Back in March of 2011, I decided to make the switch to All-Grain. Up until then, I had made extract batches using the partial boil method. After 10+ years of brewing, I felt it was time to take the next step. The first thing I decided was to utilize a three-tier system for brewing since I didn't want to go all out with pumps and all that stuff just yet. I realized that I could utilize the basketball post in my driveway as a kind of permanent stand for the system.

The basketball post is 4" x 4" tube steel and, as I later found out while drilling holes through it, completely filled with concrete. I measured everything out such that I can utilize a 3 keggle setup if need be, however I currently use a Coleman Xtreme 70 qt. cooler for my MLT.

I drilled two holes through the basketball post and also drilled corresponding holes through my HLT and BK. These holes were slightly bigger than 1/2" in diameter since I decided to use 1/2" SS bolts to hold the kegs to the basketball post. I ran some rough numbers and the bolts are capable of holding ~8,000 lbs. in shear, so a full keggle will be no problem.

That being said, the biggest problem I had to face design-wise was how to mount the burners. I didn't want to fabricate something to hang off of the basketball post, so I decided to hang them off of the bottom of the kegs. I was able to find 25' of 1/8" wire rope on Amazon for $0.85 so I went with it.

I cut 2' sections of the wire rope and clamped them together into loops. I added large washers to the burners mounting locations to allow for a place for the wire rope to hook onto.

Here's an image of the proof-of-concept test with the keg hanging from an I-beam in my basement:



Closeup of the burner configuration:



Finally, here are a couple of pictures of the completed system during my first all-grain brew day.