Our Homebrew Rig

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Elisha8685

Member
Joined
Mar 16, 2011
Messages
22
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Location
Clarksville
Well after brewing for 1-2 years, my friend and I have decided to go in together and build our very own homebrewing rig. We thought it would be cool to open up a thread for people's entertainment as well as feedback and constructive criticism. If you feel like you have some input or questions please feel free to post!

We went through 4-5 personally made designs (3 tier, 2 tier, and finally single tier) on google sketchup. We were able to work out some kinks and decide what would be best to use. We went with a design that is single tier running off of two March 209 Center Inlet pumps with 3 BG-14 burners. We decided against the NG jet burners for a few reasons after reading many pages on this forum and other places. Our hope is to make a system in the long run that is completely automated and our actual setup allows for expansion up to a 55 gallon Brew Pot.

After buying 11 gauge tubular steel and having it cut, we took it to a local welder who did it for really cheap after some deals were cut. He did a fantastic job and I would recommend him to anyone in North TN or South KY. This is our schematic coming to life. Our "ground truth" made us alter our original schematic a little. Things always seem good on paper until you see the real thing.
IMG_1168.jpg

IMG_1173.jpg


We were ecstatic with the results so far.

Yesterday we mounted on the BG-14 burners from Agri-Supply. It is pretty neat seeing this thing come to life.
IMG_1621.jpg

IMG_1624.jpg


I will be posting further as we work on it and am open to suggestions. I will also be posting some side projects that we have been doing. Cheers to all! :mug:
 
Make sure you have some gas relief holes drilled into the beams. Wouldn't want to see that stand blow up due to the expansion of gases with no relief. Other than that. LOOKS FANTASTIC!! KEEP IT GOING!!
 
Relief holes? There is no gas in that thing. Its just a big grill. Enlighten me as to what your reasoning is. My opinion is no relief holes needed. Guess if you want relief holes, he did it when he tapped the frame with screw holes for the burner supports.
Snake10
 
Relief holes? There is no gas in that thing. Its just a big grill. Enlighten me as to what your reasoning is. My opinion is no relief holes needed. Guess if you want relief holes, he did it when he tapped the frame with screw holes for the burner supports.
Snake10

I would agree with your opinion. If this were the case, every single Morebeer system, BrewMagic and Brutus Ten would have blown up by now.

This is a great looking system! Keep the pics coming!
 
Thanks Lonnie,
I knew I wasn't crazy! Keep building that stand and post pics, that looks great!
Lonnie, you in the Bluebonnet?
Snake10
 
Thanks Lonnie,
I knew I wasn't crazy! Keep building that stand and post pics, that looks great!
Lonnie, you in the Bluebonnet?
Snake10

Actually I am brotha! I will be there next Friday night for the room crawl! I only put in three entries this year but I will be there all weekend.
 
Lonnie,
Good luck to you. Your the man!!!!!!!! Oh, I put in 5 entries. All were on my brutus and are awesome! Thanks again,
Snake10
 
Looks great!
As others have mentioned. No relief holes are needed!

Just one thought. You might want to raise your burners up a little. Ive found that I got better efficiency from the burner at about the 3-4 inch mark.
But thats just my $0.02
Cant wait to see it finised. Man I like these kind of threads.
 
Make sure you have some gas relief holes drilled into the beams. Wouldn't want to see that stand blow up due to the expansion of gases with no relief. Other than that. LOOKS FANTASTIC!! KEEP IT GOING!!

For it to explode it would either need a flammable gas or water to be in the tube, if its just air then you would have to heat it to the melting point of the steel for it to rupture and then it would just be a small puff of air from the expansion of the air which is very little.... now if you filled it with water before you welded it closed it could rupture if heated to very high tempretures that a inderect propane burner will not do
 
For it to explode it would either need a flammable gas or water to be in the tube, if its just air then you would have to heat it to the melting point of the steel for it to rupture and then it would just be a small puff of air from the expansion of the air which is very little.... now if you filled it with water before you welded it closed it could rupture if heated to very high tempretures that a inderect propane burner will not do

Actually, steel tubes have been known to explode from extreme heat. Someone had a converted keg explode because there were no holes drilled on the bottom ring.

Also, bicycle manufacturers drill holes in the chainstays so the frames don't explode while welding. I think think the size of the tubing makes a difference.

Check this out
http://www.thebrewingnetwork.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=6445&start=0
 
Actually, steel tubes have been known to explode from extreme heat. Someone had a converted keg explode because there were no holes drilled on the bottom ring.

