My Completed Brewery!

[fixa]

After horsing around with lifting hot heavy items, i decided something had to be done.
So i decided to build a brewing structure.
Had to be gravity fed, mobile, and easy to make.

Here it is,



HLT


MLT


Keggle with new NASA burner


Will be giving it it's maiden voyage this weekend.. Can't wait :super:

 

[Pumpy]

Great work Fixa you must be a chippy

looks great Pumpy

 

[FNQ Bunyip]

Well done Fixa... I enjoy looking at the diferant aproches people take .

Not knocking your set up but I couldent be comfortable knowing there is 15 to 20 lts of hot water in a plastic bucket above my head. Just me..

Still looks like its very solid and well constructed ...

I wish you many good brews from you handy work.

:beer:

 

[fixa]

Thanks mate.

Not a chippy, VERY far from it....used to be what they call "queer trade". Thats an aircraft sparky for the uninformed.

I had this wood lying around from an abandoned display cabinet project, and thought what the hell...

 

[fixa]

Cheers FNQ. The plastic bucket is quite sturdy and doesn't show even the slightest sign of melting, and the brackets that hold it up can take 20 kgs each, so i'm confident it'll be good!!

 

[Whistlingjack]

Well done, fixa

I know the pain of lifting vessels of hot wort. I patched one together recently, too.

It sure doesn't look as sexy as yours, though.

 

[Chris]

Thanks for the motivation Fixa, my next project will be something similar as I too nearly fell of the step ladder with 20lt of hot water.
Looks good

 

[Nickb167]

where did the frame for the burner/pot come from? or did you make it yourself?

 

[fixa]

Cheers guys!

Go for it chris! it's pretty easy once you get started.

Nick; The burner came with that stand from G&G.

 

[sah]

Fixa, how are you heating your mash & sparge water?

Scott

 

[dicko]

Hi fixa,

Top job and very simple, the KISS method is allways good.

I would have one concern however with the heat that those NASA burners throw out.
Might I suggest that you may want to consider placing some sort of insulating sheet under the burner frame and maybe to the side of it as well just to save the timber from scorching or a possible fire.

I know that my set up is on a metal frame and it gets pretty warm around it when the boil is on. :beer:

Cheers

 

[fixa]

sah;
the HLT is electric. It has 2 kettle elements in it. It will not be in place during the boil...

Dicko..
Yes, i have thought about this. I gave the NASA a trial run yesterday to see how much heat it will throw off. Interestingly the wood didn't get too hot. The garage floor did... dunno how that works. But future plans include getting some al sheet to protect the wood. Or possibly some heat resistant paint.

I was amazed at how much paint the burner threw off itself.. and it's quite loud too. much louder than the 3 burner i used before. I guess thats why it's called a NASA!!!!!!

 

[dicko]

sah;
the HLT is electric. It has 2 kettle elements in it. It will not be in place during the boil...

Dicko..
Yes, i have thought about this. I gave the NASA a trial run yesterday to see how much heat it will throw off. Interestingly the wood didn't get too hot. The garage floor did... dunno how that works. But future plans include getting some al sheet to protect the wood. Or possibly some heat resistant paint.

I was amazed at how much paint the burner threw off itself.. and it's quite loud too. much louder than the 3 burner i used before. I guess thats why it's called a NASA!!!!!!

fixa,
That paint stinks when it burns off, I think that it is only painted for show purposes. <_<

I use an old (60kph) aluminium road speed sign to insulate mine. h34r:

It was left on the side of the road by a crew of road repairers some time ago

Happy brewing

 

[fixa]

Cheers dicko

I had intended to brew today. However, the HLT decided to leak a little around a newly installed fitting, then when i transferred the water into the Mash Tun, it decided to leak around the new mashmaster thermometer i have installed. I had previously checked them both fopr leaks... I then gave it up as a bad joke. The beer gods did not want me to brew today.....

 

[sah]

The beer gods did not want me to brew today.....

Those beer gods have got a lot to answer to.

Scott

 

[Keifer]

Is your Kettle high enuf up off the ground to gravity feed into your fermentor? Looks the goods by the way, easy brewin ahead !

 

[fixa]

sure is.. the whole idea was so i didn't have to lift any hot fluids.

 

[fixa]

Just a quick update. Brew attempt 2 during the week went off without a hitch. The sculpture performed fantastic, sure was great not to have to lift hot fluids!!!! I recomend something like this for all brewers!!

 

[mika]

Hi Fixa, just found this post. I'd been thinking of building something like this for a little while, but whenever I've looked at it it's all got too hard.
So a couple of questions;
How tall overall (top of HLT) ?
How far above ground is the kettle outlet ?
How do you get water into the HLT ?
What member size are the main uprights ?

Cheers,
Mika

 

[fixa]

Mika;
Overall height: will measure tommorow and get back to you.
kettle tap is 700mm for ground. enough for a fermenter or cube.
At the moment i'm bucketing water into the hlt, but have the materials (but not the time ATM) to make up a kinda umbrella handle shaped hose to fill it whilst standing at ground level.
The main supports are actuall 4 peices of wood made into a box shape, the wood dimensions i'll get back to you on.. (at work ATM)...

Give it a go, it wasn't that hard really, and the improvement it makes is well worth it.