My Single Tier Stand Build

[AtotheJ]

After a few extract brews under my belt, I decide to jump head first into the all grain. I've liked the single tier so I decided to go with that. After a few months of looking and researching I found a set of plans to go with. There is a local iron place near by that makes gates, doors and other decrotive stuff my girlfriend loves to buy for the house, so I got to build the stand for $150. They used 1.5x1.5 square tube. They dragged their feet getting it started but I can't complain for the price and the quality of work.

(Sorry for the crappy phone pics)

Here are the BG-14's mounted in:

Burners kicked on and no leaks! these suckers get hot.

Mounted the Duba Diesel Plate chiller on the bottom using some off-the-shelf L brackets from Home Cheapo. Didn't need any modifications on the brackets, they fit perfectly.

So after seeing all the other sweet rigs here, I thought a coat of paint was inline. Decided to go with engine enamel paint. I'm a GM fan so when I saw the Hugger Orange can it was perfect. Paint says its good for 500 degrees, and only cost a few dollars. I did get some quotes for powder coating but it cost more than the stand itself to have it powdered.

More photos to come!

 

[AtotheJ]

My good buddy is a photojournalist and came by the other day and took some nice pictures of the rig all finished up.

Pumps mounted. I had the stand built before I had the pumps so I guess-timated the space for the pumps. With the top part covering the pumps it made it impossible to hit screws into the corner holes for the pump. So I grabbed a 1x6 board and cut a few 5" pieces off it and mounted the pumps to the boards, and turned the stand over and mounted the boards to the stand.

I grabbed some remote control electrical outlets, the ones for christmas lights and stuff. Plugged the pumps into them and put them in the box and mounted the box to the stand. Works like a charm, and its very neat.

Ball valves for the burners work well.

So back to that engine paint, I didn't think it would last around the burners.

I'm not surprised it melted the paint, no big deal. The rest of the stand still looks nice. I think Im gonna take some paint thinner and sand paper and get rid of all the paint around the burners. The smell of melting/burning paint is terrible.

 

[SouthernYankee]

Looks good. Have a question for you. When they welded it did they miss some welds? On the photo looking down on the burners it seems that they missed the inside welds on the tube.
The double pumps are sweet!
Also you can buy VHT Flameproof paint that is rated 1300-2000..
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0028V9GWM/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

Happy brewing!

 

[AtotheJ]

Thanks bud, ya i saw the missed a few spots but no big deal. Plus for the price, I can't complain.

Thanks for the suggestion, I'll check out that flameproof paint. I'd like to have some sort of coating around the burners and not just bare metal.

 

[pcollins]

Really nice! And great photography, too!

A couple of quick questions for you because I'm working at putting together a VERY similar brew stand of my own. How do find your pump set up and attaching/detaching with them oriented that way? I'm thinking of something similar but was going to go with street elbows to get all the attachments pointing in one direction: out.

Your ball valves on your burners are on the back of the stand? Do you find that a pain to be walking around to the back to adjust the flow? I had envisioned the same thing on mine but with everything at the front.

Thanks for your time.

 

[MrNatural]

Also you can buy VHT Flameproof paint that is rated 1300-2000..
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0028V9GWM/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

Happy brewing!

I take internet reviews with several grains of salt, but it looks like a number of folks couldn't get it to work for them.
I also want to pimp/protect the burner area of my stand. Anyone with real-life experience with this, or other similar products?

 

[sandyeggoxj]

After a few extract brews under my belt, I decide to jump head first into the all grain. I've liked the single tier so I decided to go with that. After a few months of looking and researching I found a set of plans to go with. There is a local iron place near by that makes gates, doors and other decrotive stuff my girlfriend loves to buy for the house, so I got to build the stand for $150. They used 1.5x1.5 square tube. They dragged their feet getting it started but I can't complain for the price and the quality of work.

You paid for those welds? That is a good price, but incredibly terrible work. I weld on the side and I would never want my name attached to something like that.

On a happier note... Welcome to single-tier land! You are off to a great start. Do you have any plans to HERMS or use control panels? I saw the insulated MLT and thought you might be plumbing it to recirc and hold temps.

Also, I saw on another thread here today where the ID of the flex lines was brought into question. Apparently they were blamed for lowering burner btu values and leading to excessive heating times. Have you heated any volume of water to benchmark performance yet? Something to keep in mind if you have problems moving forward.

Look forward to more pictures! Cheers!

 

[AtotheJ]

Really nice! And great photography, too!

