I suppose I should post a few pictures to show you all why I’m selling my totally awesome 3 tier folding brew stand (shameless plug).
This is Brew Stand 3.0. I don’t weld and I shy away from gas plumbing. The beauty of these shortcomings is that this took the local professional welder five days of working on it in between projects to get it done. Dropped off the plans last Friday, approved the estimate on Monday, stopped by for as many add-ons and “oh, can you do this, too” items as I could think of, and had the stand back at 12:30 p.m. yesterday. Dropped it by a good plumber on my way back to the office, and had it back with gas lines in an hour. Nearly killed myself getting it out of the truck without assistance (it weighs about 200+ lbs), but it’s safe and sound in its new home in the garage. It still needs paint, which may happen tomorrow. After that, I’ll bolt up the casters, pump, CFC, and get some plumbing fittings on order.
Thanks. It’s a single tier stand and I suppose it’s pretty similar to the Brutus system minus a direct fired mash tun. But I didn’t really pay much attention to Brutus versus the B3 2100 or any number of single tier stands I looked at in getting this one on paper. After brewing on a multi-tier system for a few years, I put it together based on my equipment (plus the new 20 gallon mash tun/kettle and how I brew.
I just drew it up on paper and, ultimately, laid out masking tape on the kitchen floor to make sure the kettles would fit before taking it to the welder. I’m going to batch sparge on it and will be insulating the mash tun later this week. No HERMS or RIMS … yet.
Got it painted today, but I may add another layer of the glossier satin stove paint since on my other stand, the flat stuff rubbed off really easily. Got the plumping ordered, pumps and CFC mounted, casters on, etc. Will test fire later this week and plan to brew next weekend.
New system, new problems, about sums it up. But, that said, I think I’ll have them solved by the second brew. Last Sunday, I started at 7 pm and went until 3 a.m. by the time all was cleaned up and stored. Ultimately, I was successful, but I spent the first half of the brew session solving problems.
1. I had several leaky jets on the new burners. This was not solved during the brew session. I went to Home Depot on Monday and bought some gas tape to reseal about 8 jets. One wouldn’t even screw in properly without the tape.
2. Speaking of burners, these new burners are hot. Next issue was my having my HLT positioned too far back over the burner. I melted my quick disconnect on the HLT and those things are rated for 250 degrees. Had a spare on a piece of hose that I rigged up so I could keep going. New camlock disconnects were on order, but hadn’t arrived by the inaugural brew.
3. My hoses were too long and my pump was cavitating a fair amount. Shortened the hoses and that helped a little, but it took forever to drain the HLT into the MLT. That hose with the disconnect was probably letting in air. I think another disconnect wasn’t sealing properly. As a result, I lost a lot of heat in the transfer and mashed in about 11 degrees low. I also didn’t account for water under the false bottom, which attributed to this heat loss. Added nearly 2 gallons of boiling water and was still 2 degrees low, but that was close enough. Added a half hour to my mash time to be sure I got conversion.
Recirculation on the mash went well and I saved time not having to vauralauf (sp).
Bought a high flow impeller for the pump for about $20, which should work better and hopefully prevent a lot of the cavitation should I continue to get a little air ahead of the pump. Will also preheat the tun next time and account for the water under the false bottom.
Got the gloss stove paint from Amazon and got it sprayed yesterday. I can’t tell you how much better this stuff is over the flat black stove paint. The flat paint was rubbing off two weeks after application (and I did a good prep). The gloss/satin stove paint looks much better and doesn’t rub off.
Also got my camlock fittings in and put the high flow impeller on the March Pump.
That is a beauty for sure. It will last several lifetimes. I have an all SST Brutus 10 clone that looks very similar. Yours is a bit wider but close to the same width and height. You are going to love it for sure. It takes a while to get use to the pumps but other than that it works like a well lit brewstand.
Thanks. I have used this pump for whirlpooling and transfer to the fermenter on my last brew stand, but I think I never realized how I don’t just need to prime to get liquid into the pump, but to get air out of the line leading to the pump.
The biggest problem was not accounting for the water under the false bottom. I had used a cooler with a bazooka screen up to this point.
Attached a water proof switch for the pump to the stand this afternoon. Going to get the pump wired to the switch and wires run through conduit by tomorrow afternoon if all goes according to plan.
Did you do a test run in with just water first? I mean a complete brew start-to-finish just like you normally would minus the grain & hops. Great way to test pumps, flow rates, leaks, etc…before comitting to production.
No. I didn’t have a chance. With two little ones running around, I’m lucky to have enough time to brew and do the little things to get the stand up and running. Hopefully, I’ll get a chance to do this before the next one. I think I have everything covered this time.
Got the switch wired up to the march pump today. I ended up leaving the plug end on the March Pump and just cut an extension cord in half and wired it to the switch.
Just poured my second pint of my first batch on this system. Despite my issues and work arounds, the beer is wonderful. This is my first Janet’s Brown Ale. Good stuff!
Batch number 2 on the new system is in the books and a Dortmunder is in the fermenter. Most of the issues of batch 1 were solved. The new high flow impeller in the March pump worked wonders with transfer times and the extra strike water to account for the space under the false bottom worked great. I still missed my rest temp by about two degrees, but that was manageable. Hit my numbers in the end and can’t wait for the next one. Only wrinkle was that the switch box got a little hot along with the rest of that side of the stand when the boil kettle was going. I put some stick on insulation between it and the stand and think that will probably keep it cool enough.
Well, after saving my pennies, I am having part two of the labor end of the Brew Stand 3.1 update performed today. That’s right. Automation. Last month, my stand went back to the welder to have a burner support and windscreen added for the mash tun. Last week, I ordered two Blichmann Tower of Power control modules (I’m no electrician). Today, I dropped the stand off at the plumber to adjust the gas piping to accommodate the mash tun burner and install the asco valves while they are in there. Over the next week, I’ll be installing the sparkers for the mash tun and HLT burners. I’ll also be installing a mount for the TOP, which basically amounts my bolting an articulating wall mount for a tube TV to the stand.
I know this isn’t DIY. But, in large part, this stand never has been. Pictures to follow.
Back from the plumber. New center burner with plumbing run at an angle so as not to interfere with my adjusting the pump. ASCO valves are mounted below the ball valves for the MLT and HLT burners. By mounting them there, I was hoping to have them far enough below the level of the burners so they would not get too much heat.
They are 20 tip jet burners. They are extreme overkill, even for 20 gallon kettles. I would have gone with the 10 tip, but the diameter was two small for the sparker/ignitor to reach the burner from the windscreen mounting location. I may plug a few of the jets it keep the fire low for the mash tun, but dialing them back has never been a problem.
Got a chance to work on it this morning. Installed the spark ignitors in the wind screens. Only drilled one unnecessary hole. Took a good bit of time to get them lined up Installed the temperature sensor in the HLT (don’t have a tee yet to install one on the pump output). Tested it. No spark. Eventually, after about 10 frustrating minutes of gas and no spark, I figured out that my spark gap was too large. Adjusted that and got spark and ignition. Adjusted it a bit more so that one of the sensors was well within the flame (kept shutting off after ignition). Anyway, it’s working well as far as igniting. It did overshoot my HLT temperature by several degrees and never shut off. Of course, I had it set pretty low and it’s supposed to overshoot a bit. I’m just not sure how much.
Next week, I’ll have my other sensor installed and will hopefully get my articulating mount set up. Until then, here are some more pictures and short “I made fire” video.
