tanks, the top of the brew kettle should be a little over 4 feet. Making the shelf heights adjustable to go to half barrels should only add another 6 inches or so.

Basic process would be to heat up water in the boil kettle for the initial mash and gravity drain to the mash tun. Use the burner under the mash tun to maintain temp or step mash.

Heat additional water in the boil kettle for sparging. Either fly sparge from the boil kettle while using the pump to drain from the mash tun and send wort to the grant; or batch sparge after the tun has been drained.

Empty the boil kettle of any extra water you may have there.

Pump the wort from the grant to the boil kettle.

Feedback appreciated.

Compact 3 tier.jpg
 
Search for member name -TH- and look at his 5 gallon brew rig with tippy dump. It is very compact and is all gravity, no pumps needed. Even without the tippy dump its pretty cool.
 
Interesting design. I like it. If you incorporated a herms coil on the boil kettle you could even eliminate the need for a mash tun burner. Fill strike water in bk, heat to the temp transfer to mash tun then refill the bk with sparge water heat to mash temps. Use the pump to recirculate the mash through the bk herms, then fly sparge into the grant.

Then once your boil is compete you can run hose water through the herms to chill.
 
It's a cool set up, I'm planning on building one similar in the near future
 
Yeah, I think this is a brilliantly laid-out tower, and aspire to something like it in the not-too-distant future.
 
Great idea, but pretty thin on details and his costs aren't quite there (his stand doesn't have burners for example).

The devil is in the details.
 
I'm also very interested in building something like this using strut (see the great thread on this forum about building a brewstand with strut). I have zero welding experience nor the equipment to weld so using strut is a very attractive option to me. I'm a little confused about the half barrel brewer's schematics though as he shows the design to be gravity fed from the MLT to the grant, but in the pictures the MLT is only slightly higher than the grant, so he must have been using a pump to move the wort. Right?

I would probably prefer to just boil from the low position instead of pumping back up to the top kettle. I'm not sure why he wanted to pump back up to the top kettle and then use the grant as his HLT for a subsequent batch. Couldn't he just boil in the bottom kettle and use the top kettle to heat strike water for the next batch. Am I missing something? Would it be bad to boil directly under the burner and HLT above since they are so close together? Just trying to understand if it would be necessary to boil in the top kettle.

Thanks.
 
He moves the wort up to the top kettle so that he can start a second batch mashing while he boils the first one.
 
This is my brew stand plan.. sounds like what you are looking for.
Ysa6a7r.jpg

The BK will be the only burner in the system. So this will be a single burner single pump system to keep it on the cheap. I would heat up mash water in the BK and drain off into the MLT and mash in. Then I would heat up sparge water in the BK during the mash. Once mash out started i would pump from the MLT into the HLT (like a holding tank) while I fly sparge the full batch from my BK to MLT. once the batch is fully sparged, pump from the HLT into the BK and do the boil.
The design should be fully functional but with a smaller footprint and cheaper than a single tier.
 
I'm also very interested in building something like this using strut (see the great thread on this forum about building a brewstand with strut). I have zero welding experience nor the equipment to weld so using strut is a very attractive option to me. I'm a little confused about the half barrel brewer's schematics though as he shows the design to be gravity fed from the MLT to the grant, but in the pictures the MLT is only slightly higher than the grant, so he must have been using a pump to move the wort. Right?
Thanks.

The caption under one of the pictures has: "We ended up lowering the bottom left keg supports and raising the right-side mash tun in practice."

I think the idea is to be able to fly sparge by keeping the separation. But I see no reason why you couldn't boil in the lower kettle, just not much room to do hop additions, watch for boil over etc. Would also not allow you to use immersion chiller if you desired to use one.
 
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