Building a Brutus 10

[Brewtime]

I too had a welding shop make my stand so they bought the steel tubing I went with 2x2 square tubing. it is a little overkill but its sure is sturdy. I did not do the gas beam here is a picture of it

Awesome brew sculpture

What was the steel and welding damage if you don't mind me asking?

How do you support your burners?

To frabicate the stand cost me $650 that included all materials and paint job as well as the labor of the welder.

I used 1/2 inch black pipe and attached it to the stand using Bottom-Load Clamping Hangers for conduit
http://www.mcmaster.com/#3006t78/=49tsxu or you can get then at HD or Lowes

[capozzoli]

OK, but I have to warn you. Im like the tortoise.

[bluesman]

I too had a welding shop make my stand so they bought the steel tubing I went with 2x2 square tubing. it is a little overkill but its sure is sturdy. I did not do the gas beam here is a picture of it

Awesome brew sculpture

What was the steel and welding damage if you don't mind me asking?

How do you support your burners?

To frabicate the stand cost me $650 that included all materials and paint job as well as the labor of the welder.

I used 1/2 inch black pipe and attached it to the stand using Bottom-Load Clamping Hangers for conduit
http://www.mcmaster.com/#3006t78/=49tsxu or you can get then at HD or Lowes

Your post didn't come through.

Edit: nevermind...I got it.

[2HoodsBrewingCo.]

I had the banjo's on my original brutus when it was propane and i thought they were way overkill. I ended up switching it out to natural gas with the ring burners and love it. If you have the capability to run a NG line to your brew area i would suggest it. I love never having to worry about running out of propane, not to mention it gets expensive. If you are doing the gas beam....i recommend welding on some tees that are at least half inch FPT incase you want to switch to NG later..you can always use reducer bushings. I started with 1/4 inch and had to grind them off and reweld bigger ones when i made the switch. That said, i went with the 23-jet ring burners and those were way overkill as well. I thinking about switching them out for the smaller 10 jet ones. If your burners are too big, you won't be able to run them efficiently enough at the temp you need and you will end up with black soot on the bottom of your kettles every time you brew.
Go with the stainless. I paid $600 for just the material when i did mine and another $450 to have it all welded. (This was a few years ago when steel prices were through the roof...but i would do it again in a second....stainless is nice). I did the tippy dump system for my MT an love it.....it makes cleanup sooo much easier. That all i can think of atm. I have links in my sig if you want to see mine.

[bluesman]

I had the banjo's on my original brutus when it was propane and i thought they were way overkill. I ended up switching it out to natural gas with the ring burners and love it. If you have the capability to run a NG line to your brew area i would suggest it. I love never having to worry about running out of propane, not to mention it gets expensive. If you are doing the gas beam....i recommend welding on some tees that are at least half inch FPT incase you want to switch to NG later..you can always use reducer bushings. I started with 1/4 inch and had to grind them off and reweld bigger ones when i made the switch. That said, i went with the 23-jet ring burners and those were way overkill as well. I thinking about switching them out for the smaller 10 jet ones. If your burners are too big, you won't be able to run them efficiently enough at the temp you need and you will end up with black soot on the bottom of your kettles every time you brew.
Go with the stainless. I paid $600 for just the material when i did mine and another $450 to have it all welded. (This was a few years ago when steel prices were through the roof...but i would do it again in a second....stainless is nice). I did the tippy dump system for my MT an love it.....it makes cleanup sooo much easier. That all i can think of atm. I have links in my sig if you want to see mine.

Great ideas!

Could you post some pics?

Thanks.

[Brewtime]

I run propane and use the 10 jet ring they are plentyy powerful to do what you need them to do.

Bluesman I see you are in Delaware. I just down 95 about 20 mins west of Baltimore if you want to come over to see how the Brutus works by all means do so.

[bluesman]

Thanks for the offer. I just might take you up on that. I'll let you know.

[hersheyrhino]

How much propane does one of these sculptures use on average per batch? And has anyone incorporated the Brewtroller in one of these instead of the Love temp controls?

[bluesman]

How much propane does one of these sculptures use on average per batch? And has anyone incorporated the Brewtroller in one of these instead of the Love temp controls?

I'm not sure. I'm thinking about incorporating NG instead of propane. I think it would be much cheaper and easier. I'll check out the Brewtroller.

[bluesman]

How much propane does one of these sculptures use on average per batch? And has anyone incorporated the Brewtroller in one of these instead of the Love temp controls?

I'm not sure. I'm thinking about incorporating NG instead of propane. I think it would be much cheaper and easier. I'll check out the Brewtroller.

Here's the link to their website.

http://www.brewtroller.com/

and another link for related info.

http://www.engadget.com/2009/04/11/brew ... le-inebri/

...and a thread from homebrewtalk.com

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f85/brewtro ... lt-110570/

[bluesman]

I got the Brutus 10 plans in the mail on Saturday and I'm getting ready to buy the steel very soon. The plans actually spec out 2" x 2" x .120" SST.

This is going to be a fun project.

I'll post pics as it comes together.

[bluesman]

I want to make one modification to the original Brutus 10...well let's just say I want to use NG instead of propane.

Here's a conversion calculator.

http://www.peco.com/pecowebsite/peco/html/propane.htm

...and a comparison study

http://www.propane101.com/propanevsnaturalgas.htm

It looks like NG would be the better route from a cost standpoint.

Now I need to figure out how to incorporate it into the Brutus 10.

Any thoughts?

[2HoodsBrewingCo.]

You will need to determine how far your brutus will be located from where your NG comes into the house. Then check out charts online that will tell you how big of pipe you need to run to your BTUs you need for the brutus (Keep in mind that you may want to run 2 burners at the same time so figure for that). I have a 1" pipe that runs through the center of my house and all the appliances branch off that. I have about a 15-20' run to get from that pipe to my brutus so i went with 1" pipe just to be safe. Its more than i needed but better to have to much than too little. As far as your fittings on the brutus. You will probably want no less than 1/2" at any point (you don't want to restrict the gas flow). I kept everything on mine 3/4" just to be safe. With 3/4" tees welded onto my gas bar and 3/4" pipe holding my 23 jet burners up...they are rock solid (1/2" would support them fine too). So make sure all your fittings are at least 1/2 inch probably including your solenoids. I ran the black pipe out along the wall in my garage and the put a ball valve on the end. Then i went and bought a Pipe Tee and 2 of those gas dryer flex hoses (probably like 3 ft or 4ft long i want to say)) and i ran those from wall to the brutus so i still had the ability to pull it away from the wall on brew day. I used 2 hoses because 1 wasn't rated enough gas flow for what i wanted. The flex hoses aren't that long so make sure your gas in fitting on the brutus is located to one side of the stand. That way the hoses connect to one side but you can still swing the otherside way out away from the wall.

I think i have pics of my NG project in the link in my sig if you want to see what i mean.

[bluesman]

2HBC - I didn't think to check out your link to photobucket. Nice brewery set-up. Definitely sparked some ideas. Looks like you had banjo burners...did you swith to the jet burners because of NG.

[2HoodsBrewingCo.]

Yes, that was why i switched, i also thought the banjos were overkill....i blew through propane like it was going out of style. I would recomment the step down from the 23 jet burners (i want to say they are like 9-10 jets or something), those should be right about the sweet spot imo.