Brew Stand

We need a stand of some sort to hold our kettles and other brewing equipment.

Just about any stand will do, but remember that it must be strong enough to hold hundreds of pounds of liquid.

Our brewing room was originally a cold storage room located under the front steps of the house. It's fairly small at only 5.5 feet wide by 11.5 feet long, with a 7 foot ceiling. Space is at a premium since the room also serves as a wine cellar, so we built our brew stand just large enough to hold all three kettles comfortably. This resulted in a stand that is 64" wide, 34.5" high, and 26" deep. We chose to build a wood stand as it matches the previously built wine rack.

If you're looking for something more industrial, consider a 24 x 60 inch stainless steel commercial work table with a lower shelf. It is the perfect size for our 20 gallon kettles and is what we use now in our newly built (larger) brewery.

We want the kettles to be up around arm height when standing up to make adjustments easy. The pumps work best when placed as far below the kettles as possible so we built a second shelf below. The more vertical distance you can put between the kettle outputs and the pump inputs, the better.

The shelf below also holds the wort chiller and a compact shop vac (used to evacuate water from the various parts after cleaning).

Completed brew stand:

Kettles and other equipment installed:

We built our original stand out of inexpensive softwood lumber that is typically used in construction. It's often called SPF for the three most common white woods used (Spruce, Pine, and Fir) and is available at any lumber yard or home improvement store. Standard North American nominal sizes such as 2x4", 2x6", and 1x4" were used to build a stand that is very strong and stable (a requirement as full 20 gallon kettles are very heavy).

Hex bolts/nuts/washers, lag screws, and regular soft wood screws were used to hold it all together.

The wood was then stained to match the red terracotta tiles found on the floor, walls and ceiling of our brewery.

New brewery (circa 2013+) with stainless steel 24x60" stand for the kettles: