Gravity-fed stand design

[Doubledogbrew]

Hey guys, first time poster!

Looking to upgrade the brew rig and wanted to get your feedback on this stand idea as well as some construction tips.

Attached is what I had in mind for a design.

I have 3 - 20 gallon Megapots, 2 of which would be sitting on Edelmettal burners. Boil Kettle would sit on floor, once wort is collected I would move it up to where the Mash tun sits. Following boil will have enough height to gravity feed into fermenter.

Eventually I plan to get into a Single-tier system with pumps, but to keep the cost lost was planning to stay with something gravity fed for the time being.

What do you guys think of this idea? Also what materials would be best to construct? Would being moving it from basement to deck for each brew, so light weight and portability is important. Also the tops of stands need to be flat to support the burners.

 

[wilserbrewer]

What you posted will certainly work, it is a very common solution. Downside is you will need to lift your kettle to the burner, and you will also not be able to fire the burner during the draining of the mash or sparge.

I built a 3 tier years ago, then cut it to down to 2 tier. I found it quicker and easier to have the HLT and MT at the same level, and just use a one gallon plastic pitcher to move the sparge water to the MT rather than waiting 5 min for it to gravity drain. You can simply scoop out 3-6 gallons pretty quickly and effortlessly. JME

 

[Doubledogbrew]

That is true, I guess the main reason I wanted it to be gravity fed from HLT to Mash tun was to fly sparge more easily.

 

[Arbe0]

so why not get a pump to move the water?

 

[wilserbrewer]

so why not get a pump to move the water?

JMO, I feel adding a pump to move several gallons of water is over building, making things more complicated and labor intensive and can be slower.

To each their own, if one wants to play with fly sparging at a very specific rate, than perhaps a pump and valve is a good idea, I would rather batch sparge or even no sparge.

 

[Reaver]

JMO, I feel adding a pump to move several gallons of water is over building, making things more complicated and labor intensive and can be slower.

20gal's is not "several gallons"

I do 15 gal batches and it's been a God send to have the pumps. There are a couple avenues I would suggest.

On the Strictly gravity feed system... you will run into a few considerations.
You will need to monitor your sparge/lauter more carefully. Your flow rates will change as the level in the vessel decreases. It requires more observation and intervention to get good rates (unless of course you batch sparge).

How will you be chilling the batch? If you are gravity feeding, then you'll need to figure out a way to get the wort out of the kettle. and into a fermenter.

You will also need to figure out how to get the Boil Kettle up to the Mashtun location....
What I did, was not put a burner under my Mashtun. You will need to test this, but I imagine your temp drop would not be relevant unless super cold temps apply. Instead, put the Mash and BK at the "same level" so you can gravity feed out of both. But put the BK on the burner. Then I would lauter into a spare vessel. (original 6 gal turkey fry pot) and dump reasonable amounts into my BK. It's a HELL of a lot easier dealing with 6 gal vs 20 gal of hot liquid!
And since your BK is already on the burner, you can begin heating as you lauter. If your rates with Fly sparging are slow enough, you never even have to shut off sparge. Just stop lauter for the time you need to need to dump and continue. This worked great for a Year while I saved $$ to buy pumps to go single tier. Can't find a good picture right now.