Brew Stand 3.0

For those that don't know me personally or anyone stumbling across this post, we moved from West Jordan, Utah to Clearwater, Florida in June of 2024. You might ask, why would someone move from Utah to Florida? Well, both my wife and I are originally from southern California and we were ready to live somewhere warmer (no snow!), closer to water, with an abundance of biking trails, and closer to Disney Parks. SoCal is insanely expensive, so here we are on the other West Coast in Central Florida.

For the big move, I managed to bring all the important things (kettles, fermenters, fermentation fridges, kegs, etc.) but my brew stand (2.0) was too large to fit; it got ditched at the last minute. No biggie, and I figured it was an opportunity to tinker with a new design. So that's the point of today's post, to introduce my brew stand 3.0.

Before we jump into 3.0, here's a brief summary of the first two brew stands:

• Brew Stand 1.0 - This was my original horizontal oriented stand inspired by the famous Brutus 10 style stand. It worked well but had a large footprint. The brew system was a traditional three vessel (Hot Liquor Tank, Mash Tun, and Boil Kettle) plus a dedicated standalone Heat Exchanger. Most HERMS systems use a coil submerged in the HLT, so the standalone Heat Exchanger was kind of my own take on a HERMS style system. Everything pre-boil was electric and controlled by a BCS-460 brewery controller. I had a sweet cold war era-looking control panel on one end. The boil used natural gas and there was a small burner I'd mounted in the stand. There were a few minor equipment changes over time, but I got pretty lucky in that it just worked really well from the start. Keep in mind, this was well before the concept of BIAB and well before any of the AIO systems available today.
• Brew Stand 2.0 - I didn’t ever get around to doing a post about this one. After I acquired too much crap in my garage, I wanted a brew stand with a smaller footprint than 1.0. I also wanted a larger burner that would allow me to get up to a rolling boil faster as I was starting to brew 10 gallon batches more often.
  
  
  I designed version 2.0 as a three tiered system with the HLT at the very top and centered in the frame, the MT was positioned on the middle tier and offset to one side, then the burner for the BK was on the bottom tier and offset to the opposite side. The pump and HEX were mounted to the frame beneath the MT, and the chiller was beneath the BK. I kept the same control panel from 1.0 and had it cantilevered off one side of the stand. This arrangement worked great and my only complaint was that it was a pain to fill the HLT. I usually used RO water, so I'd have to pump the water from my containers up to the HLT. Or if I was using filtered tap water, I'd have to climb up on a step stool to make sure I filled it to the right level. Other than that, the stand worked great and I really liked the positioning of everything. Also, the tiered approach was great because it meant I could gravity feed if needed (e.g. broken pump). 

Now we arrive at Brew Stand 3.0. As I mentioned, I had to leave brew stand 2.0 behind when we moved to Florida. My Florida garage is even smaller than my Utah garage, so I wanted to keep the footprint small. I was considering skipping the whole design and build process and just purchasing an off the shelf AIO system like a Grainfather or Blichmann Breweasy; that would have been the simple approach. The problem is I do like tinkering around with stuff and I really loved the system I'd built. I knew how to brew really well on my custom homebuilt system, I enjoyed brewing on it, and I felt like I really had everything dialed in. Also, if something ever broke, I knew exactly how to fix it. And since it didn't have any proprietary components, I didn't have to worry about what would happen if a company went out of business (e.g. Picobrew). So ultimately I decided to rebuild my old system rather than buy a ready to go brewhouse.

There were two significant design changes I needed to incorporate for 3.0:

1. While my custom built HEX had served me well, the copper coil was starting to show its age. Also, it was only 120v/2000w and struggled to raise the temps when needed (e.g. step mashes, mashout, etc.), especially on 10 gallon batches. I decided to change the design from 120v HERMS to 240v/3500w RIMS by adding a Blichmann RIMS Rocket coil to a Hop Rocket I'd acquired years ago. I'm hoping the additional power and direct contact nature of the RIMS will reduce rise time when needing to raise mash temps.
2. The other significant design change impacts the boil. While natural gas is available in parts of Florida, it's not super common like it is other places. I could have gone with propane but they can be noisy and there’s always the risk of running out mid boil. I decided to just go 100% electric since I was already upgrading the RIMS to 240v anyway. In this case, I went with a 5500w ripple element from Brew Hardware. 

