New 3 Tier Beer Sculpture (My First)

Brewed my first batch of beer last week or so and really enjoyed doing it.  Decided a beer sculpture would be fun to build.  10 hours, $200 in materials, and the help of 2 friends, we made a prototype to mess with.  After we use it and have the experience to decide what we really like in a setup, we’ll build a shiny, stout, correctly configured sculpture.

It’ll make beer. Looks a little spindly but I respect that. Why over build? For 200 bones then you’re doing better than many. And it looks like the stand could accommodate a bbl production if the kettles were bigger.

We put three kegs on it each full of water.  plus 20 pounds of sand on the second tier to simulate grain, and one of my shop guys stood on it and the square tubing showed very little flex.  We used 1 inch angle iron in the corners and 3/4 " square tubing everywhere else.  It is a prototype, i"ll probably use 1 inch square tubing next time or perhaps 1 1/4.

Any advice from others taken as to strength needs.  It’s probably a little lower than it could be but I wanted it to be at a height that my GF doesn’t have to use a stool to see in the middle tier with a keg on it…

mostly, we had a blast making it.

I just got finished planning and having my second stand built.

I can speak to the heavier end of the spectrum as for strength.  Maybe some others can chime in concerning where things start to get dicey.

I had my last one done out of 1.5" x 0.125" thick angle iron.  There was absolutely no worry about strength with this stuff.  On my second stand, I was debating 1.5" box tubing versus 2" box tubing.  Strength was never a concern between either of these, but I was interested in what others had done.  On one of the forums, I read a comment that summed it up.  When in doubt, build it stout.  Now I don’t know if doubt was what I was experiencing, but I’m a sucker for a good rhyme.  And 2" box tubing is what I went with (for the frame).  1.5" box tubing for the kettle supports was plenty.

But if you don’t need to use tubing for some reason, i.e., gas beam, the thicker angle iron will be extremely robust.

Square tube is much stronger than angle - Take a look

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOraQWLSV1I

The throwing arm is 1.5 inch 3/32 square tube - threw an 8lb pumpkin 1000 feet.

The joints on that design would be the biggest concern, if there was one. Small plate steel gussets would solve that.

Very nice work!

Now you get to break it in.  :slight_smile: