Tool cart brewery

Systems, Gear, & DIY
1

Have had a lot of time here in the hospital with my wife to think and plan my brewery in the workshop my dad built for me.
I’ll drop the link here then explain.

The very top will house all electrical components. DIN rails, SSR’s, wiring, etc… On the front panel, I will pull the US General emblems and install my PID’s, ampmeters, and amp control along with the various switches for relays and pump.
In the top I am going to put diamond plate over the wiring and components. I will suit my mash tun on that. On the bottom of the lid I will install a small flat screen or touch screen to display Beersmith.
On each side of the cart I will fab and weld a metal rack for my keggles to sit on. The pump will be mounted somewhere on the bottom. Obviously, there is plenty of storage for all my brew gear and equipment. They also sell many magnetic components I’m looking at to add on for storage such as racking canes and tubing. There is also the option of a 14" side cabinet should I need more storage.
I’m excited too get home and get to work.
Has any seen anything similar? I’m curious to see what may have been done. So far my research has turned up nothing.

2

I am not clear on where the elec control box will be in relationship to the liquid vessel(s).

If I understand you correctly, you will have it/them on top of elec control box. If so, I caution you in doing this. I have spilled more than my fair share of liquid in my brewery and recommend no electric components are below liquid vessels.

If I misunderstood you and you are not placing elec components below liquid vessels please disregard.

3

Keggles will go on each side of the cart. Mash tun will suit on top of the lid.
Opening the lid will expose the electrical components, however I will have it sealed, should anything from the tun leak.

4

Can you upload a sketch?  I’m not certain I’m following you text description.

You’d want to think about how heavy your mash tun will be and what reinforcing the lid might need to support that.  Also think about where the CG will wind up and how that will affect stability — the last thing you want is a full mash tun of 70C water tipping over.

5

Hey weaze, good to see you back. I know you have been out of the loop for a while so maybe you don’t know about the “all in one” electric breweries that have hit the market over the last couple of years? They are comparably cheap considering everything you basically need besides a fementer and possibly a hot liquor tank or a way to heat sparge water is included. I have the BrewZilla 110V that I brew 6-7 gallon batches in and I love it for its ease and simplicity and small footprint.

There are also 220V available in larger sizes (12 gallon batches). Might be easier than coming up with something on your own and ultimately cheaper too.

6

So, better than a year later I’m back to this thread. Can’t believe about three weeks after I started it my wife died. Needless to say, this past year I’ve not really been in the mood to brew. But, I need to do something and start living my life again. Still playing with the idea of my tool cart brewery.
Major, I’ve not seen the Brewzilla you spoke of. I’ll check it out. I already have the lions share of what I need to build, as I’ve been tinkering with and electric brewery for a few years now. Even did a few batches on a 110v prototype.
  I also had the idea on my way home from work today to covert my spare bedroom into a dedicated brew room. No SWMBO to stop me.  :cry:
Gonn look for some sales Black Friday and get this going! Someone needs to teach me how to post pics since photobucket is gone. Cheers, all. I look forward to seeing you all again.

7

Welcome back.

Designating a dedicated brewery has been one of the best improvements for my hobby I have made. I no longer store my equipment in the basement and haul it out and set it up to brew. I sometimes dreaded brewing because of that alone. So, I converted half my laundry room into a brewery.

I chose the laundry room because it has 220v power, water, a window, a storage closet, and a sink. It really is a perfect location for me.

I got a 220v switch so I can  plug the dryer into one side and an induction cooktop into the other.

For ventilation I took a piece of plexiglass, screwed it to the window frame, cut a 6” hole in it and routed a fan vent hose thru it.

And recently, I added an RO filter near the sink that I can connect to the faucet. I plumbed the output around the room to a valve near my brew kettle.

No more hauling equipment around or hanging out in the cold, wet, or heat to brew. I literally sit in my easy chair and wait for alarms to tell when to go to the brewery to take the next action.

I hope your tool cart brewery gives you the same convenience and sense of pride. If so, you’ll enjoy the hobby more and as a result want to brew more. At least I do.

Cheers!

8

  1. Condolences.

  2. Welcome back.

  3. I second the advice above to think about where your center of gravity will be on this cart. Tipping over several gallons of near-boiling water would make for a bad day.  I’ve had mixed experiences with Harbor Freight’s stuff — you’re going to be attaching a nontrivial amount of hardware to this rig.  You might think about building out your system on something like this:

The shelves are adjustable, and the whole thing is explicitly rated for several hundred pounds (plenty of margin to hold any amount of water, equipment, etc).

9

So i may or may not have just ordered the Brewzilla. Mostly may have… ;D