New Brewstand

[Henno]

The new brewstand arrived today. My close personal friend who knows how to design, weld, machine, turn and basically make anything you could imagine made it for me. We dynabolted it to the floor then put the vessels on it and away we went.

I have a height restriction in my shed so the decision was made to stay gravity fed and lift the HLT after it was filled at ground level to a level where it would feed the MT below it. This was due to two facts. First, as I have still no pump on the water tanks beside my shed the joy of walking up a ladder with buckets of water to fill the HLT was wearing thin. Second, as we have decided to go double batches the extra height of the new cut and shut kettle was going to make the trip up the ladder higher and almost near the shed roof.



In the above pic the HLT is all the way up ready to go. There is a welded carrier for the HLT temp controller straight underneath the HLT. The lift is just awesome. You may be able to make out the hardwood rollers on both sides of the frame that it trolleys up and down on. The winch is a boat trailer winch and that is one of my favourite parts. It can be raised out of the way stowed in an overhead position once the HLT is up and ready to go. This gets it out of the way and alleviates the problem of smacking into into it when walking around the front of the stand. More pics to follow that will do it more justice.



Here the HLT is at the bottom ready to be filled and winched. The winch is locked down on it's pivot arm with a pin that is visible just below the top of the verticle strut above and to the right of my rude head.



About as much as I helped was wacking the dynabolts in. Even then I didn't drill the holes as I busted the plug off my hammer drill when we first got cracking this morning. This pic is mainly to show off the fact that the step for reaching the mash tun actually folds up and out of the way. Again to avoid nasty bumps in the night when I am walking around the brewstand with the lights off.

 

[bulp]

Thats a sexy bit of kit mate, lovin the winch idea geez brewers can be a crafty bunch well done :beerbang:

 

[Sammus]

Wow! top work (to your mate ) haha looks the goods mate

 

[Barramundi]

very nice indeed i like the winch concept , got drawings ?? im so lazy when it comes to being an inventor

 

[bonj]

That looks fantastic, Henno. Well done. I like how you solved the height problem.

 

[Henno]

Here are some more pics that show the finer points of the workings of the lift. I love the turned hardwood rollers.



Here the winch is locked out of the way with an arm that fits into its own little holder. The HLT carriage is locked in this position safely so the winch doesn't have any pressure on it, you can see the pick up tube from a keg that is slid into purpose built holes for this.



Here the winch is down to lift the carriage. A pit pin holds it in position. A better view of the stainless locking pin as well.



I am enjoying getting a bit frugal with this hobby now as well. Mark made this as an act of mateship and for some minor returned favours for the budget price of, wait for it, $40. And that was the cost of the winch! Everything else was scrap and left overs, including the John Deere green paint. Our next mission is budget stir plates and making a nice yeast bank to save on ongoing yeast purchases. I have been swapping old accumulated supplies from a well known Australian phone company for computer fans and power supplies.

 

[Barramundi]

great stuff will study those carefully , its almost time for me to have a brewstand, for your stirplate check out the thread labelled tight arse stirplate , very simple and very cheap to make with readily available bits and pieces

 

[devo]

Love ya work, great set up.....as my dad would always say, "yer a pretty fart smella".

 

[Tony]

Everything else was scrap and left overs, including the John Deere green paint.

but where is the yellow stripe ?

 

[jayandcath]

This is what its all about it, absolutely fantastic.
One question that I do have, what is the "stuff" that is wrapped around the HLT acting as insulation??? and where do you get it??

 

[Henno]

The stuff around the HLT is simply camping mat rubber foam. You can get them cheap from Kmart or BCF or the like.

 

[Barramundi]

BTW henno , where ya from ?

 

[Henno]

I am north of Bundaberg in sunny CQ.

 

[jayandcath]

I am continually amazed with the stuff you guys think of using. Its like an episode of Gilligan's Island. You guys could make a home brew setup from coconuts and string. Allstar was right, "You guys are good"

 

[white.grant]

Nice fabrication and the winch for the HLT is a great idea.

cheers

Grant

 

[browndog]

Top bit of engineering there Henno. Pit pin ! sounds like an aviation background perhaps

cheers

Browndog

 

[spog]

noicceee very noiicce,good job,the winch setup is top shelf....cheers....spog.......

 

[FNQ Bunyip]

Heno , Very nice set up. A work of art , congrats to both you and your fabrication buddy.

Just one tip , It looks like you have a NASA under your boiler running on orange hose , I had the same setup and all worked ok for a few brews , then Whoosh , One day it was a little windy and the heat radiated around a bit more , the hose got warm and the little brass compression thing slipped and off it came , with the gas cranked up on the red devil regulator it was swinging around like a garden hose on full . It had flame for about 2 seconds then luckily blew itself out and just sprayed gas around.
It took about half and hour befor my heart settled down enough too put a hose clamp on it and relight it with still shaking hands...

So the tip is , run some copper from the burner ... since your stand is bolted to the floor maybe you could run it around the corner and up the wall to the height of the gas bottle and just have a short bit from bottle to copper ....


bloody good setup though ....

cheers
Bunyip

 

[MVZOOM]

One day it was a little windy and the heat radiated around a bit more , the hose got warm and the little brass compression thing slipped and off it came , with the gas cranked up on the red devil regulator it was swinging around like a garden hose on full . It had flame for about 2 seconds then luckily blew itself out and just sprayed gas around.
It took about half and hour befor my heart settled down enough too put a hose clamp on it and relight it with still shaking hands...

That is pretty much my worst nightmare. I freakin hate gas....

 

[Henno]

This is the 'pussy step' in use and mashing happily.



Just one more to prove it works.