Both of these design changes impacted my control panel. The old control panel was too small to hold everything I needed so I dismantled in order to reuse as many components as possible. I added controls for the BK plus higher amperage SSRs and the addition of contactors for the 240v circuits.  

One thing I forgot to mention re 2.0, the control panel hanging off the side of the stand seemed a little weird. It was in a good position most of the time, but sometimes it was awkward to reach. The panel on 3.0 is mounted on its own stand in order to make this system as flexible as possible. So if I need the panel in a different position on start-up versus during the boil, I can position it where needed rather than attached to the stand.  

Panel design is inspired by The Electric Brewery design, but a little more basic/simple. In fact, it uses a few parts I ordered from The Electric Brewery shop, including the heatsink, 40amp SSRs, and contactors. One of the biggest visual differences between mine and The Electric Brewery design is I'm not using panel mount receptacles for my power connections. Instead, I'm just dropping power cords with cord-end receptacles. Most cords are about 9' long, but the pump cord is a little longer because the cord on my March pump is pretty short.

As for the stand itself, as I mentioned I wanted to keep the footprint small, similar to 2.0. I also didn't want the issues I described above with trying to fill the HLT when it was positioned way up high on a top tier. I started doing some googling and came across a design that I was pretty familiar with, Morebeer's Tippy Dump. The Tippy Dump is really cool as the MT is held in a cradle. At the end of a brew session you grain out by simply pulling a pin and tipping the MT to dump out all the spent grain; no lifting required. I wasn't interested in trying to recreate a tippy dump mechanism, but I was very interested in the overall layout/orientation. The primary difference between it and my 2.0 system is that on the Tippy Dump, the HLT is located below the MT, meaning you have to have a pump to sparge at the end of the mash (I fly sparge). When I first built 1.0 I only had a single March 809 pump. I've since acquired two other pumps: 1.) a Little Giant 3-MD-MT-HC that I'm almost ashamed to say how little I paid for, and 2.) a Spike Flow pump that I won at The Beer Nut's Beehive Brew-Off as a Best of Show prize. Since there are no shortage of pumps in my brewery, I decided to go with an orientation similar to the Tippy Dump and put the HLT at the very bottom. 

The top tier on the 3.0 stand is for the MT and it's positioned 31.25" inches from the ground (including the caster height). The middle tier is for the BK and it is positioned 24.75" inches from the ground. This may be on the tall side for some brewers, but I'm about 6'5" so I don't have any issues reaching into the MT or BK. However, it's worth noting Morebeer's Tippy Dump includes a built-in step for shorter brewers. The bottom tier is for the HLT and it's 6.25" inches from the ground. Both pumps, the RIMS, and my counterflow chiller are mounted to the frame below the BK.

Other design elements that I wanted to mention:

• All steel tubing is 14 gauge. 1.0 used 16 gauge tubing which held up fine, but I found the thicker 14 gauge was easier to weld for a hobby welder like myself.  
• The base and uprights are 2" square tubing while the rest is is 1.5" (e.g. shelves, pump mounts, etc).
• I decided to try getting a little fancier on some elements. For example, rather than basic 90 and 45 degree through cuts, I incorporated some 22.5 degree notched cuts. This results in beveled outer corners for the top two tiers, minimizing the risk of catching a hip on the corner when you're maneuvering around the stand. I also tried to keep open tube ends to a minimum, so there aren't many tubing plugs. I'm hoping this reduces the chances of the steel rusting in the humid Florida environment.
• The top and bottom tiers use a sheet of 1/4" thick marine board (King Starboard) for the surface of the shelf/tier. I used similar material on 2.0 and really liked it; it's waterproof, easy to fabricate with normal tools, and it's low friction so even a very full and heavy MT can be easily repositioned. The downside is it has a relatively low melting point, so I can't use this material on the BK tier. Instead, I'm using rubber neoprene strips that are adhered to the painted metal tubing that constitutes the main structure of the shelf/tier.
• I've incorporated a few guides that prevent the MT from sliding off its shelf. Same for the BK shelf but the rubber neoprene is pretty grippy, so the guides are more for positioning than to prevent sliding. Most guides are simply made from 3/8" steel rod welded to the frame. After painting the stand, the guides were topped with 3/8" vinyl caps to ensure they don't scratch my kettles.
• There's a lot going on under the BK shelf/tier; two pumps, RIMS Rocket, and counterflow chiller, all within a space ~18.5" square. It's pretty hard to describe all the various angles, mounts, etc. I'll just say that the pumps were mounted high enough to provide good clearance all around but low enough to simplify priming efforts. I had to play around a lot with positioning to keep everything accessible and protected. For example, I didn't want any fittings extending too far outside the frame because I'm relying on the stand to provide some protection when I'm moving it around my garage.

