2-Tier Brewstand Build

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diverpat

Well-Known Member
Joined
Dec 3, 2010
Messages
105
Reaction score
13
Location
Wilmington
I finally pulled the trigger and started my brewstand. It is a 2-tier propane HERMS system. Parts are slowly trickling in and I hope to give it a water test run next week. My buddy and I just welded it up and painted it yesterday. Today we do the stainless work, shields, logos, and shelves. Soon I hope to automate the HLT, but until then it will be all manual temp control/babysitting. I'm looking forward to dumping money I don't have into this thing in the months to come!

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Google Sketchup Plans

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Getting her ready for paint

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All painted up
 
Wow this thing is getting expensive, I'm a few hundred over budget already. It doesn't help that I kinked my copper HERMS coil and had to trash it, $70 lost. Now I'm not taking any chances and went with a SS one from stainlessbrewing.com.

It was built with 26' of 1.5" square steel tube, and 42" of 1" flat bar stock. The design was to minimize welds and materials. Luckily my buddy owns a metal fabrication shop and we went from steel bar to painted up in 3 hours. The heat shield were cut on a computer controlled plasma cutter table which made life easy.

Set up with kettles and MLT, looks damn close to the design!
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Burner and heat shield
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Dims on Google Sketchup
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DUDE! you have a nice looking stand there. I like the design alot. If i would have seen this a year ago I might have gone way. Nicely done!
Have you run it yet? I think that upper level is going to get hot from the lower burner. will check back to see how it goes.
 
I think you've just given me the basis for my RIMS build. This looks like it would be a very efficient set up for RIMS and even better, it looks like it would be easy to start basic and add to as I get $$ and experience.
 
Thanks for all the kind works everyone! Let's hope function follows form on this one.

Have you run it yet? I think that upper level is going to get hot from the lower burner. will check back to see how it goes.

I'm a week away from completing the build. I have the last bit of parts coming in early next week and I have to build the gas manifold.

I was wondering about the heat getting to the second teir, I'll have to watch for that. I already have some ideas for additional heat shields if needed.
 
I'm 95% done bare bones portion of stand. Did a water test run today and besides the learning curve, all is good. I've learned I need some silicon gloves so I don't burn the **** out of my hands while moving the cam locks/hoses. I probably have to raise and reposition the pump to avoid air locks. and I need to tweak the sparging technique with the current setup. This is my first experience with a brew stand so the first few brews should be interesting.


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How stable is the top tier with 10 gal of water cantilevered like that? Do you see a need for a gusset or a brace?
 
It is stong enough to hold me (175lbs) bouncing on the ends of the supports with no noticeable flex and the base stayed pretty stable. It's some pretty strong steel only cantilevered out 18".
 
Brewing a Centennial Blonde on the new rig now. Having never seen or used a system like this and having never fly sparged before, I planned on 70% efficiency, got 82%, nice but not good for the recipe. I'll take it though! Its inline with my old batch sparge method. I'm liking this thing so far!!!
 
Love how compact that thing is. My stand takes up a lot of room. I am ok with that as long as the wife never wants to park in the garage.
 
I took time over the long weekend and automated the propane system on my HLT and HERMS loop. The system was initially set up as all high pressure propane. I had to replace the burner to be automated and add a low pressure grill regulator in front of the Honeywell valve. After moving the burner a little closer to the HLT it seems to work great. The control box is a little large but it was scavenged and has room for expansion. I was fortunate to be able to scavenge all the switches and a rail mounted wiring terminals also. I still need to add some labels and finish some minor wiring, then this thing will be done and ready to brew!

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Wow! Big updates. I love this design but you are way over my abilities with the automation part. Did you work your way up to this through previous stands?
 
I am a stand virgin. I pretty much learned everything via this site. 2 months ago I didn't have the slightest clue how to proceed but after reading the vast library of extremely informative posts here, it all clicked and seems pretty straight forward now. By far the most confusing thing was the propane automation. The whole lp, ng, low pressure high pressure, and which items to use for each, confused the hell out of me.
 
DiverPat: I've decided that I am, in fact, going to copy your stand ( the frame at least for now). I do have a couple of questions: 1) Did you ever need additional heat shielding?; 2) I see all five casters are swivel, did that pose any issues? (I have 6 heavy duty swivel casters left over from a previous project and would love to recycle them); 3) Any issues with your pump placement?
 
I only have 2 brews down on this system so far and I'm really happy with the design of the stand. The heat shields seem to be doing their job, the stand stays surprisingly cool, even the upright behind the lower boil kettle tier which I thought would be an issue. My MLT stays nice and cool and most of the heat resistant paint seems to be holding up.

So far I'm happy with the casters, 2 of them are locking so it stays put when needed. It is really easy to move around my garage so I like the swivel.

