Barking Mad BIAB Brewstand Build

[TheMadKing]

I haven't been on here much lately but I'm still kickin'!

So after a lot of thought and waffling on design I finally built my brew stand.

Its completely built but I'm just waiting on some fittings before I can use it for the first time... So here goes:

I decided on a 2-part construction for a couple reasons. First I had several old bed frames lying around, but not enough to make the whole stand; and second I want it to be easy to disassemble into smaller pieces. So this upper part (which is the business end) is made from angle steel harvested from bed frames.

I drew the whole thing up in AutoCAD and then cut all my pieces to length.

I welded them all together... please excuse the ugle-a** welds...

Then I welded on my burner. It hangs from those cross pieces.

I'm slightly concerned about those welds holding over the long term just because of the massive amount of thermal cycling that's going to occur. But if they break I'll just build a bracket to capture the burner from the bottom.... after I put out the ensuing
fire that is

The lower part of the stand is a cart built from 80/20 T-slotted aluminum. I chose this because it's easy to work with and I can modify and add to it later as needed.

The upper part sits captive on top of the lower part, with the angle steel holding it in place by gravity. I was initially going to bolt it down, but after feeling how snug the fit is, and how solid it feels I decided to just leave it held on by gravity. It's not going anywhere.

I didn't weld those cross-pieces on until later because I wanted to mess with my pot on there and play with the placement a little. I ended up putting it a little off-center (as shown) just because I wanted to leave some extra room on the side to get my brew jacket on and off.

Time for some high temp enamel paint

I bought a trailer-hitch mounted game hoist for field-dressing game. It was $90 on Amazon and easier than building something that could swivel under load out of 80/20.

I just attached it to the cart with U-bolts, and it has a foot that goes down and presses into the ground for added support. I may replace the cable with something a little lighter since that thing is designed to lift 400+lbs.

Installed my plate chiller and chugger pump.

I have 2 wire mesh slide-out drawers that I'm going to mount in that middle area under the counter top.

I used MDF coated in high-temp enamel for the shelving. If it ends up scorching I may upgrade that to aluminum plate or something.

I'd appreciate any thoughts and feedback from improvements!

 

[TheMadKing]

Final picture from this morning... I had leftover silver paint so I painted the top shelf silver too, and I added some corner bracing to the 80/20 frame for lateral stability.

 

[ancientmariner52]

I haven't been on here much lately but I'm still kickin'!

So after a lot of thought and waffling on design I finally built my brew stand.

Its completely built but I'm just waiting on some fittings before I can use it for the first time... So here goes:

View attachment 575152 I decided on a 2-part construction for a couple reasons. First I had several old bed frames lying around, but not enough to make the whole stand; and second I want it to be easy to disassemble into smaller pieces. So this upper part (which is the business end) is made from angle steel harvested from bed frames.

I drew the whole thing up in AutoCAD and then cut all my pieces to length.


View attachment 575154
I welded them all together... please excuse the ugle-a** welds...


View attachment 575155 Then I welded on my burner. It hangs from those cross pieces.

I'm slightly concerned about those welds holding over the long term just because of the massive amount of thermal cycling that's going to occur. But if they break I'll just build a bracket to capture the burner from the bottom.... after I put out the ensuing
fire that is


View attachment 575156The lower part of the stand is a cart built from 80/20 T-slotted aluminum. I chose this because it's easy to work with and I can modify and add to it later as needed.


View attachment 575157
The upper part sits captive on top of the lower part, with the angle steel holding it in place by gravity. I was initially going to bolt it down, but after feeling how snug the fit is, and how solid it feels I decided to just leave it held on by gravity. It's not going anywhere.

View attachment 575158
I didn't weld those cross-pieces on until later because I wanted to mess with my pot on there and play with the placement a little. I ended up putting it a little off-center (as shown) just because I wanted to leave some extra room on the side to get my brew jacket on and off.

View attachment 575159
Time for some high temp enamel paint

View attachment 575160
I bought a trailer-hitch mounted game hoist for field-dressing game. It was $90 on Amazon and easier than building something that could swivel under load out of 80/20.

I just attached it to the cart with U-bolts, and it has a foot that goes down and presses into the ground for added support. I may replace the cable with something a little lighter since that thing is designed to lift 400+lbs.

View attachment 575161
Installed my plate chiller and chugger pump.

I have 2 wire mesh slide-out drawers that I'm going to mount in that middle area under the counter top.

I used MDF coated in high-temp enamel for the shelving. If it ends up scorching I may upgrade that to aluminum plate or something.

I'd appreciate any thoughts and feedback from improvements!

Looks great! The only thing I'd be wary of is the welded bed rails. A lot of older ones were made of a spring steel that becomes brittle when welded. The welds would break without warning. It doesn't look like it would be catastrophic if one of those welds failed, but I'd keep a close eye on them for a while. The silver paint should make any cracks show up better. Nice job!

 

[TheMadKing]

Looks great! The only thing I'd be wary of is the welded bed rails. A lot of older ones were made of a spring steel that becomes brittle when welded. The welds would break without warning. It doesn't look like it would be catastrophic if one of those welds failed, but I'd keep a close eye on them for a while. The silver paint should make any cracks show up better. Nice job!

That's good to know, I had no idea!.. Hopefully the thermal cycling from the burner tempers the welds near the pot somewhat, but I'll certainly keep and eye on it.

 

[Genuine]

Great job! Looks amazing

 

[TheMadKing]

So after using this thing for about 5 brews here are my lessons learned:

• Do more research on pump and chiller mounts, I ended up having to move them several times
  • Mount your pump with the outlet higher than the inlet
  • Mount your plate chiller vertically so that it can drain
  • Always plump a bleed valve into your pump outlet to help with priming, and draining the system. The outlet of this bleed valve should be the lowest point in your system
• Lightweight is better all around - this thing weighed over 150lbs and is an absolute bear to load into a pickup truck
• Don't use MDF for anything ever - use poly coated plywood if you're going with wood. 5+ coats of poly and it'll be like plastic
• Pay attention to how far your burner sits from the bottom of your pot. Mine is mounted too low and about half my heat escapes around the pot, so I'm moving it up
• You don't need as much counter space and storage space as you think you do, so I'm removing the steel frame top entirely and replacing it with a single panel counter top
• Steel cable sucks for bag hoists. I replaced that with paracord and it's awesome

I'll post more pictures when all the modifications are complete!

 

[TheMadKing]

So here is the "before" picture

I started by removing the big heavy topper and stripped it down

I remounted the pump and chiller properly

I remounted the burner properly and I cut off the trailer hitch mount on the hoist to reduce weight.

I added some new capabilities to my plumbing

Still need to build a tabletop for it but that's mostly it. Overall it weighs about 50-75lbs less and is much easier to use.

More pictures to come.

 

[OG-wan Kenobi]

Looks great

 

[TheMadKing]

Another word of warning. Don't buy NPT threaded stainless fittings on Amazon. Every single one I ordered (from 3 different sellers) was defective and had leaky threads because they were cut wrong.

I sent them all back and re ordered them from brew hardware, but it delayed my brew day until next weekend