The Brew Cart!

Well I couldn’t wait so it’s time to reveal one of several of my projects nearing completion. I have been working on these projects for many months and this one is close enough to being completed to share it with you.

This started as necessity as I’ll soon be moving and not really knowing where I’ll be living or how big of place it’ll be. I wanted to have the majority of my brew day stuff in one small moveable unit but didn’t want to have to feel like I was sacrificing anything just because I was going small. It needed to be small enough to fit in any environment and look good, it needed to be sturdy, it needed to be functional and hold the necessities for my typical brew day, it needed to be moveable so I could roll it to where I was going to brew, it needed to be adaptable to different needs down the road, it needed to be easy to assemble with minimal tools and it needed to be reasonably priced. I think this demonstrates that home brewing at any level is possible anywhere you are if you get creative and take your time to plan.

I looked at different options and a cart of some type seemed to be the best choice and really fulfilled all I needed in a compact brewing unit. After some searching online I found that wire shelving carts were readily available in different sizes, expandable, easy to assemble and relatively inexpensive. That being said my BrewKart was born.

I started with individual wire shelving pieces from shelving.com although there are many pre-configured wire utility carts available from many sources including Amazon, Costco and Sam’s Club. The whole basic cart was less than $140 since an online sale was going on when I ordered. Many of the pre-configured carts are similarly priced so isn’t terribly expensive. My cart is approximately 31” wide x 18” deep x 38” tall overall taking up less than 4 square feet of floor space. Its height places my kettle at a comfortable position for brewing and almost matches kitchen countertop height so that is convenient on brew day when I roll it into the kitchen in front of the sink for easy access to water and it’s right in front of the window for ventilation.

Out of the box it features locking swivel casters, a handle, a pullout second shelf and a basket style third shelf. All the shelves are standard size 18″ x 24″ wire shelves. The shelves will easily support 150+ pounds each so no worries if I wanted to do a 10 gallon batch. Assembly was easy and only required a rubber mallet to seat the shelves onto their clips. Here is where some planning is needed, take the time to figure out where you want each shelf. They are easily adjustable in one inch increments but it’s just easier if you get them where you want them the first time.

The first things I added were a black plastic shelf liner for the bottom shelf (ordered with cart) and a thick piece of HDPE cutting board material, it was found destine for the dumpster at work, to sit my electric brewing controller on the pullout shelf. I then needed something heat resistant for the top where my kettle would sit and chose a 1/4″ thick piece of black Richlite which I cut the corners out, using the shelf liner as a template, so it fit nicely on the top wire shelf. The top was totally optional, kettle can just sit on the wire shelf, but I like how it turned out.

The next obstacle was some place for taller items like my stainless mesh hop basket/strainer. I was walking through a home improvement store and noticed these pullout wire baskets that are used in kitchen cabinets and thought that would be nice since I wouldn’t have to move things to get at something in the back and stuff would be contained in the basket so nothing falls off the shelf while rolling the cart. Did a little online shopping and found a used one for $20 on eBay. I attached it to the bottom shelf, bolting it through the shelf liner and using fender washers under the shelf to span across the wires and provide support for the nuts.

Now I started thinking “what else do I want?”. How about a place to hang stuff like hoses, a spoon, power cords for the controller? Hooks! Found chrome plated hooks for wire shelves at Target for a few dollars but also available online and they just clip over the edge of the shelf. While rolling the cart through the house one day I noticed the pullout shelf wanted to roll out on its own…easy fix, I drilled a hole in the track for the shelf and used a push-to-release pin to secure the shelf in the closed position.

Now came the hardest, but still actually not that difficult, addition. I like to use a small plate chiller to cool the wort, a pump to recirculate during the mash and adding oxygen to the wort before pitching the yeast is very beneficial but how to incorporate all that in a compact fashion on the cart? While working on a commercial A/C unit at work I noticed all the major electrical components were mounted to a sub panel inside the unit, why not do something similar on my brew cart? I picked up a piece of sheet stainless steel from a local metal shop and had them bend a 90 in it creating something of a shelf. I measured the cart shelf spacing and drilled holes to match in the sheet of stainless. Using bolts, fender washers and nuts I was able to secure it to the side of the cart and it doesn’t extend past the cart handle so the cart is still the same size overall. I was already in the process of building an inline wort oxygenation assembly out of surplus triclamp pieces from eBay so I took two of the clamps that hold the pieces together and had threaded studs welded to them and attached the whole assembly to the side panel. My plate chiller had mounting studs on its back some I attached it below the oxygenation assembly. Finally was the pump and that fit perfectly on the shelf that I had bent in the side panel. So when it was all assembled it was all neatly contained on the side of the cart. To hold the disposable oxygen cylinder I reused a water bottle cage from a bicycle and screwed it to the cart pole.

