Building a three tier brew structure, need your opinion!

[garrettryder]

Hey guys, i started brewing little over year ago, and I'm making the jump to all grain. I decided I want to make my own three-tier gravity fed brew structure, I have some rough ideas already but I want some input before I start fabricating. Currently I have 60 feet of 1 1/2 square tube 13 gauge steel, I'm planning on installing a burner on the top tier and the bottom tier and use a cooler for my mash tun in the center tier. I speced out mega pots from Northern Brewer for my height and width spec (15 gallon). I do not see myself brewing 15 gallons in one batch however, I would like to have the capacity to do a high gravity 10 gallon batch. I would love to have your input your ideas for any modifications I may need to make, before i start welding this structure up. Here's a rough sketch of my structure with a front view, and a side view. Thank you for your input it's greatly appreciated! Garrett

 

[924RACR]

Wow, surprised no replies...

I built my own from scratch, but very different components. Observations...

#1 - I'd expect those "shelfs" for kettles are gonna need some proper triangulation underneath, to support the weight. It's amazing how heavy a keg full of wet grain and water can be...

#2 - Along those lines... you ought to plan for more side bracing/triangulation, I think... particularly above just the base (triangulation of the shelves should help)... it's amazing how much that thing will want to lean to the side with that weight up high...

What about the base? Wheels, or bolt-down? Any options for disassembly for moving?

I do agree with build big, so you don't have to redo stuff later.

Definitely will need a stepladder to get up top, and you may wish safety tethers for the higher pots... we just use quick-link carabiners.

HTH...

 

[kh54s10]

I thought about the extra bracing also. You are going to end up with a lot of weight on the shelves.

I would look to some sort of heat shield between the burners and the MLT. I use that silver bubble wrap type insulation to both reflect the heat from the burners and to stabilize the temperature of the MLT. I had the burner from my HLT (a turkey fryer burner) about 1.5 feet from my house, vinyl siding and slightly melted it.

Check the stability before brewing. It looks like you are going to have a lot more weight on one side than the other. Especially if you remove the MLT to clean during the boil and have any water left in the HLT.

MY rig:

 

[MuddyCreek]

Eventually when I ramp up to a larger system I want to build my 3 level based on a headframe. (I live in a former gold/silver/copper mining community and we have dozens of these all around town.)

 

[garrettryder]

Wow, surprised no replies...

I built my own from scratch, but very different components. Observations...

#1 - I'd expect those "shelfs" for kettles are gonna need some proper triangulation underneath, to support the weight. It's amazing how heavy a keg full of wet grain and water can be...

#2 - Along those lines... you ought to plan for more side bracing/triangulation, I think... particularly above just the base (triangulation of the shelves should help)... it's amazing how much that thing will want to lean to the side with that weight up high...

What about the base? Wheels, or bolt-down? Any options for disassembly for moving?

I do agree with build big, so you don't have to redo stuff later.

Definitely will need a stepladder to get up top, and you may wish safety tethers for the higher pots... we just use quick-link carabiners.

HTH...

I am fully planning on triangulating the main supports and gusset all of the shelves, the weight will add up quickly. I was also thinking of a good way to add some fall protection to the HLT, carabiners are a good idea! I do plan on having the structure be mobile, meaning being able to move from one side of the garage to the other. I was looking at installing some casters on the side of the base so that it will sit flat, but when tilted back, can be rolled around. Not sure if any of it will be able to be broken down, I think I'm more concerned about strength over being able to break down for storage, all of the connections will be welded. Thank you very much for your input!

 

[garrettryder]

I thought about the extra bracing also. You are going to end up with a lot of weight on the shelves.

I would look to some sort of heat shield between the burners and the MLT. I use that silver bubble wrap type insulation to both reflect the heat from the burners and to stabilize the temperature of the MLT. I had the burner from my HLT (a turkey fryer burner) about 1.5 feet from my house, vinyl siding and slightly melted it.

Check the stability before brewing. It looks like you are going to have a lot more weight on one side than the other. Especially if you remove the MLT to clean during the boil and have any water left in the HLT.

MY rig:

Good point about the heat shielding, I will have to looking that! As far as the weight distribution goes, that may need some more attention, I'm already thinking that the base will have to be wider and longer than what is depicted in the plans that I drew up. Thank you for you input, I appreciate it!

 

[924RACR]

We just used locking casters on ours...

(It does fold down, fits through the sliding door behind it so we can brew on our brewporch... more pics in my photo album)

 

[LouBrew13]

My brother welded mine. I call it version 1.0 I wish it had more shelving for my stuff. Also the supports that hold my burners need to be heavier gauge in the future. However it works like a champ.

 

[MuddyCreek]

How do you not melt your MLT? Just wondering. It seems pretty close to the burner there.

 

[LouBrew13]

It is. That was a lesson learned on day one. I mash on the ground and heat my sparge water with the top burner. Then fly sparge after lifting the mlt back into place.

 

[924RACR]

A thin sheet of steel or aluminum flashing, maybe with a bit of scrap water heater blanket on the backside, ought to do the job and cut down on the heavy lifting...

EDIT: That, or if you like more bling, a scrap of leftover this stuff:
http://www.hrpworld.com/?form_prod_id=66,7,363_5325&action=product