For those familiar with the BCS-460, I used to use two elements to heat the strike water during startup; one in the HLT, plus the HEX element. I changed my system startup process so now it will only use the HLT element. This is because utilizing both the HLT and the RIMS at the same time risks overloading the main 30amp circuit that I use for my brewery. It will take a little longer to get to strike temps, but only using one element at a time will be safer. I'm not anticipating this being an issue as I typically fill my HLT the night before brew day and have it start heating the strike water very early in the morning. I also added a new process to the BCS for the boil. To accomplish this, I added a temperature sensor to BK. The temp sensor will read the wort temp in the BK. If the temp is below boiling temps it will fire the element. As the temp approaches boiling the BCS will cycle the power (built in PID) off and on. It will do the same to maintain the boil temp.  I'm hoping the more precise control will help avoid boilovers by not overheating the wort. 

That's about it. I've taken it through a dry run using water and everything performed as expected. Next up will be the inaugural brew session on 3.0, so stay tuned. Cheers! Below are more pictures of the Brewstand 3.0.

Update 5/5/2026

I wanted to provide an update now that I have a few sessions under my belt. I ended up finding a used Blichmann Boilermaker G2 kettle that includes a false bottom and Autosparge. This is my new standard 5 gallon batch size mash tun and I gave away my old generic stainless pot and domed false bottom.

Overall I'm really enjoying this new setup, including Brew Stand 3.0. One thing that I hadn't really thought of as I was designing the new stand was the volume of water held in the equipment. For example, the water held in the pump, hoses, and RIMS Rocket seems to be about 1 full gallon. That's definitely more than my old HERMS system held. I've always used a somewhat thinner mash due to the fact that I recirc during the entire mash. I've noticed that my pre-boil gravities seem to be lower than on my old system, but my efficiency is still right around 83%. I haven't crunched numbers, but I believe this is primarily due to a more diluted mash liquor. 

Also, my boil off rate seems higher than in Utah, something I definitely did not expect. I suspect this is somehow related to the BK's heating element being immersed in the wort. I was expecting my boil off rate to be lower due to higher humidity in Florida plus the lower altitude, but that hasn't been the case. I've found that if I have any hope of getting 5 gallons into the fermenter after a 90 minute boil, I have to start with about 7 gallons pre-boil volume. Anyway, I think I'm done making hot side changes for the time being so hopefully I can get really dialed in on the new setup.

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Finished Brew Stand!

I finally finished my brewstand so I thought I'd add this post to summarize the build and also to update the previous posts that describe my overall system.  I've brewed one batch so far, a clone of Dogfish Head's Indian Brown Ale.  I'm very happy with the way everything turned out.  The only problem, if you can call it that, is the burner was a lot more powerful than my old propane one and I had a couple of minor boil-overs on the maiden voyage.

The only thing I can think of that I would do differently if I were to start over again is I'd probably position the casters a bit wider for added stability and I'd probably use swivel casters on all four corners so that the stand is more maneuverable.

Just a couple of disclaimers, I'm brand new to welding so I doubt that my welds would pass x-ray tests.  Some of my welds are a bit ugly...as luck would have it, it seems like the ugliest tend to be in highly visible areas.  Regardless, they seem to be plenty strong and the stand seems very sturdy.  My stand is a gas/electric hybrid and there are dangers involved in working with each.  Do not attempt something like this without doing some research and make sure you fully understand the risks involved.

This version is essentially version 4.0 of my brewery.  1.0 was my extract setup, 2.0 was my gravity fed all-grain system, 3.0 was the initial incarnation of the BCS-controlled HERMS, and 4.0 with the custom stand and integrated burner is the current version.