My initial pump placement was an issue, the intake and outlet were horizontal and too close to the ground. In the most recent pictures you can see the new placement in the back ground, with a downward facing inlet and the outlet pointing up. This has helped with air locks. I also raised it up a little so I could get a drip catching cup under it for hose changes. So far I think it is far enough below the lower tier kettle outlet to keep it issue free.

My only very minor regret is I wish I would have designed for a large banjo burner for the HLT. It takes a while to get 6 gallons of water up to strike temp. It may be an orifice issue on the 6" burner, I randomly drilled it out with the smallest bit I had.

Please let me know if you have any more questions. In two weeks I put it to the test with a big RIS, I can't wait!
 
I copied this build and am in the process of completing the control panel for the auto gas valve for the HLT and RIMS tube for the MLT. I've got about five brews on the stand manually controlling temps. I love the design. It is very adaptable and easy to work around. Mine is make from some free 1/4" wall 2x2 tubing. I also changed the heights a bit from DiverPat's stand to make it work a little bit better with keggles.

Still a great design. Thanks DiverPat.
 
Definetly Stealing this design.

I am trying to minimize pumps so was thinking about having the BK and HLT on top and MT on the bottom, that way I can just gravity drain to the carboy ( I use an Immersion Chiller anyway) as well as sparge using gravity.

Anyone see any problems with that mod?
 
How's this thing working out?

Damn, I dropped off and missed a few questions.

It's working great! I have about 10 batches through the system and finally have my system down. The top tier is holding up well, no need for added support. The automation is working well also, the HLT burner is a bit weak due to some orifice/flow issues but it gets the job done.

My only regret was not being able to afford stainless. I've had to do minor touch ups with some rustoleum on the lower parts.
 
Definetly Stealing this design.

I am trying to minimize pumps so was thinking about having the BK and HLT on top and MT on the bottom, that way I can just gravity drain to the carboy ( I use an Immersion Chiller anyway) as well as sparge using gravity.

Anyone see any problems with that mod?

I can't really comment on the mods other than say that I've been having no issues with the HLT and MLT on top with the BK down low.

I use the pump to sparge and gravity flow from the MLT the BK. I also pump from the wort into the ice HLT via the HERMS coil for cooling. I then pump the cooled wort from the BK into my carboy located in the fermentation chamber.
 
If I were to build this out of wood, for a 3 x 15gal Kettle setup, do you think 1x2 or 1x1 would work?
 
I can't really comment on the mods other than say that I've been having no issues with the HLT and MLT on top with the BK down low.

I use the pump to sparge and gravity flow from the MLT the BK. I also pump from the wort into the ice HLT via the HERMS coil for cooling. I then pump the cooled wort from the BK into my carboy located in the fermentation chamber.

I know this is an old thread, but i'm curious how the system is holding up and what changes you might make. I recently hurt my back (again), so the need to not move pots and water around has increased for me. On top of that, i'm somewhat space limited in my garage, so i love your small footprint.

Thanks
 
Sorry for the delay, I just saw your question. The stand is holding up great and I'm not having any issues with the design. I haven't made any modifications to the system, I'm just tweaking methods to make the brew day more efficient.

I occasionally have back issues and one of the pros to this is not having to lift anything too heavy.

Let me know if you have any more questions.
 
Looking great.
How is the paint holding up?
Any problems with the MLT area getting too hot?
Where did you get your hoses from? I've been looking to get some silicone hose in the near future.
Grear job!
 
The paint is doing fair. It has some light surface rust mainly around the boil kettle but no too bad. I'm diligent about wiping it down after each brew day. One day I may recoat it but it's not there yet. I do wish it was stainless but that would have been a little pricey.

There is no heat issue regarding the MLT, I don't think it even gets warm up there.

I think I got a the silicone tubing from Northern Brewer but it was just the standard run of the mill silicon tube. The fittings came from Bargain Fittings.
 
Man, what a great design. I wish I had seen this sooner, I don't know how I missed it, I must have searched 2 tier systems a hundred times. Unfortunately I just finished welding my 2 tier stand, but it's 70" inches long and 34" tall. Yours is such an ingenious design!! Congrats great rig!
 
Old thread I know, but man.... This will most definitely be used as the basis for my first brew stand - awesome!

Many thanks!
 
Old thread I know, but man.... This will most definitely be used as the basis for my first brew stand - awesome!

Many thanks!

Let me know if you have any questions. This stand is still going strong with very little/no modifications.
 
hey Diverpat, I have a few question on this stand. Question 1 how much did this cost you to build. Question 2 can I copy and use your plans. Question 3 I have the 15 gallon kegs will that work on the stand. P.S. This is a amazing stand!
 
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