Brew cart pump, plate chiller and inline oxygenation

For storing additional brew day items, like StarSan and PBW I added a wire basket below the side panel. I also had some small plastic storage totes and four storage bins that I added to the basket-style shelf to hold brew day items such as hydrometer, pH meter, thermometer, refractometer, carboy stoppers and airlocks, spare triclamp gaskets and clamps etc. There is still room on the bottom shelf, next to the pullout basket, for storing another small kettle, sanitizing bucket or possibly a grain mill.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I had a surplus 3-way ball valve laying around that I never knew how I was going to use but being a nice piece of stainless plumbing I could never bring myself to get rid of it. One day while watching a home brewing video on YouTube I saw a brewer using a 3-way ball valve to redirect flow from his pump without changing hoses. Would I need it? Maybe. Would it hurt to add it to the system? Nope. I had a piece of stainless plate laying around so I mounted the valve to the cart in same fashion as the side panel using thumb nuts so it is removable/movable without tools.

While not an intentional idea of adding all kinds of stuff to the cart I did want it to be functional. Holding brew day items is being “functional” and a kettle lid is an item used every brew day. But what to do with it when the mash is done since you don’t cover the boiling wort? Hang it on the cart!

One final addition (for now LOL) was a mount for my Android tablet which has Beersmith brewing software on it as well as some music to enjoy while brewing. I used a RAM motorcycle tablet mount and clamped it to one of the cart poles.

Now that I have a place for brew day essentials that doesn’t take up a ton of space in the house I started thinking “that’s great but it’s still an industrial cart sitting in the living room”. Well I’m no interior decorator and struggle at sewing but I figured I could do something to camouflage it a little. Being a guy going to a fabric store wasn’t to appealing so where else do you get fabric? Drapes! A quick trip to a discount store and I was on my way home with a couple modern looking blackout drapery panels for under $20. After almost an hour of what I’m sure was comical draping of the panels over the cart and pinning them here and folding them there I broke out the sewing machine and scissors. Now anyone who sews I am humbled by your abilities but after, what seemed like way too long I sewed up a cart cover. Now it looks a little less like the elephant in the room and could pass as a table? Maybe? Sorta? Anyways I think it turned out pretty good.

One more addition was a separate folding table that could be used if I decided to do a slightly different two vessel (Brutus 20) brew day for a larger batch, just wanting to do something different or just needed extra flat place to put something. A long time ago while wandering through a thrift store I found what used to be some sort of sit and twist kind of exercise equipment that I’m sure was sold on TV and thought I could use it for something. Well that day finally came and after adding a butcher block top to it, that had a previous life as a cutting board, the space saving folding brewing table was born. It sits at the correct height for a holding a kettle, below one that is on the top of the cart, and it is really sturdy.

Here are a couple additional pictures of the whole cart so you can kind of see the idea of consolidating what some would consider brewing features reserved for the advanced home brewers with tons of space to brew in…all in the same amount of space as a coffee table. While I do have a second slightly larger wire shelving unit, which is begging for a matching cart cover, for things like grains, 3 gallon carboys and small corny kegs the bulk of what I use every time I brew is now in one place that I can easily move around and hide in plain sight. Are all the features necessary? Not at all, configure your equipment and even your storage solution to your style of brewing. Whether it’s mild or wild, high tech or low tech you do not have to be held back by brewing small batches or brewing in small spaces. Remember this is a very strong cart, there are carts rated to hold 800 lbs per shelf, and you could easily brew 10 gallon batches by doing electric BIAB and still take up very little real estate in even a small studio apartment.

Brew cart pump, plate chiller and inline oxygenation

Takes for checking out my blog. Subscribe to get notifications of my latest posts and enjoy brewing because you are making beer…how awesome is that?! Remember don’t be held back by being in a small space, having a small budget or popular brewing misconceptions. Stay tuned for next post on the new control panel made for this cart! Cheers.

Update! I wanted a little more brewing space but didn’t want a larger foot print. Solution? Add a folding side shelf! I actually had one from a previous larger cart so I added brackets with hooks to the existing folding shelf brackets so the whole unit just hooks on the end of two of the wire cart shelves. Folds up when needed and folds down out of the way when you don’t need it. If I really want it out of the way I can hang it off the back of the cart. The shelf will easily support 40-50 lbs counterbalanced by the weight of the cart itself.