Below are some pics of the finished product.  The shelves are all diamond plate aluminum.  The black portion of the stand is painted with Rust-Oleum® High Heat spray paint and the silver portion is painted with Rust-Oleum® Hammered spray paint.  Primary features of my custom stand include:

• BCS-460-Controlled HERMS
• Control Panel
• March 809 Pump
• 40 Plate Counter Flow Plate Chiller
• Natural Gas Burner
• Dual Carbon Water Filters

Brewstand Done!

BCS-460-controlled HERMS
My brew stand is an electric HERMS (Heat Exchanged Recirculating Infusion Mash System) with a natural gas burner for the boil kettle.  The electric portion is controlled by a BCS-460 from Embedded Control Concepts.  Mine isn't quite as fancy as some BCS-based systems out there.  A lot of them are fully automated but mine is targeted more for just controlling the mash process.  I currently use two temp probes to control two 1500 watt 110 volt heating elements.  One element is used in the Hot Liquor Tank (HLT) and one is used in a standalone Heat Exchanger (HEX).  A lot of HERMS systems use a combination HLT and HEX but a standalone HEX gives you a little more flexibility.  This is because the reaction time of my HEX is much quicker than when you're trying to heat the entire volume of a combo HLT/HEX.  The mash is circulated from Mash Tun (MT) through the HEX then returned to the MT by the pump.  The BCS-460 triggers three relays to control the elements and the pump.  The result is consistent mash temperatures that allow me to brew with repeatable results.  Long story short, it removes some potential variables.  If I make the same recipe three different times I should get nearly identical end products each time (assuming I have consistent fermentation control as well).

Control Panel
The Control Panel enclosure is a Hoffman C12C12 Consolet Steel Junction Box ordered from DougDeals.  The control panel includes three switches, (2) two-way switches (off-on) for the HEX and HLT elements and (1) three-way switch (auto-off-manual) for the pump.  I also have a momentary switch that can be used to advance to the next state on my BCS (e.g. advance from a pause for hose swaps to start mash recirculation).

The temperature probes are connected to the back of the control panel via 1/8" mono headphone jacks and plugs from Radio Shack.  The three solid state relays that control the elements and pump are mounted to a large heatsink from HeatsinkUSA and the heatsink is mounted to the back of the control panel.  The panel tags and legend plates are from Precision Engraving & Graphics (the owner's husband is also a homebrewer!).

Control Panel

Control Panel Innards

Back of Control Panel

March 809 Pump
This is your standard homebrew pump and I used it on my old setup.  On the old setup, it was mounted very low, tended to cause a lot of vibration because of poor mounting, and was difficult to lubricate.  For my stand, I fabricated a mount below the burner for the pump and it includes a 1/8" thick piece of neoprene rubber on the mounting surface.  This helps cut down on rattles and vibration.  It also includes a splash guard made from diamond plate aluminum to protect the pump motor from boil-overs and accidental spills.  The splash guard is attached with thumb screws so it can be easily removed when the motor needs lubricating.  As I mentioned above, the pump can be automatically controlled by the BCS-460 or manually controlled.

Pump and Mount

40 Plate Counter Flow Plate Chiller
This is a brand new piece of equipment.  After building a CFC out of copper tubing and not being too happy with the results, I decided to bite the bullet and order a plate chiller from Duda Diesel.  The chiller seems to work great and it's very compact compared to the DIY CFC I built.  I fabricated an L-shaped mount for it below the burner but above the pump.  It rests on a 1/8" neoprene rubber pad as well and is attached to the stand with stainless steel thumb screws so it can be easily removed for cleaning.  All connections use quick disconnects (cam locks for wort in/out and brass disconnects for the water in/out).

Counter Flow Chiller Front

CFC Back with Thumb Screws

Natural Gas Burner
The natural gas burner is a 6 inch low pressure burner from agrisupply.com.  It's intended for propane, but I converted it to NG using the natural gas conversion valve from Williams Brewing.  To do this I had to drill out the threads on the burner and tap threads for the conversion valve.  The burner is supplied by a 25' ½" hose from G4Burner.com.  The burner was rated for 70K BTU's using propane.  I'm not sure how many BTU's result from the NG conversion (NG has less potential energy than propane) and the long length of ½" hose, but it seems to do the job very well.  I reached boil about 10-15 minutes sooner than with my previous setup and now I don't have to worry about running out of fuel mid-boil.

