Brewers Assistant

[Journeyman]

I have bad back and knees so have to be careful even with 20kg weights - I went with an upside down fridge for precisely this reason - straight lift into the fridge is far less fraught than bend and push stuff.

We've got 2 dogs getting on a bit and need to make sure they stay in the living area due to leakage issues - easier to wash vinyl planks than carpet. So we got some kid/pet gates which work brilliantly, locking off the living area from the rest of the house.

EXCEPT...!!!

My normal way to transport FV's to the fridge in the workshop is to stick it on an old office chair and wheel it through the house. Now we have a veritable cliff to go over and chair castors don't cut it - after almost losing the 1st brew to 'mount the lip I figured something had to change.

Meet my new brewer's assistant! Works brilliantly - the large wheels mean the cliff-like lip is more like a minor bump on the way to the fridge!

And it tips for garden use as well! Slide it under the composter, rotate with the door open then wheel it away and dump the compost where I want it.

Pretty good for a $100 investment!

[Classic Brewing Co]

5 minutes ago, Journeyman said:

Meet my new brewer's assistant!

When you go for a walk you could load that up with your fav beverage & wheel it around, probably hold a few too or better still get someone to wheel it for you. 

Seriously it looks like a handy addition. 

[Journeyman]

4 minutes ago, Classic Brewing Co said:

When you go for a walk you could load that up with your fav beverage & wheel it around, probably hold a few too or better still get someone to wheel it for you. 

Seriously it looks like a handy addition. 

Now there's a thought. Esky full of ice, half-size keg, bronco tap... it would all fit in there. Now to work out a double harness for our 2 dogs...

 

[Classic Brewing Co]

1 minute ago, Journeyman said:

Now there's a thought. Esky full of ice, half-size keg, bronco tap... it would all fit in there. Now to work out a double harness for our 2 dogs...

 

Well that may work if all else fails the SWMBO perhaps is another idea although I can see that possibly it wouldn't be the sensible thing to do. 

[Stickers]

Nice cart, how durable is the plastic part? glad i'm not the only one that's thought of using a desk chair for keg transport. never actually risked it though

[RDT2]

I use a trolley like this works well although isn’t as big or as flash as this one pictured but does the job the other one is also an assistant but he doesn’t lift or help much!

Edited September 7, 2021 by RDT2

[ozdevil]

nice work Journeyman

Lifting kegs for me is not to much of a drama,  used to deliever beer kegs all over Melbourne and some of the long drops i had to pull full ones out of a cellar drop (faulty kegs) wasnt easy 
so you had to come up with easy  solutions to handle 50 litre kegs

but hey  if that makes life easier mate   then do it buddy

I used to be able to carry 4 x19 litre kegs  once apon a time but not any more  those days are gone


 

[kmar92]

1 hour ago, ozdevil said:

nice work Journeyman

Lifting kegs for me is not to much of a drama,  used to deliever beer kegs all over Melbourne and some of the long drops i had to pull full ones out of a cellar drop (faulty kegs) wasnt easy 
so you had to come up with easy  solutions to handle 50 litre kegs

but hey  if that makes life easier mate   then do it buddy

I used to be able to carry 4 x19 litre kegs  once apon a time but not any more  those days are gone


 

I used to be able to carry 2 bags of cement on my shoulder, many many years ago. I doubt whether I could even pick up 1 bag these days and they are smaller these days than what they were.

[Shamus O'Sean]

I use one of these:

$14 at Bunnings.  In fact I have two the same and one I made myself with the spare caster wheels from my kegerator.

Good for moving FV's, kegs, bins of grain, my Grainfather, counterflow chiller on boxes, all sorts of things.  Just do not step backward onto one when you are carrying something heavy.

[iBooz2]

30 minutes ago, Shamus O'Sean said:

 Just do not step backward onto one when you are carrying something heavy.

Because they then become "Hover Boards" from back to the future!   Go Marty McFly..

Edited September 7, 2021 by iBooz2

[kmar92]

28 minutes ago, iBooz2 said:

Because they then become "Hover Boards" from back to the future!   Go Marty McFly..

That is exactly what I thought looking at SOS's unit!

[Journeyman]

I have some spare castors I was going to use to make a trolley but the height of the bottom bar (almost 2") made even the chair a difficult thing to do - trying to get each wheel over it (there's 5) with unsecured 20+ kg of liquid was... um... interesting. With the 10" wheels it's MUCH easier - one hand on top and pull that sucker. 

The bottom rail has a ramp either side - didn't do anything for the castors but the big wheels start to lift on it leaving maybe 2 cms of bar to mount.

16 hours ago, Stickers said:

Nice cart, how durable is the plastic part? glad i'm not the only one that's thought of using a desk chair for keg transport. never actually risked it though

Pretty solid plastic - similar to the plastic wheelbarrows Bunnings sells, heavy duty stuff.

15 hours ago, RDT2 said:

I use a trolley like this works well although isn’t as big or as flash as this one pictured but does the job the other one is also an assistant but he doesn’t lift or help much!

