BIAB brew stand with hoist and pump

[fortydegnorth]

The boil and into the fermenter:

 

[goybar]

Did you recirculate the wort during the mash?

Did you heat it up at all? Or just let it sit for the 60 minutes?

Love the build.

Chris

 

[fortydegnorth]

My mash temp for this recipe was 150. I had to heat a little after dough in because my temp dropped to 148. Got it to 150, stirring the whole time. I killed the heat, threw two towels on top and left it for 60 minutes. No recirculation or heat. It dropped to 149 about 5 minutes before the 60 minutes was up. Didn't matter to me because I turned the heat back on to mash out at 170 and then let it sit for 15 minutes. Then I drained and boiled. I didn't run the pump until I was chilling in the counterflow. The pump and jet burner are very quiet compared to the March pump and hurricane burner on the Brutus I had. It was really easy. I watched tv, drank a couple beers and weighed hops while it was doing it's thing. Very hands off for most of the brewing.

 

[limulus]

Since this is no sparge, did you adjust your grain bill for efficiency? When I put together the grain bill for my no sparge batches, I set the efficiency at 60%.

 

[fortydegnorth]

I didn't adjust anything except the crush on the grain. Basically hitting the exact same numbers as my brutus without as much work. With the brutus I had to switch hoses, attach the sparge lid and arm, clean two pots, two false bottoms, two pumps, transfer water and wort to different kettles etc. This was fill up, heat up, mash, smash the grain, boil, chill, done. I really liked it but I'm sure it's not for everyone.

 

[limulus]

Thanks for answering that question. Like you, I want simplicity. My new and improved system gets broken in this weekend and I hope my results are as good. I will only sparge if I want to. I may post a photo or two.

 

[speedoguy]

Glad you finally brewed with it fortydegnorth, I'm about to brew my 5th batch with mine, stand works like a champ, Only "problem" I have is I loose temp, so I have to turn the burner on real low a few times during the mash, but its not that big a deal. overall Im stoked with the stand

Im probably going to build another stand for a friend soon.

Thanks for the build inspiration, being a complete and total newb, I was a few weeks away from building a 3 vessel stand when I found your thread. I had never even heard of BIAB, this thread changed the direction I went, and rather than building a 3 vessel stand with low quality parts and fittings I was able to build my Biab stand with higher quality parts/ fittings and set up a ferm chamber with a conical with the money I had saved, Thanks!

 

[johns]

nice thread

 

[limulus]

Glad you finally brewed with it fortydegnorth, I'm about to brew my 5th batch with mine, stand works like a champ, Only "problem" I have is I loose temp, so I have to turn the burner on real low a few times during the mash, but its not that big a deal. overall Im stoked with the stand

Im probably going to build another stand for a friend soon.

Thanks for the build inspiration, being a complete and total newb, I was a few weeks away from building a 3 vessel stand when I found your thread. I had never even heard of BIAB, this thread changed the direction I went, and rather than building a 3 vessel stand with low quality parts and fittings I was able to build my Biab stand with higher quality parts/ fittings and set up a ferm chamber with a conical with the money I had saved, Thanks!

I have a RIMS tube and a stainless heater that runs off 110v. It recirculates and easily maintains the temp via an Auber PID. My new version which will be similar to the ones in this thread will keep the RIMS tube for recirc and maintaining the temps during the mash and use the LP burner for the strike water and mashout temp since it is faster.

 

[limulus]

Here is my current setup which is a no-sparge system. It is not a fancy as the other self-contained units in this thread, but it works. Today, it is ridiculously warm 68F on Jan 13. But, I'm brewing a batch with the Falcons:Seahawks game on in the background. This is not my final setup...the original plan going back the last 2yrs is similar to the others in this thread. Instead of a steamer basket, I am using a 10gal kettle with the bottom cut out as a mash tun. It has a false bottom and sits inside a 15gal kettle. I use an LP burner to warm strike water and for boiling. I use a RIMS tube and 110v stainless steel element to maintain the temperature and recirculate the mash. That is working very well. Once I reach my 1hr mash, I re-ignite the burner to bring it up to mash out temp and keep recirculating. Then I raise the mash tun to drain. Once it is lifted and draining, I crank up the heat to get the boil started. Once it is drained, I lower it into this tote and pull the whole rig away. I'm currently using this shop crane that I bought to lift my boat motor. I bought a new boat winch to use like everyone else here has or I may use an electric winch. My burner is currently sitting on top of a car dolly and I need to build a stand that can mount the winch. I may just stick with this and not buy or build more stuff to fill up my garage. I kinda like having the brew cart with the water filter, RIMS tube, pumps and plate chiller all mounted.

These two links are youtube videos that inspired me.

 

[johns]

Can I ask where did you get the crane and what kind of Little Giant pump do you use?

 

[limulus]

Can I ask where did you get the crane and what kind of Little Giant pump do you use?

You can buy a shop crane at Harbor Freight Tools. They recently had a 1ton model on sale for $99. I paid $169 for mine. The bottom legs fold up and is easily moved out of the way. http://www.harborfreight.com/catalogsearch/result?q=shop+crane

My pump is a Teel that I bought 15-16 yrs ago. Back in the 90s, I read an article in Zymurgy or Brewing Techniques on RIMS and it was the same pump they used.

