Simple Brew Stand in an Afternoon

Hello again everybody!  I hope your brewing has been going well!

As I mentioned in a previous post, I love Strong Scotch Ales and now that I have finally gone all grain I have the ability to brew one.  The recipe I followed was a simple one, but it does call for an extended (60 day) secondary.  The problem I have with this is that my fermentation chamber is a variant on the Son of Fermenter and it holds exactly one fermentation bucket or carboy.

No brewing until approximately October 21st for yours truly.

Normally I brew once a month unless real life has other plans for me (married, 3 sons aged 9-15 and 2 dogs tends to make free time a premium during the school season). Be that as it may, I wanted to get something brew related done this month so I drew up a simple 2 stage brew stand that will work for me and remain budget friendly - otherwise known as free.

Disclaimer - my middle son doesn't use the bunk bead I made for him years ago anymore and the wood from that project was donated for the betterment of the brewing department of our household.  (Besides, it was sitting in storage for 3 years collecting dust and I did ask him if I could take it for a brew stand, no hating on me for taking his bed please!)

The plan for this is a simple set up.  I thought about my first (and so far only) all grain brew day, using saw horses to keep the mash tun up and having the burner on the floor.  I just wanted something less improvised or thrown together looking and have a type of brew stand that works for me.  This is what I put together and it is quite a simple build.  Now I'm no carpenter (I'm actually a plumber) so I bet there are a lot of people out there who could make this more appealing in the same amount of time.

It's a simple idea behind this stand.  My brew kettle and burner sit on the lower level.  Once the mash water reaches temperature I transfer it to the mash tun on the higher level via a small sauce pot. I heat my sparge water in a smaller pot and transfer that in the same way, while the height of the higher stand allows me to drain it via the valve on the side directly into the empty brewpot on top of the burner.I agree it is certainly not the most efficient way, but for now it works very well on my limited budget and my brewing efficiency was 75% according to Brewer's Friend when I checked my numbers after brewing.

The base is a 24" x 48" piece of 3/4 plywood on top of a 2" x 4" frame supported across the center and ends.  

Here is a view of it from underneath, it may not look like it but they are equally spaced across the bottom.

For mobility, I added caster wheels (my buddy Phil was getting rid of them and let me have them - thanks Phil!) on one side and a handle on the non-wheel side so that it can be lifted and pulled like a wagon.  The legs on the non wheeled side are simple to cut.  I mounted the casters first and measured how far they were off from the base and just cut legs to match that length.  It makes for a very level cart.  

The second stand was easier.  The top is roughly 24" x 24" supported the same way.  As your height needs may be different from mine, I determined my height by placing my burner assembly and brew pot on the first cart.  I then measured how tall it was to the top of the brew pot and added a few inches for clearance and ease of moving my carts around.

Here is a helpful hint for you - If you flip the taller cart upside down and only attach each leg with one screw for the time being, it is much easier to insert the lower shelf and square everything out.  Additional screws can be added for keeping it together after you are 100% sure it's straight.  

I have a shelf on the taller stand for 2 reasons.  The first is that it will be handy for keeping those last minute things I need close by - such as my brew log book - and secondly, the shelf adds a lot of support to the legs.  It keeps them very square and true, which is a must for me, I have casters on all 4 legs because I need to move this around while brewing and I can't take the risk of a leg coming out of place and tipping.

There ya have it folks, it's cheap, easy to put together and small enough to store away on edge when not in use.  The only other thing I did was make a small sign for the front with a scrap of pallet wood I had laying around.

As always, thanks for reading this to the end!

Feel free to drop me a comment or question below!