Lounge Lizard said:
Hey! Here is a pretty good looking outfit I found:
I like it! It was found here:
http://www.xb-70.com/beer/3_tier/
I want a burner under the tun for flexibility
Of course I'll have some sort of sheetmetal or fireproof sheetrock (or something) on the steps....
And some way to make the kegs more stable. Those look like a good Texas wind would blow them right over....
Wow, I must have copied my design from that site. That stand is EXACTLY the same design as mine, except I don't have that slick little cabinet under the HLT. That's pretty cool.
But mine is exactly like that in terms of placement of the cross members. And I dadoed out the joints like that guy did and used carriage bolts.
As far as a burner on the mash tun...be careful with that. Kegs are thin and applying heat directly to grain is a recipe for disaster. 90% of all beers can be made with one or two infusion steps. 100% can be done with more infusions or decoction. I wish I had built mine so that the steps were unequal. Instead I built it thinking I might add a burner for the mash. No way. Not a chance. Never gonna happen.
I too was worried about the stability, but I think you'd be suprised. Once those kegs are full, there's no wind in the world that would knock them over and not blow out your burner and blow you across the yard. I mean, they are HEAVY
Now, the burners in that picture do look shaky and weird to me. I did go out of my way to find burners I thought would really help stabilize them...they have these arms that sort of cradle the keg. When they are full, you'd have to push them HARD to knock them over.
This is a picture of my burner:
http://www.kegs.com/brewkettles1.html
As far as fireproofing, I thought I'd do that, but wanted to try it once to see if it was necessary...I didn't really want to add the weight and bulk. The tops of the steps really don't get very hot, and they're usually totally wet. YMMV, but I've gotten very comfortable with mine after several years brewing with it. It's hard to argue that a fireproof top layer wouldn't be better though.