Full disclosure: I dont know what Im doing. I have made a few batches of all-grain with just my cooler Mash/Lauter tun and my brew kettle. I have immediately seen how futile this is and would like to build a tiered setup. I have looked all over this site and goggled many other designs. I like the look of the tree design because it is compact and space is an issue. My main question is what I should plan for that I wouldnt naturally think about. I came about this because in one design it mentioned getting the height correct between the sparge and mast tanks. I would have never thought about this until to late probably. I dont plan to incorporate pumps so this would be a strictly gravity fed design.
newbie attempting a brew stand
- Thread starter broomzy
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I would sketch it out on paper and include dimensions. You can put your kettle on the burner stand and measure the height. That height will be the minimum level of the mash tun outlet (I would add a few inches for clearance and contingencies). Then, the top of the mash tun would be the minimum height for the outlet of your HLT (again, add a few inches for clearance etc). So, there you have the height of the three tiers. One thing you want to think about is how you will get the water into the elevated HLT and how you will be heating it. Any burners beneath the HLT or MT will increase the height. You will soon discover that the three tiers can wind up being quite tall. You will want to be able to see down into the mash tun and have easy access to it for stirring etc. This may require you to stand on a platform of some kind which is not real convenient. Consider buying a pump which will allow you to reduce the height of everything. I realize that a pump was not in your plans, but maybe reconsider that. Regarding space economy. Consider putting together a modular system. IOW, not a fixed stand, but individual components. I do it that way for just that reason. I built a wooden tower with top, middle and bottom platforms. The foot print is only 2 ft x 2 ft and much of my equipment, burners etc can be stored on the shelves. When in use, the HLT cooler is on the top. The middle shelf holds miscellaneous equipment and the bottom shelf is where I have the pump mounted on a movable base. I have two propane burners. One for the boil kettle and one for the mash tun. These are stand alone units. The burners and the pump are stored on the tower shelves when not in use and the HLT cooler stays on the top. I store the two kettles separately. So, I have basically a two tier setup as the MT and BK burners are on the floor and I pump to make the transfer. The sparge water is gravity flow. I simply fill the HLT with cold tap water with a hose and heat the water with a bucket heater. Hope this is of some help.
Mischief_Brewing
Well-Known Member
Excellent advice here.
I built my own modular stand out of scrap wood I found in my garage attic. I started by measuring the height of my boil kettle sitting on 2x4's laid flat, then built a small box for the igloo cooler MLT to sit just above the rim of the BK. Then I measured the height to the top of the MLT on the stand and subtracted the height of my burner for the HLT stand. I added 2 inches to all of the measurements for error correction. It cost me $0 and works like a charm. The only downside is that I can't start heating the BK until the sparge is done and I can grab the burner off the HLT stand and put it on the ground.
arturo7
Well-Known Member
My advice would be to hold off on a permanent stand until you have multiple batches completed. As your brewing skills progress, your methods and techniques will change. As a seasoned brewer, you might have issues with a stand you built as a noob.
+1 on holding off until you get a few brews under your belt. (You might decide to change your chiller from IC to CFC and that would add height, etc)
When I decided to build my 3-tier I started from the height of the opening of the Carboy and worked my way backards to the height of the valve on my HLT sitting on top of the burner. I added a few extra inches at each level ("thats what she said") for a bit of of "wiggle" room. But, as I mentioned earlier, I changed from an IC to a CFC and that threw all of my calculations out the window and I had to go back and rebuild.
I created my stand as a set of a separate "towers" that I clamp together with quick clamps. When turned on their side, the tallest "tower" has wheels so I can stack all of the equipment on it and wheel it to where I need to go. I brew with 2 neighbors and we rotate the location of the brew site so portablility and ease of set-up is a necessity. I simply wheel the equipment to the site, stand the "towers" on end, clamp together and I'm ready to go. Set-up usually takes around 5 minutes, tops.
Sorry to ramble. Point is, take some time up front and carefully plan your design.
90% planning + 10% building + a few brews = 100% satisfaciton (+/- 2% margin for error!)
When I decided to build my 3-tier I started from the height of the opening of the Carboy and worked my way backards to the height of the valve on my HLT sitting on top of the burner. I added a few extra inches at each level ("thats what she said") for a bit of of "wiggle" room. But, as I mentioned earlier, I changed from an IC to a CFC and that threw all of my calculations out the window and I had to go back and rebuild.
I created my stand as a set of a separate "towers" that I clamp together with quick clamps. When turned on their side, the tallest "tower" has wheels so I can stack all of the equipment on it and wheel it to where I need to go. I brew with 2 neighbors and we rotate the location of the brew site so portablility and ease of set-up is a necessity. I simply wheel the equipment to the site, stand the "towers" on end, clamp together and I'm ready to go. Set-up usually takes around 5 minutes, tops.
Sorry to ramble. Point is, take some time up front and carefully plan your design.
90% planning + 10% building + a few brews = 100% satisfaciton (+/- 2% margin for error!)
Thanks for the info guys. This will be very helpful. I understand the need for caution and experience when building a stand. I have made a few batches using my brew kettle as a HLT and only using the one burner stand. This takes forever so at this point I just want something that will allow me to heat both the sparge tank and kettle simultaneously and sparge and drain into the kettle simultaneously.
