20g Stout/Kal Build and Bar

[November]

It is time to replace my current propane rig. I have decided to go electric and spent a few months putting together spreadsheets of all the parts and costs. There are a bunch of these build threads, but when I was putting my plans together, I found the threads very helpful to pull ideas from. Hopefully someone will find parts of this useful.

Here is the general plan:

Tanks
-Vessels are custom ordered from Stout. ETA is June.

Boil Kettle 20g
-Dome Bottom
-1.5" TC element port
-1.5" TC output
-1.5" TC tangential inlet
-Butterfly valves
-Sight glass
-replace 1/2" NPT thermowell with 1.5" TC moved to 10:30 position
-No NSP adapter (using brewhardware enclosure for element)

MLT 20g
-Bottom drain
-False bottom
-1.5" TC outlet
-1.5" TC recirculation inlet
-Butterfly valve
-No Thermowell (using instrument tees at outlet)

HLT 20g
-Bottom drain like MLT
-1.5" TC element port
-1.5" TC recirculation port
-1.5" output port
-1.5" TC HERMS inlet
-1.5" TC HERMS outlet
-Butterfly valves
-Sight glass
-No thermowell (see above)
-No HERMS coil (using custom made 1/2" x 50' version)
-No NSP adapter (see above)

Control panel

-Kal DIY kit 240V/30A

Table
-8' long, 34" tall, 24" deep
-Wood construction using knotty alder to match the bar being put in the garage.
-Post for mounting panel to swing out TV mount

Fittings/Other parts

-1.5" TC throughout
-Brewershardware trub filter
-March 815-plc center inlet pump x2
-Dudadiesel B3-36A 40 plate chiller

I have ordered almost everything. I am just waiting to order a few final fittings until the tanks get here so I can make sure of some measurements. Besides the brewing rig, I was also going to install a bar.

The bar plan has changed slightly, I was able to get a granite topped bar for free, but it needs some repair work since parts of the granite and wood are broken. So instead of building one from scratch, I am going to rebuild this one.

My control panel kit arrived yesterday, so I will be working on that and the bar first. I have been planning out this build for about 3 months so Its nice to final start making progress. I will post the final cost sheet once that gets fully hashed out. Pictures of the build in progress and updates are coming soon.

 

[Rockn_M]

Keep us posted! I always like a good bar\brewery build. That way I can "borrow" ideas.


Sent from my kegerator

 

[November]

I forgot to submit that first post till today, but I have been working on the bar for a couple days and worked on the panel today.

Here is the panel progress.

So the back story on the bar is this. I'm having an addition put on my house and the builder said he had a bar I could have that he had removed from a build. The only catch was the granite was broken and he wasn't sure if he had it all or if it could be fixed. I took it and set to trying to piece it together. The top and bottom are suppose to be two long pieces each. They each broke into 3 big pieces and one little piece. It also had a back splash made of a bunch of small rounded off pieces.

I managed to find every piece out of his scrap pile and then we put it back together. I filled in a hole in the wood on one side but I still have to stain it and I have to close up the far side since it used to have another cabinet. I'm also going to eventually fill in the seams and chips with epoxy but it looks nice figuring that it cost me 20 bucks in adhesive.

 

[Roadie]

Congrats on build. Sounds like my build with a couple changes I said I would make if doing over. Hopefully the thermowells for your temp probe are a little lower than mine. That fact alone makes it more difficult to brew 5g batches.


Almost Famous Brewing Company

 

[November]

Made some progress on the panel today. I had to build an addition to the chicken coop, so I only had a little time to work on it.

 

[November]

I cut the receptacle holes on the bottom, cut the hole for the heatsink, and drilled tapped and mounted the SSRs. It all went well. The tapping went smoother than I expected. I just finished laying out the components on the backplate. I will probably start drilling and tapping that tomorrow.

 

[sandyeggoxj]

Hey I am working on a 30 gallon BCS build right now. I am just down the road from you too! Where in Southern AZ are ya? I am down the street from Dragoon. I'd love to check out your setup in person one of these day if it works out.

I haven't finished my build yet but I am already thinking about what to change... DER! I thought I had it planned out pretty well but I guess not.

 

[November]

I know how that goes. I read your build and started double guessing whether or not I should have gone with BCS. Too late now, and I am sure I will like it when I finish.

When I finish it, swing on down and take a look if your ever by this way. I'm a good ways south of you, in Nogales, about 6 miles north of the border in the mountains east of town.

Just finished drilling and tapping the back plate and mounting the components. That didn't take as long as I expect. I might even start wiring tomorrow, though I probably still have three months before my tanks are built.

 

[Yaksha808]

Just started my BCS build... got all the main pieces in place and starting on wiring it up, slow process.... but its fun!