 

That might work if I didn't have the crook back - I'd need tos trap the FV to the handle so it didn't move. The chair had the advantage of the back being at decent height and the FV close enough to have a hand on while pushing it around - that trolley I'd be bent over or have to get SWMBO involved. Both of those are non-optimum.  

@kmar92 & @ozdevil - Yeah, the things we could once do haunt us as we lose those abilities. I once had to help the boss lift a keg  onto a trailer and he let go - I dead-lifted the 18 gallons onto the trailer because it was that or be under it.  Had a similar thing when lifting a piano onto a moving van. Those were the days...

[Classic Brewing Co]

10 minutes ago, Journeyman said:

Had a similar thing when lifting a piano onto a moving van. Those were the days...

Yep, I remember all those days in the gym, loading up barbells/dumbells to maximum weight, lifting them in all directions especially on the Power rack for squats, up & down like a yo yo, 300lb, 400lb & so on ,oh yeah I broke a SA Light Heavyweight Powerlifting record in 1972/3. Every time I bend down now or twist my knee the wrong way I am reminded of it. 

[Journeyman]

24 minutes ago, Classic Brewing Co said:

Every time I bend down now or twist my knee the wrong way I am reminded of it.

Sorry, shouldn't laugh. My knees are a result of running down multiple flights of stairs, 2 at a time, in the Rialto building in Melb because I was on call and the lifts were SOOO slow. Worst part was, my zeal was misplaced because it was the Vic Public Service - I thought good service mattered but there were very few of us in the VPS who thought that way.

And the knees didn't show up till quite a bit later so I couldn't even get compo for it.

[ozdevil]

40 minutes ago, Journeyman said:

eah, the things we could once do haunt us as we lose those abilities. I once had to help the boss lift a keg  onto a trailer and he let go - I dead-lifted the 18 gallons onto the trailer because it was that or be under it.

mate i had to dead lift  18 gallons on my own onto a truck that  was chest high that was fun   and pull them out of cellars on my own

had to pull 50 of the buggas out of a cellar in geelong becuase the driver who delivered the previous day delivered the wrong product
and all 50 was dead lifted into a truck...  couldnt use a tail gate cos i didnt have one

asked the publican for help getting them on truck he said nope was bad enough roping and watching me lift out of his cellar  ya on ya own...

but yeah those was the day when i could and wasnt that long ago really only 6 years ago



 

[Classic Brewing Co]

13 minutes ago, Journeyman said:

Sorry, shouldn't laugh. My knees are a result of running down multiple flights of stairs, 2 at a time, in the Rialto building in Melb because I was on call and the lifts were SOOO slow. Worst part was, my zeal was misplaced because it was the Vic Public Service - I thought good service mattered but there were very few of us in the VPS who thought that way.

And the knees didn't show up till quite a bit later so I couldn't even get compo for it.

Most of that stuff wasn't in the instruction book so we weren't to know we would suffer later funny thing is my back is fine & I can still lift heavy weights & use them.

 

[Red devil 44]

This is my equipment.

Electric crane for loading kegs in & out of keezer.

Dolley for moving full kegs around. 
 

 

[ozdevil]

2 hours ago, Red devil 44 said:

This is my equipment.

Electric crane for loading kegs in & out of keezer.

Dolley for moving full kegs around. 
 

 

my mrs would accept the dolly in the kitchen but no way would she want me have a crane in the house like that

maybe 1 day if i win tatslotto i will have my  my mens room with a brewing station with a winch like that

[Worts and all]

4 hours ago, ozdevil said:

 

3 hours ago, Classic Brewing Co said:

Most of that stuff wasn't in the instruction book so we weren't to know we would suffer later funny thing is my back is fine & I can still lift heavy weights & use them.

 

You fellas had It easy. Whenever we moved houseI had to carry it! 

 

[Red devil 44]

9 minutes ago, ozdevil said:

my mrs would accept the dolly in the kitchen but no way would she want me have a crane in the house like that

maybe 1 day if i win tatslotto i will have my  my mens room with a brewing station with a winch like that

Ha ha @ozdevil, my Mrs wouldn’t either, that’s why it’s in the man cave.

Going to move the crane shortly into another position when I go BIAB, so can easily lift the grain bag out.

[Graculus]

I saw this thread the other day and thought I'd better reply.

Here's mine.

Milk crate.
Some wheels that were originally off a pram I think. I got them off a contraption a bloke down the road had for taking his canoe to the water.
Old skipping rope.

[Journeyman]

32 minutes ago, Graculus said:

I saw this thread the other day and thought I'd better reply.

Here's mine.

Milk crate.
Some wheels that were originally off a pram I think. I got them off a contraption a bloke down the road had for taking his canoe to the water.
Old skipping rope.

I like that - I was thinking along those lines but couldn't find decent wheels and castors don't have the size to go over the gate sill. And a milk crate has sides high enough to prevent topples...