Single Tier Brew Stand with BCS460 Complete Build

[TaylorInOK]

Your eye for detail here is really impressive. Couple questions for ya:

I'm guessing you weld professionally, or at least as a result of your profession since it takes some serious confidence (read: cajones) to fabricate a gas manifold yourself. I also saw the soap test pic. How'd the soap test go? Did you pressure test it? What were the considerations or details while building this particular part of your frame since it can obviously (at least to me) hold a fair amount of gas when comparing to a standard pipe-based manifold?

Also, just out of plain curiosity: I know you've already built this and tested/brewed on it, and weren't in a hurry. How long did the build take you? How'd your first brew go? Did you hear angels singing?

 

[Cardog]

I am not a welder by trade but my experience was a result of my profession (which I don't do anymore) and I am self taught. After reading other threads about creating a gas manifold it was interesting to know that most people wouldn't take on the task. Personally I didn't think it was that big of a deal. Turned out it wasn't an easy task. You do have to have some good experience in welding. I used 14 ga. tubing throughout which I felt it was sufficient for welding the manifold. I could of have use 16 ga. for the brew stand but 14 ga. is much easier to weld with and would never use 16 ga. to begin with for the manifold. This would have been way too difficult to weld the couplers on with the different thickness' of the couplers and 16 ga.

So they way I did it was first to bevel the couplers where I was going to weld. This was tricky since it was round. So what I did was put a reducer bushing in the coupler to a 1/4" then connected a 1/4" nipple like 2" long and chucked that puppy into my drill press. Spun it on the drill press at the same time I use my grinder to make the bevel. Worked beautifully as I make a perfect bevel.

The next step was to cut some flat stock that fit inside the tubing for the ends. This had to be recessed inside so it wouldn't interfere with welding the manifold on the stand. So in other words don't weld a cap on the outside end of the tubing. Because once you weld that to the stand then you are essentially weld on top of your welds that you got perfect to seal it. It will distort the original weld and may cause a pinhole leak.

After that you plug up 2 of the couplers and put an air fitting on the other to hook up your hose to pressure test it. A little soap and water and you can see if you have a leak. Here's where the welding get tricky. I didn't have a perfect seal as I had multiple pinholes. So I had to grind the weld where the pinhole was and rewelded it. More of small grind and a tack weld as to not to disrupt the rest of the bead that sealed. I say tricky because I ended up doing this about 7 times before everything held 20 psi.

This build took about 2 1/2 months in my free time and it worked right the first time if you can believe that!! After multiple dry runs with water mostly testing the programming for the BCS460 the first brew worked flawless. I get consistently between 80-82% efficiency. So yes, the angels were singing. :rockin:

 

[Cardog]

Now you'll see where the Cat5 cables plug into..........







Inside the panel is the BCS460, 1 relay (for the fermenter), a Netgear wireless adapter (WNCE2001) and a shallow surface mount power outlet.

I made sure that I didn't have any interference with the signal cables and the power cables so I ran 2 separate conduits instead of one larger one. This insured that my temperature sensors will work accurately and they do!

 

[Cardog]

If you noticed in the last set of pics, there is a black plug on the left side. This is where the temperature sensor is plugged into from the fermenter.

 

[Cardog]

Just give me an extra day or 2 and I will have the finished pics posted......stay tuned.

 

[jcav]

Extremely well thought out design and functionability. This is right up there with some of the best of the best on this site. Gotta love the red paint too!

John

 

[TaylorInOK]

Thanks for the info on the manifold. Very impressive! Looking forward to the rest of the build.

 

[RocketBrewer]

Fantastic work Cardog! Well thought out design.

 

[Carlscan26]

I made sure that I didn't have any interference with the signal cables and the power cables so I ran 2 separate conduits instead of one larger one. This insured that my temperature sensors will work accurately and they do!




View attachment 344812

I've been told that code here in San Diego anyway is that when using conduits you should only run individual wires and not romex - something about the added insulation in the small volume can lead to heat issues. It may be different where you live. Those runs are pretty short and prob not very high loads so you may be fine. But I thought I'd share what I've learned during my house wiring endeavors.