 

[sandyeggoxj]

Oh yeah, nogales is down there! I'll try and make a point to come down this fall. I will be fine all summer so that won't work.

It seems that there are so many ways to do this that you just have to pick on and go with it!

Good luck on the build. I am looking forward to following along!

 

[November]

Finished wiring power, ground, pumps, and most of the volt and amp meters. Hit a snag with the volt meter, I lost the pin connector. I have to try to hunt one down.

Powered it up and everything powered as it should.

 

[kal]

Subscribed! I'm curious to see how it all turns out.... (good luck!)

Kal

 

[November]

Work on the panel continues. I finished all of the wiring except the safe start. The wiring is a mess since I ran out of zip ties. As soon as I get some more, I should be able to clean it up a bit. I put together the first of four tri clamp rtd probes. That took forever. After I got it all together, it didn't work. After a bit of troubleshooting, I found that a frayed piece of the steel cable was touching one of the pins. Works fine now.

Plan is to wire in the safe start, get more zip ties and clean up the wiring, and finish the probes.

Going to go look at wood for the brewstand this weekend. I have been offered some mesquite at a good price, but I need to get it down a bit more before the wife will bite...

 

[November]

It's alive!

 

[showcow]

Beautiful! Congrats man.

 

[November]

Finished wiring the interlock today.

Subscribed! I'm curious to see how it all turns out.... (good luck!)

Kal

Sorry, Kal. I didn't read the interlock instructions well enough and used some creative and colorful words in conjunction with your name during the testing. I officially owe you a pint if you ever find yourself in Southern Arizona. Works fine now.

 

[Facebrewing]

This build looks awesome. And as far as the stout tanks, you will not be disappointed. Couldn't be happier with mine. Good luck.

 

[kal]

Sorry, Kal. I didn't read the interlock instructions well enough and used some creative and colorful words in conjunction with your name during the testing. I officially owe you a pint if you ever find yourself in Southern Arizona. Works fine now.

Usually I only hear my wife using those colourful words in conjunction with my name... Glad you got it working!

Kal

 

[COEBRA]

Subscribed!

 

[orangehero]

If you haven't ordered all the accessories, I would recommend using 1" triclover to minimize all the extra volume. Even 1" is big for homebrew equipment.

 

[southwoodbrew]

Looking good, interested in seeing where this goes.

 

[November]

Flying out to Vegas for the week, so no progress. Still planing on starting on the stand next. The mesquite deal fell through, so I am going to use Alder. To match to wrought iron metal accessories I plan on using, I am probably going to use knotty alder.

 

[pannell77]

nice score on the free bar and the panel build looks great. Excited to see your finished product.

 

[November]

Still waiting for the tanks to arrive.

Just got done off loading 70 board feet of knotty alder. I need to pick up a few more parts for the stand but I should get to start on the carcass this week.

 

[November]

I finally got some work done on this last night and this morning.

I built the top carcass and the legs. Both are made out of pine but the carcass will be covered in alder, it just serves as support. I made the top frame with half lap and edge laps joints that alternate and used glue and some screws for good measure.

Here is the top carcass done.

I planed the boards square with a number 6 fore plane and then cut it with a miter saw and used a hand drill, chisels and a rasp to cut the lap notches and fit it together.

This morning I cut the 4x4s for the legs on the miter, my arms are sore, and then planed them square.

Going to build the bottom stretcher and attach the legs next, then I need to cut and plane a bunch of alder to cover the thing.

 

[November]

Still working. I put together the frame and squared up the alder. Starting to put on the planks.

Today I got all the top planks attached and started adding the facing boards.

 

[NewBrewB]

Good progress!

 

[fujieagle]

Your build is looking awesome. Someday there will be a bar in my home. Renting now so no bar. Nice looking work on your control panel. I love mine.

 

[Dragonman]

sub

 

[November]

Setting nails and sanding.

 

[November]

Oiled. Once it dried I will add clear coat. Tanks are supposed to ship from Stout this week.

 

[COEBRA]

Oiled. Once it dried I will add clear coat. Tanks are supposed to ship from Stout this week.

Looking good!

 

[Rys06Tbss]

Looks awesome. Im in the middle of builiding my kegerator right. For some reason, I really enjoy using hand tools to make cuts. I love using a plane as well for shaping wood. Just something about it. I love how you have hand saws and are using planes and other items to shape everything.

 

[November]

Spar urethane done and panel installed.

Tanks arrived. I didn't have time to do a whole lot, just set them up and ran some cords to see how I am going to route them.

I will write up more on the tanks next week after I had a chance to look them over.

