Question about brew stands and CFC height

Ok…so, my wife & family finally understand me. They now realize that for gifts I want things homebrew related.
The wife talked to her dad about building me a brew stand for my birthday gift in a few weeks. I’m not extremely handy, and he is amazing at building things.
ANYWAY, I’m trying to decide on a setup. Currently I just get things setup on the porch with some sawhorses. Batch-sparging using a pitcher to get water to the tun, and then gravity to the kettle, and then gravity feed down the steps to the fermenter. Now here comes the multiple questions.

  1. I was looking to do a single tier setup due to the size and it fitting in my shed. Can I do a single tier setup with only 1 march pump and not having to use a pitcher for the water to the tun?

  2. I also would like to build a CFC so I can stop using my immersion chiller. How much higher does the immersion chiller need to be over the fermenter to use as gravity feed? If I do this route, then I would be going with a 2 or 3 tier setup I presume.

  3. No matter the route I take, if I wanted to use my immersion chiller to “pre-chill” the hose water before it goes to the CFC, then I would need a pump, correct?

Sorry for so many questions, especially if they are a little open-ended and not very specific. I’m just looking to get a setup that is “permanent” and portable from the shed to the patio, has some upgrades such as 2 new burners, and a CFC.

Any suggestion appreciated. I’ve been looking at the brewhalla site and the thread on here to get ideas for a brewstand. I just don’t know the working specifics of some things.

  1. Yes, you will just need to be able to disconnect and reconnect the hoses where you need them.
  2. I just got a CFC, it is great. You could still do a 1 tier and use the pump to pull through the CFC. Otherwise normal siphon rules apply.
  3. How would you do that? I’m thinking running the hose through the immersion chiller in an ice bucket then to the CFC. You would still have hose pressure running through the CFC, no pump needed.

I guess that is true… I certainly wasn’t thinking about that. Plus since I don’t have the CFC yet, I’m not 100% clear on their hookups and whatnot. Thanks for that tidbit.

Also, as far as having just one pump for a single tier, would it need to be flushed or anything after pumping from the mash to the kettle BEFORE you pump out of kettle?

I would think so since the mash isn’t sanitary and you would want your boiled wort to touch only sanitary things.