AMAZING build - and I love the drawer idea - it's in my plans for when I (someday) build a stand.

What do you think it weighs?!

 

[Cardog]

You are definitely probably right about the code but from everything I read there seems to be an acceptable gray area there. Nice catch on that.

As for the weight (this probably within a 10 lb ball park) the stand itself is about 130 lbs. Add the peripherals (burners, valves, drawer, wheels, etc) and you are looking at right around 235 lbs.

 

[Cardog]

Ok, the final build pictures are posted!

Here is a rundown of the equipment I used:

Gas valves: Honeywell VR8200A2132

Pilot Burners: Honeywell Q314A4586
(I took the ell shaped bracket and straightened it flat)

Thermocouples: Honeywell Q390A1046
(Last 4 numbers represents the length)

Pumps: March 809 with a Chugger pump stainless steel center inlet head

Burners: 10 tip jet burners from Tejas Smokers.
I chose these purely for their quality and reliability and they did not disappoint. I have heard WAY too many problems with the Chinese crap that you can buy for $30. It was hard to swallow but I kicked down the $95 per burners. The stainless steel braided NG hose and the NG quick disconnect couplers were from them as well.

In case you were wondering, the NG piping is galvanized that is cleaned up real nice. Looks much better than the typical black pipe and I didn’t want to have to paint them.

All of the stainless steel fittings and quick disconnects are from bargainfittings.com. How could you beat $5 shipping on a $550 order especially when they have EVERY fitting you need!

Note: pics do zoom fairly large when you click on the bar.

 

[Cardog]

The wort chiller and water filter.......









If you click to zoom you can really see the corners where it looks like one seamless piece.

This is done with the proper abrasives in a 3 step process. I use a 5" grinder to grind the meat of it then I use a 3" roloc 40 grit sanding disc and after that I use a 120 grit 3" flap disc to smooth things out. After 2 coats of 2K primer and urethane paint you can't see a scratch under the paint.

 

[Cardog]

Burners, valves and pumps.......

 

[Cardog]

And there you have it folks!! Again, I greatly appreciate the time that people invest on answering and posting on this site. It has helped me tremendously evolve my brewing knowledge and without this site, I would still be scratching my head.

Also, thank you for the positive comments so far and the next ones that come.

If anybody needs help fabricating their brewery in SoCal, feel free to hit me up.

 

[jcav]

Absolutely stunning rig! You should be very proud of your incredible creation. Thanks for sharing it with us!

John

 

[BrunDog]

Fantastic!! Really really well done!

 

[Stocktonbrew]

Fantastic job! That is an awesome setup.

 

[oldstyle69]

holy crap. so nice...

im new to SD from Chicago. i used a CF chiller and the water here is really warm compared to what im used to. do you guys do any thing to use less water when chilling out here? my last brew in chicago used about 8 gal to chill down a 10 gal batch, i think i went thru 15gal the other day.

 

[froot]

I may have missed it but what batch size are you running / what size are the kettles? ... loved this with your very first post. And lets face it Red does go faster.

 

[BrunDog]

holy crap. so nice...

im new to SD from Chicago. i used a CF chiller and the water here is really warm compared to what im used to. do you guys do any thing to use less water when chilling out here? my last brew in chicago used about 8 gal to chill down a 10 gal batch, i think i went thru 15gal the other day.

Either use 2 inline chillers with the second recirculating ice water in a bucket, or use one, chilling into the kettle on the ground water pass, then switch to ice water on way to fermenter.

 

[Cardog]

holy crap. so nice...

im new to SD from Chicago. i used a CF chiller and the water here is really warm compared to what im used to. do you guys do any thing to use less water when chilling out here? my last brew in chicago used about 8 gal to chill down a 10 gal batch, i think i went thru 15gal the other day.

You'll want to search "prechiller" for many different ideas. The way I do it is I will make some blocks of ice the night (2 nights) before in tupperware containers I have available. Then while in the boil stage I will put those in my mash tun (after I clean it) and fill with water. When its time, I then gravity drain the the freezing cold water to the chiller. I usually can get most of the wort chilled by the time the water runs out. The reason why I do it in my mash tun is I have a Blichmann Auto Sparge so I can add more water without fear of over filling. Mind you, my set up is 5 gal with 10 gal. kettles. It is very simple without a lot of hoopla without extra equipment. Remember, I like a simple design.