I bought the crane a couple of years ago to lift my new boat motor on and off of my wooden boat. The motor was 320lbs and I mounted it all by myself. I still had to have a pro program the engine management system though.

Now, it makes a great mash tun lift!

 

[limulus]

Brewed Ed Worts Hause Pale Ale this morning and hit the bullseye on OG. Now all I need to do is build a proper winch support so I can eliminate using the shop crane.

 

[speedoguy]

@limulus, that set up in the first video you posted is pretty freakin sweet!

 

[ScubaSteve]

I understand the desire to have a dedicated stand, etc. for brewing, but there is really something to be said for multitasking in a small garage.

I have the 2 ton shop crane and also a 5500 lb pallet jack. If you spend the money on a shop crane, you won't be sorry. Mine has paid for itself many times over, lifting machine tools that weigh thousands of pounds (another hobby of mine). These things will laugh at a wet bucket of grain.

The boat winches are good because they lift straight up....versus the crane which will move slightly as its angle changes. But, you could set the height of the crane and use a simple pulley and cleat arrangement as the German guy in video #2 above is doing.

Really, for the money spent, a shop crane is a much more valuable tool than a purpose built BIAB winch....if you wanted to, you could use the crane as your stand (no direct flames, obviously)....zip ties could hold stuff like chillers. The legs fold up for easy storage, too.

When the need arises, you have a shop crane. You can't say the same for any other brew stand!

 

[limulus]

I keep saying I'm going to build that dedicated stand. But right now I can store everything pretty easily and it does give the shop crane a purpose. Until I started using it for brewing, it was all folded up and I wondered if I would have any use for it again.

BTW, ScubaSteve, what ever became of your system that you were building couple of years ago?

 

[ScubaSteve]

The stands fold up into a really small footprint. It's one of those things....when you need it; you need it! I hoisted a 900 lb lathe into the back of a truck a few weeks ago...it wasn't happening any other way.

My system? Well, it was such a long and expensive build that once I reached the top of the "mountain" I brewed a few times and kind of got bored with it. I ended up getting out of brewing for a few years and used the money from the sale to buy a few machine tools. I kinda got bitten by the "old iron" bug....finding the really old, really well built stuff and fixing it up. So, I've restored a few machines here and there, but I kind of missed brewing.

I'm getting ready to move so I had to downsize on some of the tools. The money was burning a hole in my pocket so I bought a sweet welder and some other stuff. Currently I'm working on restoring a milling machine and building a mobile "power station" that will provide 30A&50A single phase 220, plus 3 phase 220 for my tools.

As far as brewing, I got a few BRAND NEW MODDED KEGS and have a 2-vessel system in the works...but haven't done much with it. I'm not really interested in going full-bore with the brewing like I used to...there are a LOT of other things I'm interested in....metalworking, knifemaking, gearmaking, gunsmithing to name a few.

I currently only have one batch aging....that'll be it until I move in May and get settled into the new house.

 

[241]

Awesome stand. Seems totally doable and practical

 

[JUST_BREW_IT]

nice design!!!

 

[speedoguy]

I began building my updated version of this stand yesterday, my first version was nice, but I just felt that it could have been a little better, I'll have pics in the next few days, the hoist set up will be a much easier to build and better set up than I previously had

 

[limulus]

I began building my updated version of this stand yesterday, my first version was nice, but I just felt that it could have been a little better, I'll have pics in the next few days, the hoist set up will be a much easier to build and better set up than I previously had

I look forward to the photos. I just used a 25% off coupon at Harbor Freight to buy an electric winch that I'm going to mount to the ceiling in my garage. I'll just roll my burner stand under it to lift the inner mash tun.

 

[speedoguy]

here is the new rotating hoist set up, more pics to come of the rest of the stand

 

[speedoguy]

new burner mounts, with windscreen. grill/ grate and windscreen are removable to easily adjust burner height.

 

[speedoguy]

regarding the grill / grate, I went with that style set up to be able to use different pots easily, that way i can do different size batches, or even use it as a turkey fryer around the holidays, or it could be a campfire stove should it need to be.

 

[limulus]

The rotating hoist mount is crucial. Just slide another container in place and lower the spent grains. BTW, that is very nice work. Are you doing the welding?

 

[speedoguy]

my neighbor at work is doing most of the welding, he's been teaching me how to weld, but my welds still look horrible.

this rotating hoist seems so much nicer than my previous version, sturdy as can be, and rotates so smooth.

 

[ScubaSteve]

Is that solid round bar for the grate, or pipe? If solid, that stand has got to weigh a LOT!

 

[speedoguy]

just did a test run ( no grain ) of new stand, it performed excellent. it took 31minutes to take the water from 72 degrees to 152, let it sit for an hour and I only lost 2 degrees, then it took another 34 minutes to take it to a boil, all in all, it looks like I should have a time savings of almost an hour from start to finish. my last stand had way to much heat transfer to the stand, took forever to take it from 152 to a boil.

 

[speedoguy]

its solid round bar, and its a tank!

 

[speedoguy]

you can see a short video here

http://instagram.com/p/bze37CBz_G/#

or just search me on instagram my user nane is speedoguy.