Gravity fed brew rig ???

Ok this may take awhile. I am trying to figure out the heights that I will need in order to use gravity to move liquids around from my Liquor tun to Mash Tun and from Mash Tun to Boil kettle. Here is what I have figured out so far if at most I plan to do 10 gallon batches.

Assuming that 1 gallon of water out of the mash tun weighs 8.35 pounds, and you use 1 qt for every pound of grain you have in the mash, assuming that I'll use 20 pounds of grain, my mash tun will weigh around 61 pounds. I'm ok with using muscle over brains here and lifting this. I do not want to purchase a pump and deal with that hassle right now.

My turkey burner is 14 inch tall. My Kettle is a converted 15.5 gal keg with the spigot approx 4 inch from the bottom of the keg. So the distance from the ground is approx 18 inch. My Mash tun is a converted Rubbermaid 10 gal cooler.

Question #1 How high would my Liquor tun need to be in order to use gravity to force the water down into the Mash tun assuming it is on the ground?

Now I would leave the mash tun down until I need to send it to the boil kettle.

For sparging I can use the answer from Question #1

Question #2 With my Boil kettle on top of the turkey fryer, it is 37 inch tall. How high above that would my mash tun need to be in order to use gravity to force the wort into the Boil kettle? The spigot on the Mash tun is 3 inch from the bottom of the tun.

I cannot afford to waste the money on one of the brew rigs so I'm trying to figure out these two stands that I could use that would allow me to do this without a pump, I don't like all the negative reviews about the pumps not priming and the fact that some take forever to send liquid up 4-6 ft.

As long as the bottom of the higher kettle is higher than the top of the lower kettle, gravity will work. If you are batch sparging, this is all the height you will need. I have heard that if you are fly sparging, you need the height difference increased slightly to get enough head.

Try this...

http://home.comcast.net/~midnighthomebrewers/brewladder.htm

On my rig I have the HLT up high but I put it up there empty and use the water pressure From the house to fill it in place.

I have a gravity rig... I liked it at first, but im now getting sick of lifting full kettles of water up that high. I think im going to cut the rig down and make it a two tier system. Then I wont have to lift it so high.

The burner and vessel placement question is exactly what lead me to design a fully adjustable 3 tier stand I'm building now. This allows me hedge my bet quite a bit with flexibility to move burners and vessels around and change out vessels at a later date if need be.

I'm designed it using sliding pipe sleeves as the principle for my center post assembly with the short sections of thin walled larger dia. pipes with set screws for fixing the burner mounts and a thick walled smaller dia. pipe for center post. I can always pin sleeves later if I find it necessary once I've figured out the heights that work best. This design allows for both height adjustment and angle adjustment around the center post to tweek the burner and vessel placement as I go. I might even add a tier for a small BBQ grill or work shelf if the mood suits me.

As for filling and lifting pots, all I intend to do is use a long bent wand on a hose to fill the HLT on top and let gravity do the rest all the way down to the fermenter, which I guess is really a 4th tier at ground level.

mikejamesnelson said:

I have a gravity rig... I liked it at first, but im now getting sick of lifting full kettles of water up that high. I think im going to cut the rig down and make it a two tier system. Then I wont have to lift it so high.

Click to expand...

My thoughts too.
I have a 10 gallon gravity 3 tier system.
The bottom of my HLT sits around 6ft high.
It has gotten to be pain to lift that much hot water, that high.
I have just purchased a pump to move liquids around on my system.
And will be going to a single tier HERMS in the future ( when the CFO lets me spend the funds) because my back can not take the 6 hour brew days anymore.

If your strong and young go for it.
But if you can foot a few extra dollars up front, get a pump and make it a 2 tier it is well worth the investment.

wilceaser said:

My thoughts too.
I have a 10 gallon gravity 3 tier system.
The bottom of my HLT sits around 6ft high.
It has gotten to be pain to lift that much hot water, that high.

Click to expand...

Why is anybody lifting the water on a 3-tier system?? The way I look at it, you place the empty vessels on the rig, attach a filter to your hose, put end of hose in HLT and fill. Then you let gravity do the rest of the transferring for you (i.e., to the MLT and BK).

Have to agree with Carl..I mean Ace.

And the only thing you need to drain water from one vessel to the next, is to mkae sure the bottom of one is above the top of the next No math needed.

Ace_Club said:

Why is anybody lifting the water on a 3-tier system?? The way I look at it, you place the empty vessels on the rig, attach a filter to your hose, put end of hose in HLT and fill. Then you let gravity do the rest of the transferring for you (i.e., to the MLT and BK).

Click to expand...

That's my view on it. Let the domestic water pressure do the heavy lifting and gravity do the rest. That is until it's in the primary fermenter. Then moving the primary, racking to secondary, and racking to the keg will involve some moving and lifing, unless I decide to burn some CO2 for pressurized transfers.

I don't know if this will help you or not, but here's a shot of my portable gravity system. I couldn't tell you the exact measurements, but the top shelf sits well below my shoulders.

Xakk said:

I don't know if this will help you or not, but here's a shot of my portable gravity system. I couldn't tell you the exact measurements, but the top shelf sits well below my shoulders.

Click to expand...

Love the shelf!:rockin:

Half a folding table, right?

The legs came off of a folding table, yep. I had to extend them a little so they'd be high enough, but other wise they worked perfectly.

See my crappy 3 tier system below:

wilceaser said:

My thoughts too.
I have a 10 gallon gravity 3 tier system.
The bottom of my HLT sits around 6ft high.
It has gotten to be pain to lift that much hot water, that high.
I have just purchased a pump to move liquids around on my system.
And will be going to a single tier HERMS in the future ( when the CFO lets me spend the funds) because my back can not take the 6 hour brew days anymore.

If your strong and young go for it.
But if you can foot a few extra dollars up front, get a pump and make it a 2 tier it is well worth the investment.

Click to expand...

I built a three tier and made a shepherds hook with a shut off to fill my HLT. My hose was frozen once and hell with laddering the water. I bought a pump to were if I have an issue fill the BK and pump it up there. It won't be long and I will be making a single tier. Thought I wanted gravity to not have a pump. Now that I have a pump I don't want a 3 tier.

Yep! got my pump now I have to do some rebuilding on my stand to make it a 2 tier....unless I build my heat sticks first, then It will be just a single tier.....
the will to build is greater than the bank account

wilceaser said:

See my crappy 3 tier system below:

Click to expand...

:rockin: That's an interesting use of hardware obviously intended for something else. Is that made out of those brackets for making firewood racks?

Xakk said:

The legs came off of a folding table, yep. I had to extend them a little so they'd be high enough, but other wise they worked perfectly.

Click to expand...

Awesome! I love how the DIY brewers here figure out now repurpose just about anything into a piece of useful brewing equipment. I'm not a crunchy green everything type, but just appreciate smart frugal use and reuse on anything that can be had for less $$ and especially fewer imports of chinese crap and exports of our hard earned currency. Less good stuff in the landfill is just a terrific side effect...

starsailor said:

:rockin: That's an interesting use of hardware obviously intended for something else. Is that made out of those brackets for making firewood racks?

Click to expand...

Kind of, the brackets are called http://www.2x4basics.com/ they can be used to make any number of configurations. I could have just built the stand with out them but, I saw them and figured what the heck, lets give it a try.
When I switch to the all electric system I can reuse everything, I'll just need to cut a few more piece of lumber for the top shelf.