Beer Forum

Im looking at building/upgrading to a sculpture that always ready and make my day easier. I was looking at a top tier but changed my mind and would like a flat single tier stand. I was thinking of going with the morebeer 2100 since with-out the pots and pumps it's fairly cheap and I have great confidence in their work. I have also thought about doin a brutus system without the automation and building it myself with the help of a welder friend. I would like anyones input on which one they prefer. I don't think there is much difference in them but I have also never seen either one in person. Cheers!

Get both and send me one

I love my Brutus style that I built, but would probably hate it with one pump or none.
Sure, you can skip the automation, but it sure is nice to dial in the HLT and MLT temps and not worry about it.
Gas valves can be had on eBay for ~$30-40 each and I did a standing pilot with Love controllers, so 'automation' isn't really a lot more cost.
Save money and use mild steel rather than stainless. Then use the savings on controllers and valves.

I love my Brutus 10 style non-automated stand that I build several years ago. I figured that I could always automate at a later date, but haven't felt the need as of yet. I am actually more interested in upgrading to a 20 gallon system and selling the smaller stand.

The main design changes that I implemented were:
1: Reduced the height of the Brutus stand to just over the height of a keg. The original design was a lot higher than it needed to be (top of kegs at nipple height). By maintaining at least keg height, you can always gravity feed if your pumps happen to go out on a brew day, but keeping it to a minimum makes doughing-in easier.

2: Increased the length 2 inches to ~6 inches between each keg. Functionally, it may reduce heat transfer between the various kettles, but probably not a big deal. The added distance between support bars became a big deal when building the stand and cleaning up the slag from welding. With 6" I could use an angle grinder brush attachment to do the cleaning. It would have to be done by hand otherwise.

3: External plumbing for the gas lines. I was just learning to weld, so didn't want to rely on my welds to hold flamable gas. It would freak me out to try and fix a leak after I have already hooked everything up to propane ... may not be an issue with a professional welder.

Although I haven't done it yet, I do plan on still welding in a control panel with on/off switches for the pumps.

Hope this helps ... I can send you pics if wanted.

Thanks Eagle, pm me and I'd like to see some pictures. Also what was a rough cost to build your system. That kind of my main goal. The morebeer sculpture is pretty much a brutus system but I wanna try and save money on the sculpture by doing it myself and put that money into something like new kettles. I have 2 keggles right now but wanna switch out to blichman pots...does this affect the measurements of the brutus system? Also did you use the jet burners or a hurrican burner? How much are you looking at selling your stand for and where is it located? Thanks man!!