Brew Stand Build Lessons Learned

The brew stand build is basically complete. I thought about painting it but that’s a waste of time. I’d rather be brewing than waiting for paint to dry. This week John is a little curious about the project so we hit the high points of the build out and discuss some of the lessons I learned along the way.

Aside from cutting and grinding metal for the fabrication, the primary hurdle was to handle the plumbing of the gas lines. I used 1/2 inch black pipe for all the hard lines. Essentially running a supply line along the back of the stand with T-fittings for each burner. I connect to each burner using coated flexible stainless steel supply line. The same stuff you’d use to connect to a standard gas stove.

I don’t know a whole lot about plumbing gas and maintaining an adequate supply pressure for all three burners. I suspect that if I had used a different diameter piping maybe all three burners would be able to run simultaneously at full bore…but they don’t I can get two burners screaming with flame, but when I light the third I just don’t think there is enough pressure coming from the tank to get it done. Not a big deal really as there is rarely a time when you’d want to run three burners. Let alone at full bore. My center burner is for the mash tun with I only fire intermittently to maintain mash temps.

The most important thing to remember when plumbing for any type of burner is the proper orifice. Natural gas and propane but come at different pressures and you have to have the right orifice to match the fuel and pressure source. An orifice is a small fitting that has a small home bored through it. The gas meets the orifice and is pressed through there creating a jet like effect on the otherside. This is how the fuel pulls in air from the “carbuerator” like flapper valve on the back of the burner. If you don’t use the right sized orifice for your supply pressure you just get a dirty yellow burn and not the classic clean blue flame you are looking for.

Lastly, I wish the stand was a little taller. I cut the original aquarium stand down to half its height. While its perfect for brewing there isn’t enough room to safely mount my pump beneath it. I am afraid there is too much heat from the burners and the pump may get damaged.

So for now I plan to build a small portable pump and chiller stand that I can move around separately. Which might make things easier for cleaning than if it was all mounted under the stand. Only time will tell.

Stay tuned for a future video of the stand in operation while brewing. You’ll quickly see what I mean about burner usage and the pump situation.

Any thoughts or questions on brew stands? Just pass them along!