 

[Dragonman]

Looking good

 

[November]

Some progress today. I routed all the wires. I initially tried to use hangers but didn't like it so I used screw mount cable ties. I put them every 4 inches on the back and that worked well.

I also put hooks underneath the top so I can hang the lidswhen they are not in use.

I plan on doing a full write up on the tanks when I get a chance to fill then up and do some tests.

I'm just waiting to get with stainlessbrewing.com to get some parts and a HERMS coil made to start brewing beer.

 

[November]

So its been almost two weeks since I got my tanks so I thought I could post my take on them.

The Good:

-The tanks were built to my specs. The bottom drain on the HLT seems to be right. They also nixed the thermo well ports like I asked and moved some of the ports to where I had asked.
-These things are solid and heavy.
-welds are smooth and generally clean. They seem strong and I haven't seen any leaks in initial testing

The Bad:

OK, I will admit that nothing listed here is going to cause any problems with operation, but keep in mind that the total on these things is $2,100, so I think a bit of OCD is warranted.

2 of my tanks, the MLT and the HLT arrived damaged. The MLT has a dent on the front with a series of short deep circular scratches that is about 2" by 3". Im not sure what tool caused these but there was no damage to the packaging so it seems likely this occured at the factory. The HLT has two bullseye shaped scratches directly below each of the HERMS ports. These were obviously caused by a hole saw or a punch and given their location it looks like whoever was building it laid the marks out too low, probably not accounting for the bottom drain, and caught it after scratching it but before going all the way through.

I emailed Stout the day I got them. 4 or 5 days later I got a response and provided them with more photos that they asked for (photographing these shiny things is hard!). Its been a week since that and I haven't gotten a response to that email or a follow up. Not sure what they can do though, the scratches aren't going to come out easily and like I said they don't hinder anything but the looks.

Overall, I love these tanks! The damage is more irritating than anything else. I just don't get why it wasn't caught at the factory or caught by Stout before they sent them out. They could have tried to get it buffed out or repaired a lot easier than I can and even if they hadn't but told me about it I would have preferred that to discovering it on my own.

Otherwise, I am almost done. I just need to get the coil and some other parts and get it up and running.

 

[WayFrae]

So its been almost two weeks since I got my tanks so I thought I could post my take on them.

The Good:

-The tanks were built to my specs. The bottom drain on the HLT seems to be right. They also nixed the thermo well ports like I asked and moved some of the ports to where I had asked.
-These things are solid and heavy.
-welds are smooth and generally clean. They seem strong and I haven't seen any leaks in initial testing

The Bad:

OK, I will admit that nothing listed here is going to cause any problems with operation, but keep in mind that the total on these things is $2,100, so I think a bit of OCD is warranted.

2 of my tanks, the MLT and the HLT arrived damaged. The MLT has a dent on the front with a series of short deep circular scratches that is about 2" by 3". Im not sure what tool caused these but there was no damage to the packaging so it seems likely this occured at the factory. The HLT has two bullseye shaped scratches directly below each of the HERMS ports. These were obviously caused by a hole saw or a punch and given their location it looks like whoever was building it laid the marks out too low, probably not accounting for the bottom drain, and caught it after scratching it but before going all the way through.

I emailed Stout the day I got them. 4 or 5 days later I got a response and provided them with more photos that they asked for (photographing these shiny things is hard!). Its been a week since that and I haven't gotten a response to that email or a follow up. Not sure what they can do though, the scratches aren't going to come out easily and like I said they don't hinder anything but the looks.

Overall, I love these tanks! The damage is more irritating than anything else. I just don't get why it wasn't caught at the factory or caught by Stout before they sent them out. They could have tried to get it buffed out or repaired a lot easier than I can and even if they hadn't but told me about it I would have preferred that to discovering it on my own.

Otherwise, I am almost done. I just need to get the coil and some other parts and get it up and running.

When spending that kind of money, I think you are justified in feeling upset about the damage, aesthetic or not. I feel like you should at least get some money refunded for that. I would expect them to be flawless for that much cash.

 

[orangehero]

I think you get what you pay for actually. These are made in china and far from flawless. To get something like this made in the states would not even be realistic. When you know it's a gamble, I think people would gladly pay to upgrade in order to avoid the huge hassle of bad tanks.

 

[November]

Stout emailed me back tonight. They offered to pay for a shop to repair them, send me the stuff to do it myself with a bit taken off the price, or have the whole thing shipped back for repairs. I've decided to go with the second option.

I'm too impatient to send them back and too busy, and lazy, to drive an hour to Tucson to try and hunt down a shop to do the repairs.

I can't wait to get this wrapped up and get to brewing. I cleaned up my old rig to try and sell it so I haven't been able to brew for a while now.