On a winter day without the the prechiller, I can chill the 5 gal of wort in in less than 10 min. With the prechiller it is about the same.

BTW, welcome to San Diego! I moved out here from Milwaukee in '79

 

[Cardog]

I may have missed it but what batch size are you running / what size are the kettles? ... loved this with your very first post. And lets face it Red does go faster.

5 gal. batches with 10 gal. kettles. I can't think of any system that I ever seen on this forum where anybody did a 5 gal setup to this extent. Everything I have seen is 10 gal. I know, why go through all that trouble to make a 5 gal batch? Well my answer is many reasons: I don't drink that much beer, needed a small footprint, I don't keg, I like to brew many style beers so trying to perfect a recipe is more feasible and one more thing...... because it's red Froot, it does go faster.... from brew to cleanup is 4 hours.

The small footprint and brewing more often are the 2 big reasons. because of that small footprint and keeping the simple design approach, everything fits in the kettles and the drawer when not in use except for the bench capper and the fastrack. Hell even the HLT is my bottling bucket.

 

[BrunDog]

Trying to pre-chill the incoming flush water is generally inefficient. It will work somewhat, but does not work as well as direct chilling.

 

[cod3ck]

Wow... This is impressive! If you have any literature on where you learned to weld and fabricate like that, I'd be very interested.

Love the setup. Thanks for sharing!

 

[Cardog]

Wow... This is impressive! If you have any literature on where you learned to weld and fabricate like that, I'd be very interested.

Love the setup. Thanks for sharing!

I learned a little bit from my dad and high school and mostly self taught after that. My earlier profession allowed my to weld on a regular basis but was never a welder by trade.

I can only tell you to try to get someone to get you started then practice, practice, practice. Also, the "school of YouTube" helps. The welder settings are very important and with technology today, welders like Miller have one setting for you to dial in....the steel thickness, then the welder sets up the rest automatically. A little technique and a steady hand and you're golden.

 

[froot]

The phone app won't let me like?!!? Thanks for the reply looks like the rig is definitely pulling the numbers. I keg so I always run 10 gal, even if I have to give it away. Your attention to detail is outstanding and I've see more than my share of build threads on this site. You know there are no backward steps from here, let us know when you upgrade to 20G kettles and bg14 burners, cause thats when you'll really see that baby burn red.

froot

 

[Cardog]

As you probably have figured out I live in a townhome which is why I needed a small footprint. When we end up buying a bigger home then a larger brewery could be in the plans. But I still like 5 gal batches either way to perfect my craft as I can brew more often.

Personally I think you just wanted me to let you know when I change so you can have first dibs on my "old one".

 

[jbb3]

As you probably have figured out I live in a townhome which is why I needed a small footprint. When we end up buying a bigger home then a larger brewery could be in the plans. But I still like 5 gal batches either way to perfect my craft as I can brew more often.

Personally I think you just wanted me to let you know when I change so you can have first dibs on my "old one".

Can you blame him!? Awesome build!

 

[JonW]

I was off the forums for nearly 2 weeks and look at what I missed! :rockin:

Cardog - very awesome build. So many well thought out details all through this. Kudos man, this is a great setup!

What are the white capped units on the out ports on the pumps? Are those auto vents?

 

[Cardog]

Aaaaah I was waiting for someone to notice those. Yes, they are an auto vent. I didn't want the duovent style as it was too big for my liking. So I chose this http://www.watts.com/pages/_products_details.asp?pid=3422

It works, but I don't really need it as I never have an issue with priming. Maybe because of the center inlet design, I don't know, but I took every precaution in the design. I had the luxury from learning what and what not to do from all the threads here.

Thank you JonW for your contribution and kind words. It was a thread you responded to when I asked about manual switches that gave me the confidence not to use them. The BCS460 has been reliable and I am glad I didn't use them.