Dual Carbon Water Filters
These are your basic water filter housings available from Lowes or Home Depot.  They're mounted on the back upper rail of the stand and feature a quick-disconnect so my water line can be easily attached.  I decided to go with dual filters to increase the contact time with the carbon and thus reduce the chance of chlorine making its way into my brewing water.

Water Filters

I just want to say thanks to everyone that posts info online in various blogs and forums for inspiring me and contributing ideas for this project.  I've always wanted to give welding a try and this was a really fun project that's going to make my homebrewing hobby so much more enjoyable.  I also want to thank my very loving and understanding wife for supporting my brewing hobby.  She says I always tell her "as soon as I have xyz on my brewing setup, I'll be done..."  I think we've both learned that there are always improvements to be made and I'm glad my honey allows me to experiment without giving me too much grief.

Another pic

Back side

Update 1/19/2014
I know the title of this post is "Finished Brew Stand!" and I posted it in October of 2011, but brewers are always looking to make minor tweaks to their setups. I've been using the trub/hop filter from BrewersHardware.com since I finished my stand. This piece of equipment is used to filter debris (mostly hop particles) so that my plate chiller doesn't clog. It works great and I've only clogged the filter once when I tried recirculating. I used a camlock to attach the filter to the in port on my plate chiller and it did fine but it always worried me because the weight of the filter was totally supported by the plate chiller. I finally decided to order a bracket for the filter and got around to mounting it this weekend. The mount for the bracket is simple, just a piece of 2x2x1/8 angle iron welded to the stand. It has a hole drilled in it for a 12mm bolt which is used to attach the bracket to the stand. It really holds the filter securely, so there's no chance of bumping the filter and accidentally damaging my plate chiller. I've added a couple pictures below.

Mount for trub filter bracket

TF bracket mounted

TF mounted in TF bracket

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Brew Stand Build

So I've started working on my brew stand build. I was planning on building a few small projects before the stand just because I've never welded before and I wanted to get some welding hours in before starting on this project. But as most brewers can imagine I'm antsy to get started on this and while my welds are newb-ish, the wirefeed welders really do make it as simple and as idiot proof as possible. So with only one welding project under my belt (custom welding cart), I decided to get started on the brew stand.

If you're considering building a brew stand and have little or no welding experience, I'd recommend checking out these threads on HBT. There are tons of other brew stand examples on HBT as well, but I especially liked these from Jeff Lavallee (aka SouthernYankee) and they're the ones that really inspired me to give it a try.

Welding 101 build #1
Welding 101 build #2

My brew stand will share some similarities to a Brutus stand, but at the same time it will be a bit different. The biggest difference from a true Brutus is my system is a HERMS utilizing electric heating elements in the Hot Liquor Tank (HLT) and Heat Exchanger (HEX). I really like this system and don't really see a need to change it so my system itself won't change much if any right now, it will just have a new home so to speak. Eventually I plan to replace my 5 gallon HLT cooler with a 10 gallon one, redesign the HEX, and probably replace the electrical enclosure.

Requirements

• (1) Burner - Since my mash is 100% electric, my brew stand will only have one burner which is used for the Boil Kettle (BK). Right not I'm planning on using a 6 inch burner from agrisupply.com converted to Natural Gas. This is small compared to some burners out there, but since I brew 5 gallon batches I think it will work out well and a big 14 inch burner would be overkill.
  
• Shelf for Mash Tun (MT) and HLT - This is sized to hold two 10 gallon round coolers side by side.
  
• Shelf for HEX - The HEX will be mounted below and between the HLT and MT. This position should be the most convenient for recirculating during the mash as well as maintaining sparge water temps.
  
• Mount for water filter - right now it's not mounted to anything, I just hang it on the side of my HLT to fill it. I may also add some hard plumbing for filling the HLT.
  
• Mount for Counter Flow Chiller (CFC) - I'll start off using my homemade dual CFC, but may eventually switch to a plate chiller.
  
• Easily movable - Basically this involves adding casters so I can easily move it around the garage/brewery.
  
