Today's post isn't exactly for homebrewing, or at least not for most homebrewers (there's probably one person out there with a forklift, doing 60 gallon Solera projects), but I thought homebrewers might find it interesting. This is an equipment build I'm doing for my gig managing the sour beer program, and to an extent, the barrel-aged clean beers at a local brewery. This is a cleaning rack to assist with rinsing barrels between fills.
The way it works is after the barrels are emptied, a standard double barrel stacking rack is lowered onto the cleaning rack. As the stacking rack is lowered, the casters engage the barrels and the stacking rack drops out of the way and rests on the cleaning rack. With the barrels suspended on the casters, you can easily rotate the bungholes to the 6 o'clock position for dumping sediment and rinsing the barrels. Long story short, it makes the barrel cleaning process much quicker and easier.
We have two types of barrel racks. The overall dimensions are basically the same but the construction varies slightly in that some have two crossbars, but most have four. This isn't a huge issue, it just means some of the stacking racks rest lower on the cleaning rack than others. Stacking rack dimensions tend to be 44.5" wide x 30.75" deep x 14.125" tall.
To build the cleaning rack, I used 1.5 x 2.5 - 14 gauge rectangular steel tubing. Materials and cuts are as follows:
The way it works is after the barrels are emptied, a standard double barrel stacking rack is lowered onto the cleaning rack. As the stacking rack is lowered, the casters engage the barrels and the stacking rack drops out of the way and rests on the cleaning rack. With the barrels suspended on the casters, you can easily rotate the bungholes to the 6 o'clock position for dumping sediment and rinsing the barrels. Long story short, it makes the barrel cleaning process much quicker and easier.
We have two types of barrel racks. The overall dimensions are basically the same but the construction varies slightly in that some have two crossbars, but most have four. This isn't a huge issue, it just means some of the stacking racks rest lower on the cleaning rack than others. Stacking rack dimensions tend to be 44.5" wide x 30.75" deep x 14.125" tall.
To build the cleaning rack, I used 1.5 x 2.5 - 14 gauge rectangular steel tubing. Materials and cuts are as follows:
- (4) Outer posts at x" long (I forgot to measure these and I no longer have access to the rack)
- (2) Long horizontal beams at 48" long
- (4) Inner posts at 12" long
- (2) Short horizontal beams at 19" long
- (8) Casters
The pieces were assembled as shown in the pictures below. There's enough clearance to slide a bucket under the barrels during rinsing. This is important because while clean barrels will most likely be rinsed in the brewery, sour barrels will likely be rinsed outside to minimize contamination risk in the brewery. We'll need to be able to capture the wastewater and properly dispose of it, so clearance for a bucket is key.
The sizing noted above will give you a couple inches of clearance side to side and front to back. That said, it does require some precision to use, so you need some decent forklift skills to load barrels onto the rack. I also added some rubber pads where the stacking rack rests on the horizontal beams. Hopefully these will avoid damaging the paint and keep it rust-free longer. I added the same rubber on the bottom of the legs so they don't damage the floors in the brewery.
The sizing noted above will give you a couple inches of clearance side to side and front to back. That said, it does require some precision to use, so you need some decent forklift skills to load barrels onto the rack. I also added some rubber pads where the stacking rack rests on the horizontal beams. Hopefully these will avoid damaging the paint and keep it rust-free longer. I added the same rubber on the bottom of the legs so they don't damage the floors in the brewery.