Also, bicycle manufacturers drill holes in the chainstays so the frames don't explode while welding. I think think the size of the tubing makes a difference.

Check this out
http://www.thebrewingnetwork.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=6445&start=0

Yep. I have seen that thread for some years now. I simply have my reservations about that thread and always have. We weld up tubes all the time with no relief holes. You should see the Space Station!

This is just me speaking here, but there is no possible way that simple little piece of metal shown from the rim of the keg, that supposedly "exploded" off that keg, lifted a whole keg full of probably over a hundred pounds of boiling wort, tore up the burner frame all to smithereens, etc, etc... There is simply not enough inertia even possible for that to happen. I can understand if the whole dang bottom exploded like a rocket but that didn't happen. Then you take a look at the cheap burner frame that looks like it was WAY over heated, WAY over loaded, and the damn thing simply melted, fell over, keg hitting the cement and breaking off the keggle rim... I would like a lot more info on this other than they didn't see it happen, only saw the results, and now it has been on almost every beer forum for a few years now scaring the jebus out of everybody.

:)
 
I just built one myself.
A caster source recommendation :
https://www.sescasters.com/scripts/index.php?area=user

I bought the Model:CT39G35SXLX.PPXGGAX found here:
https://www.sescasters.com/scripts/index.php?area=user&intrface=casters&f_caster_series_id=90

A VERY nice caster for a great price.

Oh, and I just read the relief hole stuff... none needed. Think about it... while you are welding there is still an unsealed seam that hasn't been closed by the weld. That is your relief hole. Even at the very instant that it it completely welded shut gasses can still escape. and they begin to cool very quickly after that, so a gas/pressure explosion is near impossible. You actually have much higher chances of winning multiple state lotteries simultaneously.
 
Actually, steel tubes have been known to explode from extreme heat. Someone had a converted keg explode because there were no holes drilled on the bottom ring.

Also, bicycle manufacturers drill holes in the chainstays so the frames don't explode while welding. I think think the size of the tubing makes a difference.

Check this out
http://www.thebrewingnetwork.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=6445&start=0

For that keg to fail like that it had to have moisture in it for the air to expand great enough to get enough pressure to blow up like that, under heat air doesnt expand enough to rupture 12 gauge stainless like that, it would take very high psi in the range of 1000psi or more to do that, heck ive sat next to .25" wall tubes holding 7,000+ psi and could hold 2x that amount of pressure. Air just does not expand that much, raising the air inside a sealed container 1000 degrees f would increase the pressure from 0 to about 60psi and increase 30% every 212 degrees f. so at 2000 degrees it would be at about 200 psi , to reach 2000 degree air tempreture inside your brew stand the hole stand would have to be on top of a giant burner, in fact propane burns at about 1900 degrees at optimum air/fuel ratio, so it would need to be on an acetolene burner or another gas that burns much hotter to reach those temps. Its HIGHLY unlikely that this will happen to anyone, the only reason i can think of is that keggle had a crack in it and also could have had moisture in it from the manufacturing process, just a small amount of moisture would build the pressure tremendously higher than if no moisture present. Just my 2 cents, agree to disagree...
 
Yep. I have seen that thread for some years now. I simply have my reservations about that thread and always have. We weld up tubes all the time with no relief holes. You should see the Space Station!

This is just me speaking here, but there is no possible way that simple little piece of metal shown from the rim of the keg, that supposedly "exploded" off that keg, lifted a whole keg full of probably over a hundred pounds of boiling wort, tore up the burner frame all to smithereens, etc, etc... There is simply not enough inertia even possible for that to happen. I can understand if the whole dang bottom exploded like a rocket but that didn't happen. Then you take a look at the cheap burner frame that looks like it was WAY over heated, WAY over loaded, and the damn thing simply melted, fell over, keg hitting the cement and breaking off the keggle rim... I would like a lot more info on this other than they didn't see it happen, only saw the results, and now it has been on almost every beer forum for a few years now scaring the jebus out of everybody.

:)

i agree 100% with this, stainless heated over and over and over again will be come "heat treated" and brittle and would break just like in the picture, heat treated metals become strong but brittle, the harder it is the more brittle it becomes, looks like the junk stand fell over and broke the keg. But you know you have to believe everything you see on the internet.... duh... If this was true ALOT more accounts of this happening would be documented, since there are 10's of thousands boiling on keggles.... this kind of goes hand in hand with kids 12 year olds riding in car seats...... The kid even says he had shrapnel in his leg.... yeah right....... and hearing loss? Just another troll trying to get famous on the net with another story
 
What's a couple holes just to be on the safe side whether or not it's actually happened to anyone? Better to be safe than sorry.
 
