Hard or soft option - (plumbing a brew stand)

Over the last few months I've been piecing together my brew stand. It's basically a clone of the Brew Magic frame. I still need to drill the kegs and mount the pump. I've got a false bottom on the way.

I'm having a hard time deciding on using silicone tubing and quick disconnects or using hard piping similar to the Brew Magic system.

Anyone have any thoughts or advice?

Here is a pic of it so far:



Thanks,

Chrisp

Only use hard plumbing if you're sure you don't ever want to change the layout.

I think soft tubing with QDs is just too easy. I wouldn't even think about hard plumbing personally.

GREAT looking setup! Very sharp!

Thanks.

I have wanted one of these forever (15 years or so).

I must give credit for the design of the stand to socaldoug on the B3 forum. He hard piped his but I've been thinking that silicone tubing would work better for me. It would allow me to rearrange my setup and also be sure the plumbing is clean.

-Chrisp

Is that stainless square tube?!?!

Yuri_Rage said:

Is that stainless square tube?!?!

Click to expand...

It's my poor man's stainless.

It's actually Krylon High Heat Aluminum spray paint over square tube steel. My paint job actually came out better than I thought it would. Of course it won't hold up like stainless.

Now I need to drill my kegs and install the valves. I'll watch your video a couple of more times and perhaps get the courage to start drilling.

Paint link

Ok, that makes MUCH more sense. I'm familiar with that paint, and it always looks really good when you first apply it. As long as the square tube was REALLY clean when you sprayed, it'll stay fairly nice (the gloss will dull a bit where heat is applied). Otherwise, it's prone to peeling.

Yuri_Rage said:

Ok, that makes MUCH more sense. I'm familiar with that paint, and it always looks really good when you first apply it. As long as the square tube was REALLY clean when you sprayed, it'll stay fairly nice (the gloss will dull a bit where heat is applied). Otherwise, it's prone to peeling.

Click to expand...

I removed any rust and then wiped it down with denatured alcohol before I painted it. I hope it stays looking nice but as long as it makes beer I'll be happy.

I want to powder paint a steel frame. That stuff is available in many colors and is almost bullet proof.

Now I'm wondering if I should plumb things like Sabco (but using silicone hoses) with a bunch of valves or use quick disconnects and move the hoses as I need.

Here's a link link that shows the hard plumbed system I based mine on.