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doublehaul: We had a pretty brutal winter this year so I had to take a break from the build. But it's starting to warm up and my goal is to finish it up before the NHC in June.

Hi friends! I've been working on and off for the past year or so on some new homebrew recipe software, codename Brewed, and I figured it might be time to show something off. First off, this is a pretty big departure from how homebrew software normally works. It's more an experiment than...

Here's another quick shot of the top of the stand with one of the kettles in place:

Thanks for all the great feedback, everybody! It really helps keep me motivated. mikescooling: Check the picture I just posted after this reply. You can see a triangular hole in the front of the kettle; it's symmetrical in the back. My plan was to cover the front holes to redirect the heat...

Got most of the frame welded up this morning, but I ran out of wire so the rest will have to wait. Some of the welds are really ugly, a few are passable, a couple are almost nice. It's even pretty square!

Stealthcruiser: I did! But maybe I didn't cut enough of a chamfer. Or I just suck at welding. Probably both! Ultimately, I'm not as concerned about the strength of these particular welds compared to some of the others. The frame is designed to distribute the weight down through the legs. Out of...

Done working for the day. I got the top ring welded up and made a rough pass over the (ugly) welds with the angle grinder. Did I mention I've never welded before? What fun! I also got the legs and bottom supports cut. When measured diagonally, the frame is only 1/16" off square. The legs...

CCBrewer: Thanks! Yep, it's the 90 amp flux core wire welder. Brewmex41: Eek! A Pro! Just promise to be kind. This is my first time welding or doing any kind of serious metal fab work. Please let me know if you see me doing anything boneheaded! :)

OK. Time for some actual pictures from the build. It took quite a bit of tinkering to get straight miter cuts out of my cut-off saw, but I think the results were worth the trouble: The top ring, where the kettles sit, all cut and ready to be tack welded: Hopefully by the end of...

Hi there friends! I started building my new brew stand yesterday and I figured I'd start a new thread to document my progress. The design is a three-keggle, two-pump, single-tier configuration. It'll be made out of 2" 14ga square steel tube. Here are a couple SketchUp renders. First, the...

Friends, I know that the conventional wisdom is to always have your pump's inlet sit below whatever it is you are draining. But is this really necessary? Imagine connecting your pump's input directly to the ball valve on the bottom of your kettle. Wouldn't the downward pressure of the water in...

Well, I brewed on this last weekend and I can't say I was thrilled. It was fun throwing the valves and watching the wort move from one kettle to the other, but the three way ball valves are hard to control precisely and I was shocked at how much equipment loss I had between the RIMS tube, the...

It works OK. Ultimately I got tired of having to watch the mash temp. The insulation helped a lot though, as did slowing down my recirculation rate. A tight fitting lid would help even more. And short hoses. Anything to minimize heat loss. It was good experience, and I feel more confident with...

The mash tun is 15 gal. This is the one. It's really heavy duty. I'll try to come up with a parts list soon. Piecing it together is exactly what I did. I already had the kettles, the pump, some QDs, and some 1/2" silicone hose. The RIMS tube was another $150, and I probably dropped about $200...

Ibrewaletx, yep, you got it! Sorry for the late reply; busy day at work. Yeah, the wort leaves the chiller and returns to the boil kettle. I used to run my wort straight through the chiller and into the fermenter in a single pass, but I found that in order to hit my pitching temperatures, I had...

'Eh, I used the QDs because I had them on hand. They're way easier to use than camlocks, but have a slightly slower flow rate and are a little harder to clean. They're also about 2x as expensive. The whirlpool fitting is from Bargain Fittings. See the ball valve to the right of the pump? If I...

Got the plumbing mostly done. Still need to fix the weldless bulkheads (I wasn't paying attention and installed them completely wrong :tank:), shorten up a couple hoses, attach a few hose clamps, double check all my connections, and check for leaks. A close up of the plumbing: And the...

Put the kettles on the stand and worked on some more plumbing. The large kettle is the mash tun, and the smaller of the two is the boil kettle. I plan to upgrade the boil kettle to match the mash tun. Until I do, I'm limited to 6 gal batches. Still need to drill the holes for the recirculation...

Absolutely!

Bobby, I haven't picked up the element yet, but I'm planning on running a 4500W, 240v element at 120v. I've got a 30A, 120v dedicated circuit to play with, but I figure 1225W should be plenty for maintaining my mash temperature. Any recommendations? cfeags, The plan is to have two kettles, the...