All Grain Brewing Stand Designs?

[Andrew Clark]

I'm looking to improve my all grain setup and thought a brew stand would be good, any thoughts on a design? I currently brew a three tier gravity fed system.
Regards
Andrew

 

[Justin]

This is how I did mine. I wanted to keep it fairly compact (well I didn't really want to keep it compact, I had to. I wish I could spread out ), but it all packs up inside itself, sits on wheels so I can move the whole thing about by myself, and basically works faily well, no lifting until it's all in the fermenter. I just back it into a corner when not in use. I did cut a further 5" out of the height of this one pictured because I was able to lower it a bit due to the fact I forgot to factor in the height of the wheels (different to pictured wheels), but anyway.


Cheers, JD

P.S. I like the brewtree one's as well but I don't think I would back my welding abitities and the balancing issue, but they seem to have it nutted out. They look good.

 

[Andrew Clark]

Justin, that setup looks great and compact to boot, is the steam rising off the boiler a problem with the hlt up top? and do you have a burner on the top as well, I like this design it's nice and compact you may have solved my problems..
Thanks for posting the pic
Regards
Andrew

 

[Justin]

Actually, no the steam isn't much of a problem. I thought it may condense but it doesn't, this may be because of the heat of the hlt heating that area up. No burner up top though, I have two kettle elements mounted in opposing sides of my hlt, this weekend I will be constructing the thermostat control to automate this part of the system as my parts from Altronics.com arrived. Can't wait actually, just to get up in the morning and mash in straight away, then go and have breakfast.

I don't doubt there are better designs out there but this works or me, I live in a smallish 2 bedroom flat so space is limited.

Cheers JD

 

[pioneergangsta]

Justin,

like the stand mate, this is what i was thinking for my setup, still gotta get another 50L keg... how well do the 2 kettle elements go in the way of heating up your HLT?

Cheers

 

[Justin]

Really good actually. I have one 1800W and one 2400W, both out of old kettles. They just have a plastic backing nut, I drilled a pilot hole and then enlarged it with a round file so it was just big enough to accomodate the element. I bought a couple of extra washers to pack out the inner side to conform better with the curved shape of the keg and wacked a bit of silicone on for good measure. Never had a leak yet.

Probably takes about 30 mins to heat up 40 odd litres to strike temp, I haven't actually measured it but it wouldn't be much longer than that I would think. I am going to insulate it with a foam camp roll mat as well to save power and time. When I find one, I'll put another 2400W element in just because I can. I got my kettles from around home but the local tip/refuse shop usually has a heap of kettles at about $5 each-haggle for less. My HLT will also distill water with the right attachment .

Bonus is with electric is that a thermostat is so easy to rig up, that way if you get tied up doing other things while waiting for you hlt to heat up you won't overshoot the temp. Plus for me having the hlt so high above my head (well it's not that high) I want it all automated so I don't have to climb up there, I can just run it all from the ground.

Cheers, JD

 

[THE DRUNK ARAB]

Andrew, try this link for some more ideas:

http://hbd.org/forums/messages/366/366.html

C&B
TDA

 

[RobW]

Justin

How many of those elements can you safely run on a domestic circuit?

 

[Justin]

I think most house wiring is rates at 10amps (but will take 15Amps-don't do that). The 2400W element draws 10amps, the 1800W draws 7.5amps therefore to run both at the same time you need to run them on different cicuits.

To work this out I played about with fuses at the switch box in my house and worked out which power points were on different circuits. I then just run extension leads to connect each element to a different circuit. Most houses should have at least two different circuits for power points.

 

[Gout]

this is true but i have ran 2 x 2400 off the one double power point. Normally i only have one on at a time but them i saw both were infact running i wouldn't do it if you can get away with it.

Have the smaller ellement on the extention lead, and dont run while its coiled up ( lay the lead out)