West Coast Brewer Home Brewing Blog

Tag: home brewery (Page 2 of 2)

Ready-Made Home Brewing Stands, Beer Sculptures, and Home Breweries

There are a few options out there for turnkey/ready made home brewing stands, brewing sculptures, and home breweries. Depending on the style and materials they can be very expensive, so you will want to make sure that you are making the right choice when it comes time to buy. Here are a few things to consider when you are ready to make your purchase.

 

1) How much volume do you plan on brewing?
This is important because you can quickly outgrow your brewing rig if you choose brewing kettles that are too small. Some brewers opt to just purchase larger kettles in case they decide to brew larger batches down the road, but that creates problems as well. When you try to brew a 5 gallon batch in a kettle that is 20 gallons or larger, the built-in thermometers can be above the fluid line, which renders them useless. Additionally, some sparge arms are too short to properly sparge a smaller amount of grain, and you will need to find a workaround. So make sure you give careful thought to your brewing capacity before buying.

 

2) What is your budget?
I don’t know about you, but I have wasted a small fortune buying home brewing gear only to replace it down the road when it either broke, or I decided to upgrade to a superior product. Home brewing stands, home breweries, and brewing sculptures are no different. If you have the money to spend upfront, then purchase the best available home brewing equipment so that you do not end up wanting an upgrade, or worse, needing to replace it down the road. Technology is improving in home brewing, but items such as brewing kettles, pumps, and wort chillers are items that may last a lifetime if they are of high quality and properly maintained. Most quality brewing sculptures are modular in design and can be modified or upgraded if needed.

 

3) How much space do you have available for home brewing?
This was my most difficult decision when I designed and built my home brewing stand. I do not have a lot of free space available where I live, so for awhile I debated if I was going to go with a single tier beer brewing sculpture or with a multi-tier. Ultimately, I ended up going with a single tier brewing stand. I had to free up a good deal of space in my garage, but the benefits of a single tier design were important enough for me to make the tradeoffs.

 

Here are some examples of different home brewing stands, beer sculptures, and home breweries. The beer sculptures shown are all made by either MoreBeer or Blichmann and you can click on the image or link to view additional details and prices.

 

The MoreBeer Tippy Dump is a great sturdy and compact multi-tier home brewery.

 

 Click Here for pricing and details on the MoreBeer Tippy Dump Home Brewery

MoreBeer Tippy Dump Home Brewery Image

Home Brewery Image

 

 

This is my top pick:  The MoreBeer Single Tier Home Brewing Sculpture.  It is all stainless and has two pumps moving the hot liquor and wort.  All of the kettles are easily accessible, so you can work with them safely.

 

 

 Click Here for more information on the MoreBeer Single Tier Brew Sculpture

 

Single Tier Home Brewing Sculpture

MoreBeer Single Tier Home Brewing Sculpture Photo

 

 

The MoreBeer Gravity-Fed home Brewing Stand does not use pumps so it is lower cost than the other brewing stands, and easier to store if you have a limited amount of surface area but height is not an issue.

 

 Click Here for more information on the MoreBeer Gravity Home Brewing Stand

 

Home Brewing Stand

MoreBeer 3 Tier Gravity Home Brewing Stand picture

 

Blichmann is one of my favorite names in home brewing, and I use a variety of their products, including their kettles. They make a high quality and affordable multi-tier brewing stand that is very customizable.

 

 

 Click her for pricing and details on the Blichmann Multi Tier Home Brewing Stand

Blichmann Home Brewing Stand

Blichmann Home Brewing Stand available at MoreBeer image

 

Single Tier Home Brewing Beer Rack – Brewing Sculpture

A home brewing single-tier brewing sculpture or beer rack is a single level brewing configuration where all of the brewing kettles are at the same level. Single-tier brewing racks typically consist of a hot liquor tank, mash tun, and boiling kettle. One or two pumps are used to transfer liquid from one kettle to another.

 

A notable benefit of a single-tier brewing sculpture over a multi-tier one is ease of access to the kettles. On a single-tier platform, the kettles are all at one low height, so it makes it safe and easy to stir the mash, add water to the hot liquor tank, or transfer the wort from the boil kettle. If the single tier system is constructed high enough off the ground, gravity can still be used to transfer wort from the boil kettle to the fermenter. Single tier beer racks also tend to be more stable then a multi-tier rack; trust me when I say that one of the last things you want is 15 gallons of burning hot liquid pouring down upon you due to an unstable rack or earthquake.

 

Cleaning and unloading grain from kettles is also very easy with a single-tier design since no step stool is required to reach any of your kettles. I personally use a single-tier brewing rack that I designed and constructed myself. It was a good deal of work, but I also learned a lot while building it. If you prefer not to build your own, there are some really fantastic stainless steel models available for sale here:

 Click Here for turn key beer racks and brewing sculptures

Below is a photo of the brewing rack that I built. It uses 2 pumps, 3 burners, and 3 (20 gallon) Blichmann brewing kettles. If you have any questions on building your own, please feel free to drop me a line.

Beer Sculpture - Brewing Rack - Beer Rack - Single Tier

Beer Sculpture – Brewing Rack – Beer Rack – Single Tier

 

Here is a MoreBeer.com single-tier brewing sculpture.  You can click the photo to go to their site:

You can purchase them here

 

MoreBeer Single Tier Home Brewing Beer Rack

MoreBeer Single Tier Home Brewing Beer Rack

 

 

 

Beer Rack

A beer rack is another term for a home brewery. Most home brewing beer racks or brewing racks have three vessels: a hot liquor tank, mash tun, and a boil kettle. The home brewing beer rack shown below is a single-tier rack that uses march pumps to transfer liquid from one vessel to another at different stages of the brewing process. Each vessel has a separate propane burner beneath it to apply heat when needed.

 

 

 

If you are interested in purchasing a home brewing rack, there are a wide variety of beautiful stainless steel single-tier and multi-tier beer rack models available here:

Home Brewing Racks

 

Here’s an image of the WestCoastBrewer.com home brewing beer rack.

Beer Rack for home brewing

Beer Rack for home brewing

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