Single Tier Brew Stand with BCS460 Complete Build

[BeardedIdiot]

An emoji does not exist that expresses the pure awe and envy which I feel. That is an OUTSTANDING build. Probably the best build quality of ANY piece of equipment I've seen here on HBT, and I'm an unabashed build voyeur.

I'm not sure what else I can say. Prost!

 

[Cardog]

An emoji does not exist that expresses the pure awe and envy which I feel. That is an OUTSTANDING build. Probably the best build quality of ANY piece of equipment I've seen here on HBT, and I'm an unabashed build voyeur.

I'm not sure what else I can say. Prost!

That's definitely my favorite compliment! The SWMBO has dubbed this forum as "The Man's Facebook"

 

[Cardog]

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

Ok BrunDog, I have perfected it now with the flow rate and the size of the ice cubes I made. I brewed yesterday and was able to chill 5.5 gal down to 71*F in a record 4 min 50 sec with only the 10 gal of ice water. The ice water was @ 42*F. My goal is to have less hoopla with less equipment.

 

[Cardog]

Here's the brew day in action.

 

[JonW]

When are you going to update to the BCS 4.x firmware?

 

[Cardog]

Actually just found out about a week and half ago. Since I knew I was brewing shortly after I found out, I wanted to be easy with what I knew will work instead of maybe dealing with process files not saved, idiosyncrasies, etc.

I will be updating it now though.

 

[JonW]

Just make sure you backup your process and system configs prior to upgrading. You can then use the 3.x migrator to load it back into 4.x.

 

[EPbrew]

Looks great! I'm thinking about building something similar but with 20gal kettles. What size tubing did you use for the main structure?

 

[Cardog]

I used 1 1/2" 14 ga. (.083) tubing. You can build a stout stand with 16 ga. (.063) if it is structured properly. I chose 14 ga. purely for the ease welding, more meat to grind on and possibly drill and tapping. What I mean by ease of welding is that using 16 ga, if you don't cut your measurements super duper perfect ending up with a somewhat large gap, its hard to weld without blowing through. It just takes more time to weld at that point.

The only thing you have to consider is the total span you will have without supports. If you look at my stand I have supports in between each burner. If you did that, like I said you could do 16 ga. if you wanted. With 20 gal. kettles I assume you would probably have a minimum of a 60" span. If you did that without supports in between then you are going to need 11 ga. or 14 ga. if you went with 2".

I am not a structural engineer but doing many projects like this, I have a lot of experience. Having said that, I see too many threads where people used 2" with 1/8" wall thickness.....that is so overkill, you might as well go Mac Daddy and use stainless if you're going waste your money on steel.

Bottom line, there is no harm in over engineering. Keep in mind with 20 gal. kettles you're probably not exceeding more than 320lbs of weight at any given time. That's really not that much weight. Heck, I know I could set an average car (about 3500lbs) on my stand and it will be fine. The wheels would the weakest point at that point.

 

[BrewingChemist]

can you post the link to your sketchup files?

 

[Cardog]

I sure can. Here you go!

 

[BrewingChemist]

ok I can see the picture - is there an actual link to the sketchup file? sorry

 

[Cardog]

There wouldn't be a link per se but I could send you a file of the drawing. You will need Sketchup to open it though. May I ask why you would want the file to this?

 

[crane]

Ok BrunDog, I have perfected it now with the flow rate and the size of the ice cubes I made. I brewed yesterday and was able to chill 5.5 gal down to 71*F in a record 4 min 50 sec with only the 10 gal of ice water. The ice water was @ 42*F. My goal is to have less hoopla with less equipment.

View attachment 346788

I think I will have to give this a try. I currently just chill to whatever the ground water temp is and if it's too high then I stick it in the ferm chamber to drop it down to pitching Temps.

I see you moved to SD from Milwaukee. I moved out here from Madison.

 

[Cardog]

I actually got the chilling process down to just over 4 mins. I realized the temp sensors take 5 to 10 seconds to stabilize so I was able to shorten up the time by 30-40 seconds. This is only a testament with the DudaDiesel B3-23A-30 plate chiller. I am sure once I get dialed in I can probably get down to less than 4 min with a pitching temp of <75*F.

With the 2 months of winter and 10 months of summer here, you have to get creative cause this is what you'll end up doing most of the time. In the winter, I don't use my prechiller method as it only takes about 6 mins to chill.

Go Packers/Badgers. Been out here since '79.

 

[BrewingChemist]

I would love the file! I'd love to replicate it, but will probably tweak it a little bit. I figured you had uploaded it to the warehouse and had a link!

 

[Cardog]

I would love the file! I'd love to replicate it, but will probably tweak it a little bit. I figured you had uploaded it to the warehouse and had a link!

Ok, PM me with your email address and I'll send it to you.

 

[stevehomey13]

Very nice build! I love how clean and "simple" you made it. :rockin: