Considering building a tower brew stand. Thoughts?

[ickmund]

I'm brewing out of my apartment and while I don't have a lot of space, I could build something small on my balcony. I've researched different brew stands, and from what I can see there's three kinds:

• Single tier
• Three tiers
• Tree

Neither really hits my sweet spot!

I want to maximize my floor space, and build as cheaply as I can. I'm looking at a tower of three levels, all on top of each other, with a single burner. At the bottom I'll have my kettle with a burner below it, then my mash tun above it, and on top a second cooler to hold sparge water.

This way, my work flow could be something like:

1. Heat strike water
2. Transfer to mash tun
3. While mashing, heat sparge water
4. Transfer to top cooler
5. Do sparge or fly
6. Boil

With a single pump I can transfer the water to the different levels, and the wort to fermentor (through either a plate or a counter flow chiller).

Pumpwise, I'm thinking of something like this one: http://www.ebay.es/itm/New-Am-Tech-...r-Clamp-Mounted-Pond-Pool-Water-/221441612048

Since I'll be getting a drill-powered grainmill as well, it feels like a great fit.

Any flaws in my thinking?

I could go with a tree as well, since I want my propan-tank to be next to the tower anyways (right in the mid between brew stand and the bbq), but unless there's some obvious benefit to it I'd rather have the flexibility to move the tank/bbq around.

Oh, I have a 50L (13 gallons) kettle and 42L (11 gallon) coolers. So total height without any gaps would be maybe 160cm (5"3) or so. As long as I can reach the top cooler I'm ok (I pour all water into the kettle at bottom level), so there should be room to put some spacing in between?

Cheers!
/Magnus

 

[jleiii]

Here's my compact 3 tier Brewing Tree. Uses less than 36x36 footprint, and under 5'9" clearance in basement. Without the pots it's light enough to pickup and move, and carry up the steps. Being able to weld (all but the base) made it an easy DIY project. The tray under it is for a washing machine, and makes spills easy to clean up.

I'm working on electric for the BK so propane for now, and have not finalized the 'HLT' part yet. It will go above the BK.

 

[86turbodsl]

I like this idea, in fact i'm hoping to do something similar in my basement. I have very limited space there but some decent headroom. Plus it would make the hood smaller too. Interested in whatever you come up with.

 

[outside92129]

no-go on the pump, it won't be able to handle the heat (and it's too small) .There are very few that are food safe and temp stable for brewing. The standard pump is the march 809, you can search the forums here for other brands/models (eg chugger) that are also used.