Actually, steel tubes have been known to explode from extreme heat. Someone had a converted keg explode because there were no holes drilled on the bottom ring.

Also, bicycle manufacturers drill holes in the chainstays so the frames don't explode while welding. I think think the size of the tubing makes a difference.

Check this out
http://www.thebrewingnetwork.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=6445&start=0

also if youve ever welded a tube closed before youd know the reason why they drill it, if theres no releif hole when you near the end of your weld when the tube is almost closed, the heated air is escaping and wont allow your weld puddle to close and you will have a large hole in your weld, has nothing to do with blowing up, but if youve welded before youd know this, its called a blowout.

heres a thread talking about blowout
http://weldingweb.com/showthread.php?t=47078
 
What's a couple holes just to be on the safe side whether or not it's actually happened to anyone? Better to be safe than sorry.

Holes are good to be on the safe side if one wants. No one eluded otherwise. This is a very OLD topic. We need not throw around scare tactics at the same time. It is good to understand things.
 
Holes are good to be on the safe side if one wants. No one eluded otherwise. This is a very OLD topic. We need not throw around scare tactics at the same time. It is good to understand things.

Yes, it is good to be on the safe side, ALL THE TIME, heck its your life, but when some come on here with bogus claims like bike chainstays expoding really gets under my skin, heck if you know anything about a given subject then by all means share your info, but dont just spout off some made up stuff so you can be in on a conversation or to instegate a problem.
 
Yes, it is good to be on the safe side, ALL THE TIME, heck its your life, but when some come on here with bogus claims like bike chainstays expoding really gets under my skin, heck if you know anything about a given subject then by all means share your info, but dont just spout off some made up stuff so you can be in on a conversation or to instegate a problem.

Naw brother, it's cool... Monster Mash has been in this brewing biz for all the years that I have. Damn good brewer too! You should check out his profile... He is not spouting. This has been a long standing thing around all the brewing forums since this kettle explosion thing came about, and he is just passing info along as I do myself sometimes. Information is a cool thing. I keep this subject close to me... For other reasons...

And by scare tactics, I am talking about the original reply to the OP. Monster Mash has built enough systems to know what he is talking about, and that's good enough for me.
 
Naw brother, it's cool... Monster Mash has been in this brewing biz for all the years that I have. Damn good brewer too! You should check out his profile... He is not spouting. This has been a long standing thing around all the brewing forums since this kettle explosion thing came about, and he is just passing info along as I do myself sometimes. Information is a cool thing. I keep this subject close to me... For other reasons...


Yep, better safe than sorry, but would i do it? If i allready had an 1/8" drill bit in the chuck of the drill? Maybe but i doubt it, it would take the "perfect storm" for this to actually happen, the chances of hitting the lottery are about the same as your keggle exploding. But by the picture , if it actually ruptured thats not what it would have looked like

this is
PAB0102.gif


it looks like a keggle from continous heating and cooling caused it to be brittle and when the keggle fell over on the flimsy stand it broke the bottom ring
 
i have to correct myself on the pressure figures, if a tube was enclosed and is at normal atmospherical pressure (14psi) and at 77 degrees f, if heated to 1000 degrees the internal pressure would be 39.97 psi, no possible chance of a keggle exploding at 40psi.... its impossible...... IMPOSSIBLE

Information courtesy phd graduate at iowa state university
 
I will not be drilling relief holes, really showing a bunch of rips in some sealed metal containers has nothing to do with welding some tubular steel together. Come off it.
 
I will not be drilling relief holes, really showing a bunch of rips in some sealed metal containers has nothing to do with welding some tubular steel together. Come off it.

Maybe you should read more in depth in the thread to as why the pictures were posted, goes along the same lines of " thinking before you speak"
 
I read the whole thread and that is the conclusion that I came to. I have a very big feeling that if exploding steel due to heat was a problem with propane homebrewing, there would probably be more than one case. Thanks for the opinions though. Either way, if bursting tubular steel is a big concern of yours, start a thread about it ;)
 
UPDATE

So I decided to make our Homebrew Rig usable while we work out the finer parts of the project. I simply wired the 2 march 209 pumps into switches that control each one individually. It is simple but one can do a lot with 2 usable pumps. Here's the rig doing some re-circulation prior to brew day last weekend!
2012-07-13223840.jpg
 
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