• Small footprint - Until I get around to building a garden shed I don't have a ton of spare room in my two-car garage. So I'm trying to keep the footprint as compact as possible for my equipment.
  
• Comfortable height for brewing - I'm about 6'5" tall. I'm designing this so the MT is at a comfortable height for me for mixing in the mash and so I can easily peek into the MT, BK, HLT, etc, This is one of the biggest complaints I have with my existing setup because the top is too high to mix the mash so I'd mix on the ground then lift it on top of the cart to recirculate. Basically I feel like I'm doing a lot of unnecessary lifting. With the new setup I'll still have to lift the BK onto the burner. The only way to eliminate that will be to buy another pump, something I may do at some point but not yet.
  
• Misc attachments for storing hoses and such - This basically involves some misc hangers.
  

Other Considerations

• Adjustable laptop shelf/holder - My system is a BCS-460-based system, so some kind of a shelf/holder for my laptop would be ideal. This will probably be one of the last things I add so I can make sure it's located in a safe and comfortable position.
  
• Shelf for Hopback - I bought a hopback from morebeer a while back but haven't used it yet. I'm thinking of some kind of small shelf (possibly removable) to support the weight of the hopback when running off from the BK.

So here's the design I came up with. Sorry for the less than stellar graphics, my desktop PC cr@pped out on me a while back and I had my nice graphics software on it, so this is courtesy of MS Paint.  It's not quite to scale, but it should give an idea of where I'm heading with this project.  I actually mocked everything up on my kitchen table and dining room chairs so everything should fit just fine.

The BK/Burner portion is elevated compared to the shelf for the MT and HLT. The reason for this is it keeps the tops of my BK, HLT, and MT about the same height. Also, I'm planning on painting the stand myself and this should make it so heat is directed away from the majority of the stand. This will allow me to paint most of it something purdy (maybe fire engine red) and the top burner portion will be coated in some kind of high temp paint.

Last Saturday I started working on the base but didn't get too far because I ran out of material. The material I had on hand was leftover from my welding cart project.

Speaking of materials, I'm building the stand out of 1.5" 16 gauge square tubing that I picked up from Triple-S Steel.  This is a great supplier and the best part is they're open Saturdays from 8 to noon. Just like lumber, steel prices fluctuate but I was able to pick up a 24 foot piece for around $28. They also have a remnant section where they typically sell the steel as low as 55 cents a pound. Most of what they had in the remnant area was much heavier gauge than I could use but they did have a perfectly sized piece of 1/4 plate that I was able to use for a welding table top.

For the base and tops I'm cutting the tubing on 45's for a cleaner appearance (no open ends).  I'm also using flux core wire. My welder is MIG capable but I need to buy a regulator and a bottle before I can go full MIG. I doubt that will happen before I'm done with this project, so I anticipate it being fully welded using flux core wire. Stay tuned for updates as I document my build.

Updated 7/25/2011
I made some good progress on the brew stand this weekend. I picked up more tubing Saturday morning before heading off to the Evanston Beer Festival. Steel prices must have dropped because each piece was a couple bucks less than the last time, so that was a nice little bonus. I had one rectangle (bottom or top) welded up from the previous weekend. I cut and welded up the second rectangle as well as the upright posts for the frame. Now it's actually starting to resemble a brew stand. I tacked on the uprights for the burner stand. I'm hoping to have the top of the burner stand done next weekend so I can start thinking about casters and brackets. I also ordered my burner and it should be here sometime this week. Here are some pics of the brew stand thus far.

Update 7/31/2011

More progress this weekend.  My burner from agrisupply.com and natural gas conversion valve from Williams Brewing came.  I finished welding up the burner stand including supports for the boil kettle.  I drilled out and tapped the burner to accept the gas conversion valve.  I added a mid-stand support for additional structural stability.  Lastly I added casters from Harbor Freight (3" polyurethane - item numbers 96407 and 96408).  These casters are rated for 121 lbs each, so I think they should work out fine for my 5 gallon system.

On the to do list is cleaning up the welds, gas supply, shelves, and misc brackets/mounts.  I'm really happy with the way it's coming together and I can't wait to use it.  I'm going to brew up a batch of Watermelon Wheat in the next few days and while the stand won't be done, I'm hoping to be able to give the burner a try.

