3-tier wooden brew stand help

[BeerdedBrewer]

Hi everyone, brewbie here, have been reading forums/threads for a couple months since I started brewing. Great place to get questions answered for sure. Decided to join HBT today, so here I am! Thinking of building a wooden brew stand, likely 3-tiered for gravity feed. Have seen a few examples out there, just wondering how concerned I should be about the flames from the burners? Assuming if I'm using stand contained burners, within the structure, should be fine? Or do some folks put a metal "flashing" on the upper, inner, lower sides of the wood frame where the burner sits? Would be grateful for any tips, pics or plans, if anyone has any. Cheers!:beard:

 

[m1k3]

I use large 20x20 inch tile left over from our house under my burners.

I also use the tile between the burner and cooler MLT when heating sparge water.

 

[groundchuck]

BeerdedBrewer,

How many burners do you plan to use? Everybody has a different preference on how many they want to use. I only have one burner on my 3-Tier stand. I have a burner on the ground for the boil kettle. The Strike water and Mash Tun are both in coolers. It's a bit cheaper that way but you have to manage your time/brew process a bit more to make sure you have the right temp water when you want it. I have not had any issues with heat from the lower burner to the middle shelf however the spacing on my set up is probably larger than you would have if it would part of the stand itself. Here is my set up.

 

[BeerdedBrewer]

M1k3, like the tile idea, thanks!

Nice, tidy set up Groundchuck, I like the compactness of it (my eventual set up will be in an already crowded garage), thanks for the tips/pics. :beard:

 

[masskrug]

I wouldn't worry about it, wrap the lumber in aluminum foil.

 

[digitalbullet]

My stand is completely "bare back" have had zero issues. It gets warm underneath the burner, but nowhere near combustion temps. Placed my hand underneath the burner for a few minutes and the only reason I stopped was due to boredom.

 

[Stocktonbrew]

have had no problems with this set up.It was easy, works great, and not very expensive...not much bling though.

 

[Stocktonbrew]

Nice brew stand! Is that a plate chiller hooked up to your boil kettle? If so, how is that working out for you? I was thinking of going that route instead of my immersion chiller.

 

[kh54s10]

Here is mine. I started from the bottom and decided how high the BK needed to be to drain into the fermenter. I worked my way up from there.

I have since turned it around so the BK is near the sink for chilling and cleaning. I have also added a filtered water line along the ceiling to fill the HLT.

At first my HLT burner was suspended between the 2x4 legs... It set them on fire so I removed that part and used shelf brackets to suspend the burner.

 

[cantrell00]

Looking to build a tiered set up like these...

I assume you use a ladder & pail to get the water up to the top tier?

 

[m1k3]

A hose is a lot easier than a ladder and pail.

I have a sight gague so I can fill from the ground.

 

[BeerdedBrewer]

Cool, all great ideas guys, and thanks for the pics! Brewed Saturday, and that picking up and pouring the HLT is a precarious practice at best. Definitely looking forward to letting gravity do some of the work for me. Guess it's always good to have a fire extinguisher around, regardless of your set up! :beard:

 

[cantrell00]

A hose is a lot easier than a ladder and pail.

I have a sight gague so I can fill from the ground.

True but if doing mineral additions..... need a ladder anyway.

 

[aboantopick]

AllGrainMike,

How many burners do you plan to use? Everybody has a different preference on how many they want to use. I only have one burner on my 3-Tier stand. I have a burner on the ground for the boil kettle. The Strike water and Mash Tun are both in coolers. Here is my set up.

That's it!
Just the way I will build mine. Right now it a sparge water cooler on a couple boards on a table saw, mash tun on a 5gal upsidedown bucket and my pot and burner on the floor. It work but it wants a home it can call its own.

 

[BeerdedBrewer]

Groundchuck, out of curiosity, how do you heat the water for your HLT cooler, and how do you maintain the temp for sparging?

 

[groundchuck]

Groundchuck, out of curiosity, how do you heat the water for your HLT cooler, and how do you maintain the temp for sparging?

I use the boil kettle to handle all of the water heating tasks (Mash in, Sparge, and Boil). I have recently purchased a Chugger pump which makes the transfer of the water much easier (and more like a one man job). My brother and I always brew 10 gallons together so we end up with 5 gallons each. This also made lifting the water a much easier (two person) job.

Before I had the pump this was our process:
1) Bring Strike water to temp (+13 degrees) in the Boil Keggle
2) Place Keggle on middle tier and gravity feed into Mash tun (on the ground) for Mash In.
3) During the Mash, Bring Sparge water to temp (+8 degrees ..... ish) in Boil Keggle
4) Place Keggle back up on Middle Tier and Gravity feed into HLT (on the ground).
5) Lift HLT up to top tier, lift Mash Tun up to middle tier, then fly sparge into Boil Keggle on the burner.
6) Finally ...... Boil wort, add hops, etc. etc.
- This process requires no ladders to put hot water up in the top tier (which always sounds dicey to me but I know lots of people do it).

Now that I have the Chugger pump I leave the Boil Keggle on the burner and pump the heated water where I need it.

I have also recently purchased an electric bucket heater which I am super duper excited to use. I plan to heat up the Strike Water directly in the Mash Tun a few hours before I start the brew so I can eliminate Step 1) in my process above.

As far as temp loss goes, the coolers only loose about 1 to 2 degrees per hour. So after you figure out how much you need to overshoot your Mash Temp, Sparge Temp, etc. (for me it's about 13 degrees), you'll be almost spot on every time. No worries.

I was considering another Blichmann burner and keggle for my HLT. However for much less cost ($110 for the pump vs $150 for the burner + $110 to make another keggle), I now have the other benefits that a pump can provide.