building my own 1 barrel, single tier brewstand with controller

[ramonallones]

Hi all, wanted advice on building my own 1 or 1.5 barrel single tier, 3 burner brewsystem. gas- natural or propane. I'm currently using a 10 gallon herms system and like it, so may do herms. maybe have it on wheels. may want to add a fourth burner down the road to make double batches easier. any resources for stand schematics?

STAND AND BURNERS- I have a professional welder that can design and build a brewstand for me. I assumeI just give him the burners and he will attach them to the stand securly Will these burners work?

https://www.webstaurantstore.com/al...-burner-natural-gas-160-000-btu/AP241209.html

KETTLES- Anyone have recommendation on kettles? I assume these are pretty similar, blichman 55 gallon, or stout etc.

CONTROL PANEL- this is where I am stuck. I want a herms control panel for the burner and pump, but know nothing about the wiring or that stuff. where are the options to get the panels and solenoids or whatever else I need. Is it pretty easy to setup?

TIA for any help

 

[eric19312]

I think the burners will work. I use the banjos with NG and was going to say maybe not on 1.5bbl but the jet burners should do what you need.
I don’t know a prewired herms setup but I designed my panel based on a diy blichman tower of power. In the end I prob spent $300 on parts so saved maybe $200 but it was fun for me...about 30 hours worth of fun by time got it all figured out and wired up. But that was direct fire recirc, not HERMs.

Edited to add Kettles probably going to depend on your desire for welded fittings and tri clover. I just bought a 20 gal spike kettle and like it a lot. But I don’t have any interest in switching from cam locks to tri clover so I have no issues with the threaded welded fittings.

 

[calgary222]

I am running 30 gallon pots now and have boiled maybe 24 gallons on NG with the 14" banjos. Not too bad, but more volume mean longer wait times to boil.

Also, consider a tippy dumpy for your mash tun. Mine is way too heavy to dump without shoveling wet grain first...

I use RIMs at 120v by the way and it holds temp just fine with no insulation on cool days... will eventually go up to 240.

 

[Dog House Brew]

Just ran across this thread. I boil 25 gallons with the 20 tip jet burners using NG. One thing to remember about a jet burner is the space from jet tip to the bottom of your kettle. My tip to kettle is 15.5” and it works great. I wouldn’t change burner style for anything. You can crank it and get to boil fast, or you can cut it back to maintain temp. I use three of these burners. One for my HLT, one for my HERMS, one for my BK.

 

[SirVilhelm]

My brother and I are looking at doing the same project as OP but the question we keep adding ourselves is go gas or electric? Right now we're just doing 15gal brews using propane and it works fine however when we move up to one barrel and Beyond does electric make more sense?