Update 8/5/2011

I test fired the burner tonight.  I was planning on using a 1/2" hose for the gas supply but I decided to test it out using the 3/8" hose from my NG grill.  The 3/8" hose seems to be more than adequate (it blows my old propane burner out of the water) so I think I'll go with the 3/8".  This will be nice since the grill uses 3/8 I'll have the option of brewing in the garage or on the back patio.  Here are a couple videos of the burner in action.  

Update 8/29/2011

I haven't posted updates for a couple weeks. I've been accumulating miscellaneous parts and fabricating a few items.

Burner, chiller, and pump on bottom

I received my plate chiller (40 plate model) from Duda Diesel . I fabricated a bracket for it this weekend. It's basically an L-shaped bracket made out of 1/8" plate and 1.5" tubing. It hangs down from the tubing that supports the burner. The piece that supports the bottom of the plate chiller will be covered in some kind of padded material (e.g 1/8" neoprene sheet). Right now the chiller is mounted using a couple pan head screws. I'm going to order some knurled thumb screws so that it can be easily removed without tools.

Control Panel

I received my panel tags and legend plates from Precision Engraving & Graphics . I've made the holes for the switches and pilot lights and have temporarily mounted them in the control panel and they look great. My wife likes the look of the basic grey control panel but I like the looks of The Electric Brewery control box, so I'm leaning towards giving it a paint job.  I still need to decide exactly where I'm going to mount my control panel.  My control panel is a bit less involved than many.  I have three switches, (2) two position switches for the heating elements and (1) three position switch for the pump.  The mash is automated and is controlled by the BCS-460 so I won't be using the panel much during the mash process.  I'll use it mostly just when I want to manually run the pump (e.g. chilling the wort post-boil).

Heatsink

I received my heatsink for my SSR relays from HeatsinkUSA . I went with the 4.230" x 9" option as it's big enough to mount up to four SSR's. I'm currently only using three SSR's on my system (one for the element in the HLT, one for the element in the HEX, and one for the pump) so this gives me the option of adding an additional one when/if needed. I've drilled and tapped the mounting holes for the SSR's and the heatsink. I still need to cut out a hole in the back of the control panel, but I hope to have it test mounted today.

Filters and bracket

I also fabricated and added a bracket for my carbon water filters. Nothing too fancy here, just some 1/8" plate and 1" square tubing. I had to use 1" tubing in order to have clearance for my screws that attach the housingings to the brackets.

I added a frost proof sillcock in the garage. This will be great because I won't have to fetch water from inside the house on brew days (brewing water and chilling water).

I've ordered some Tracpipe CSST fittings and tubing for my Natural Gas supply line. I'm sure there are some plumbers out there that would really frown on me installing this stuff myself, but I've reviewed the instructions on the manufacturer's website it seems foolproof. My run will be between 10 and 12 feet since the utility room is in the basement just on the opposite side of the wall. On a related note, I picked up a Carbon Monoxide/Explosive Gas Detector from my local Lowes's...safety first! The plan will be to always have this unit plugged in and the stand will be located near the open garage door whenever the burner in use.

If all goes well, I should be able to test-fire the burner in the garage by the end of the week. If things go really well and I have enough time, I'll have the control box painted and wired as well. If things don't get too crazy, I hope to have the whole thing completed (assembled, painted, etc.) by the end of September.

Burner

Updated 8/29/2011

Updated 9/5/2011
I used the long Labor Day weekend to get a few things done on the brew stand and upgrade my garage.  The upgrade to the garage was to add a 1/2" natural gas supply to fuel my burner.  As I mentioned in a previous post, I installed the line myself and I'm happy to say it was an uneventful install (house didn't blow up).  After I installed the line and turned the gas supply back on, I monitored the dials on the gas meter and also had my CO/Explosive Gas detector in the utility room and at the end of the day I'm confident there aren't any leaks.

I also got some wiring done one the control panel and welded up some brackets to mount the control panel.

I still have several hours worth of work left including a lot of grinding, but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.  Here's a pic of the mostly assembled brew stand, almost ready for paint.

Front of stand

Back of stand

Updated 9/12/2011

After several weekend trips to Radioshack, Lowes, and Autozone I'm happy to say the wiring is done.  Next up is a lot of grinding followed by a paint job and I should be ready to brew.

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