A couple of quick questions for you because I'm working at putting together a VERY similar brew stand of my own. How do find your pump set up and attaching/detaching with them oriented that way? I'm thinking of something similar but was going to go with street elbows to get all the attachments pointing in one direction: out.

Your ball valves on your burners are on the back of the stand? Do you find that a pain to be walking around to the back to adjust the flow? I had envisioned the same thing on mine but with everything at the front.

Thanks for your time.

I actually had the stand made before I had the pumps, I just gathered some information and guessed on how big to make the space to put them in. In the end, when I finally got my pumps it was very difficult to mount them to the steel plate because it was nearly impossible to tap screws to the inside holes of the pump mounting plate. It would have been best to have the pumps in place, mounted, and then had the top piece welded on. I improvised and mounted the pumps the a piece of 1x6 I cut down, and then turned the stand upside down and mounted the boards with the pumps to the stand from the bottom. It worked out good because if I need to remove them it would be a lot easier this way.

I brewed with the stand for the first time this weekend and had no problem with the pump orientation, was able to make all the needed connections with out problems. As for the ball valves on the back for the burners again that wasn't that big of deal. I put them on the back so it would look tidy and really the best place to light the burners was from the back so it worked out well.

 

[AtotheJ]

You paid for those welds? That is a good price, but incredibly terrible work. I weld on the side and I would never want my name attached to something like that.

On a happier note... Welcome to single-tier land! You are off to a great start. Do you have any plans to HERMS or use control panels? I saw the insulated MLT and thought you might be plumbing it to recirc and hold temps.

Also, I saw on another thread here today where the ID of the flex lines was brought into question. Apparently they were blamed for lowering burner btu values and leading to excessive heating times. Have you heated any volume of water to benchmark performance yet? Something to keep in mind if you have problems moving forward.

Look forward to more pictures! Cheers!

Ya I paid for it but it doesn't bother me that they didn't clean it up much. There is no way I could have done any better on my own. I have zero experience with a welder and it would have cost me a lot more to go out and get one and materials to try it myself. The place was close to the house and the price was right.

I did several "test" batches with it prior to getting all the little fittings and hoses in. I was able to get 9 gallons in the HLT put to 180ish degrees really quick, and was able to hold it there with the help of a stock pot lid and low flame for an hour or so.

This weekend I did a 5 gallon batch and was able to hold temp on the mash tun within 1 degree over an hour long mash. The relectix wrap worked really well.

Thanks for the update about the flex hose, I'll have to do some checking on it.

 

[gotbags-10]

Maybe a silly question but what is the need for two pumps?


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[rgauthier20420]

If you fly sparge and have a single tier set up then you'll need a way to drain the MLT while sparging. That's where two pumps usually comes in.

 

[gotbags-10]

Ah gotcha. If you batch sparge could you get away with one pump then?


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[rgauthier20420]

That's right. That's how I currently use my 1 pump. I gravity drain my MLT, but you could pump from the MLT to BK, and then stop and re-attach and refill the MLT.

 

[cw_racefan]

Looks good! Currently finishing up my single tier build also. Another paint option is Rustoleum Ultra high heat. I painted mine black on top and silver the rest, semi-gloss finish. Haven't fired the burners yet to see how it does, but is rated to like 1200F. One question, assuming you're fly sparging (2 pumps), what are you using for the sparge arm? I have my pumps mounted in pretty much identical locations, just not sure about sparging yet.

Craig

 

[Transamguy77]

http://www.amazon.com/VHT-Flat-Aerosol-Spray-Flameproof/dp/B0028V9GWM/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1391391849&sr=8-7&keywords=vht+paint+flameproof[/url]

Happy brewing!

This paint does not work, I followed the directions and used a oxy/acetylene torch to heat the metal before and after to "cure" the paint, it all burned off after the first brew day.

That's a nice looking stand! That stand will provide years of brewing, even with the not so pretty welds



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[AtotheJ]

I just decided to scrap the paint around the burners all together. The original burner location was way too high and forced flames out the sides. During testing at the original height is when the paint started melting. I moved the burners down another 2 inches, 4 inches total from the bottom of the keg and there was even more paint that melted. In the end I took some sand paper and paint thinner and stripped all the paint that was already melted down to bare metal. The smell of the burning paint in the garage literally made me sick. On brew day there was no other areas that melted so I'm just gonna leave it as is with bare metal around the burners.

For sparging I don't have a picture of it, but I am using the LocLine circle nozzle kit. I mounted it to a stock pot lid with a quick disconnect on the lid. Works really well.