Clearance needed to accommodate the BREWHA Lift Beam
BREWHA supplies CSA/ASME certified hoists by Kito/Harrington. The electric SER hoist has 18" of head (from the bottom of the gantry to the lift hook; the FER food grade hoist is the same as the SER, except with a few features for cosmetic and food type applications). The manual SHB hoist has 4.5" of head (from bottom of the gantry to the lift hook).
The image below shows the dimensions of the lift apparatus from the heavy lift lug inside the Mash Colander to the hoist lift hook (from the lift lug to the top of the Colander is 7cm/2.5"). Since most 2000lb steel I-beams (the most common size for 1.5-5BBL systems) are normally 15cm/6" (4000lb I-beams for 7BBL are normally 8"; aluminum beams will be more), with the SER hoist you would therefore need minimum 90cm/36" (106cm/42" recommended which includes an extra 15cm/6") above the combined height of the Mash Colander and Fermenter (15cm/6" for I-beam + 45cm/18" for the hoist + 36cm/14" for the lift mechanism (less 6cm/2.5" which is the length the swivel eye hook is inside the Colander), and with the SHB hoist you would need minimum 55cm/22" (15cm/6" for I-beam, 11.5cm/4.5" for the hoist, 36cm/14.5" for the lift mechanism (less 5cm/2.5" which is the length the swivel eye hook is inside the Colander); the 7BBL normally requires a 20cm/8" I beam.
There are a couple ways customers have reduced the clearance needed such as replacing the Kito hook (on the hoist) with a 9/32 by 3/8" stainless hammerlock and removing the swivel eye hook entirely (the one connecting to the Mash Colander lift lugs and connecting the shackle directly to the Mash Colander). The pictures below show the standard setup on the left, and the setup with reduced headspace on the right. These two things can reduce the overall head needed by about 23cm/9". (Some customers have also drilled a new hole on the lift beam for the swivel eye hook shackle approximately 5cm/2" above the existing one to reduce head requirement a little more.)
