My brewstand build

[tbulger]

Well since i got a pump for christmas i decided it was time to start making the stand. I am abatch sparger so im going for one pump/QDs for fluid transfers. I wanted the brew stand to be as low as possible so i would have to be going to highto dough in or dump water. I also wanted to do it all my self and as cheap as possible, so for me that meant not welding.

A wanted ad on craigslist put me with three bed frames; one normal one a trundel and onther werid one, i figured it would be enough for what i needed. THe biggest pain in the ass was cutting up the bed frames. I started with a dremel and assload of cutoff wheel but that was taking way too long. So i went to HD and got a cut off wheel for the miter and made things alot easier. THe miter wheel cuts to fast and heats up the iron and melts it not making the smoothest cut but i have a griding wheel for that later.

After a few weeks of thinking about i finally got down to assembling. I did the bottom first and drilled 1/4"holes wherever hte metal touched and put a small bolt lock washer and nut. This was fairly easy jsut need to remeber to drill through with the two irons together to get an exact hole. IT only took me day to assemble and it its pretty sturdy holds me anyways.

Well off to figuring out how to get that banjo mounted........(not going to edit for spelling)

 

[Bobby_M]

I'm in the middle of the same project so I'm looking forward to what you come up with. Mounting the burners is proving to be a challenge.

 

[runhard]

Pictures of your build would be cool?

 

[ScubaSteve]

I have 2 banjos in my rig, and it was really difficult to get them in there. They're still kinda sitting at a funny angle. If you bolted your stand together, I'd make sure it's REAL sturdy. When you get a couple of full kegs and heat the steel with the banjo (REALLY hot), your structure is going to weaken significantly.

 

[tbulger]

Well its getting closer to being done. She aint purdy and im not sure if it workse yet but well see. Heres a close up:
http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/hh87/PigsEarBrown/P1010032.jpg?t=1201488801
I still need to mount the pump, still workign on that. I also have two more kegs but have not decided whether i need them or not yet. I figured i would keep my 10 gal turkey fryer kettle becuase i only do five gallon batches for now, and have a hard time drinking them in reasonable time.
HEres how i mounted the banjo:
http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/hh87/PigsEarBrown/P1010026.jpg?t=1201489306
I am not confident in this set up that burner is big and heavy and i wont test it out ontop of my wood deck. You can see the blts i used here i probably have about about 50 or so in this thing.
heres a close up of the corners:
http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/hh87/PigsEarBrown/P1010028.jpg?t=1201489594

 

[SuperiorBrew]

Looks great so far!

 

[Spyk'd]

Those burners WILL cook your cooler. I hope I missed the part where you're replacing the cooler with another converted keg...?

 

[Bobby_M]

You need a pair of legs in the center of that span. You'll get some sagging without.

 

[tbulger]

THe legs are next and will also provde the mounting place for my pump. I completly forgot about melting the cooler. I am planning on a keg mashtun in the future. I was going to use the cooler through the winter months to better retain heat. I guess i will have to figure that one out for now. I would go for the keg mashtun now but i dont know how i will keep heat. I do have two IC (20' 3/8 and 20'1/2) so i could get a herms going but i am unsure about an unautomated set up.

I do ahve one question though. I have a brewmometer to be installed, and the digital waterproof traceble thermometer . i was going to mount the brewmometer on the hlt and was debating whether or not to get another one for the MT. Are mounted dial thermometer acurate for mash temps?

PLease any suggestions are apreciated.

 

[sanders5x]

where did you find that nice keg?

 

[tbulger]

I got the keg from a guy who had a bunch. A brewery went out of buisness and he was given a 10 or 20 kegs. He brewed at brew on peremises type places and filled them for his kegerator but had to many so he sold me one i think i only payed like 40 or so. It has the letters svc painted on it i dont know what that means. I have another one but still need one more.


Oh update: i got two more supporting legs in the middle, and mounted the pump. I am having a braing fart to plump the propane to both burners off of one tank but once thats done it should be operational.

I am going to test it out to see what kind of heat the plastic mash tun takes. I want to use a sanke mash tun but i know it wont hold heat. I am considereing a seperate heat exhanger for herms with a ranco and a bucket heater, but have yet to jump the gun on buying the stuff i need.

 

[The Pol]

Sweet rig... I went the simple route and used industrial shelving from Lowes...

Sparge arm intalled INSIDE the MLT to retain heat during the slow fly sparge process

 

[Lil' Sparky]

Looking good guys!

 

[The Pol]

Thanks Sparky!

 

[daveIT]

The Pol - can I get a parts list for that system? More specifically the plumbing and the pump. Did you get everything at Lowes?

 

[horhay]

tbulger,
Couldnt help but notice the use of ''pigs ear brown''.You must have visited Woodstock inn in NH.We go there often just to have a few beers.Have gone for their brewers weekend special ,its a great time

 

[The Pol]

Everything is from Lowes, except the coolers that are from ACE Hardware, the pump is a March pump from AHS.

I used 32' of reinforced 3/8" ID tubing to plumb it all

The pump was fitted with all brass fittings, all 1/2" fittings.

I do not have a parts list, BUT I do have my reciept at home (currently out flying a trip) so I should be able to get you some #'s from that. Basically the manifold is as follows:

(4) 1/2" brass elbows (one male and one female end)
(6) 1/2" brass nipples with the HEX portion in the center (see photo) this helps with tightening them
(3) 1/2" brass "t"s (all female ends)
(5) 1/2" brass ball valves
(5) 1/2" MIP x 3/8" nipples to connect the hoses to the ball valves
Teflon pipe tape!
Everything is connected with hose clamps, otherwise you will get sprayed with 200F water!

The (2) valves on the left are INLET only and the (3) on the right side are OUTLETS

The keggle feeds into it as does the HLT.
The OUTlet goes to the sparge arm and to the HLT, the other outlet valve is for draining the keggle into the fermentor AND to be used as a bleed to prime the pump! Hit me with any questions you have!

 

[tbulger]

Update:
I got an asco vavle a few days ago (30$) from ebay. i also just won a love controller tcs 4010 on ebay as well.
I reaaly dont know much about the controller it says that it takes type J or K thermocouple. Where should i look to purchase one of these? i have seen copper ones at the hardware store before, not sure if they are J or K. Will those work? what kinda of thermo couple would be suggested for this use? I am planning on hooking it into the herms return unit which will probably be 1/2 threaded port im guessin.

 

[kladue]

Here is a type J thermocouple example found on Ebay with 1/8" NPT compression fitting, the copper covered thermocouples in hardware stores are built to generate power for gas valves.

 

[MNBugeater]

Just another option for mounting the Banjo

 

[IrregularPulse]

^^^ Hows your pilot work for lighting all the ports? Any issues with some not lighting? Saw in another thread where that was a concern but with a different burner.

 

[MNBugeater]

No problems with the banjo, i have heard of some issues with the jet style wok burners.

 

[IrregularPulse]

Good deal. I hope to get to that point sometime.

 

[tbulger]

I will be working on a shield for the banjo burners, its hard to maintain a constant boil with out any protection from the wind, when the wind comes the flame turns yellow and doesnt boil the wort, so i turn it up and boils over. I should be simple with a little sheet metal just havnt gotten around to it yet.