[duboman]

I've been absent, pretty busy....
Anyway, exploring single tier systems and found Ruby Street and Synergy brewing to be in my price point.

Synergy system offers 2 pumps and few other bells and whistles, both are comparably and competitively priced.

Wondering if anyone out there has either and can offer some insight on product quality and support?

Before you ask, building from scratch is not an option for me although I may part out kettles, chillers and such as I investigate.

Appreciate any insight!

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[Stevie]

One of my old lhbs's used a 1.5 (2-ish?) tier ruby street for demos and such. It was a pretty nice system and stored on end with spots to put the kettles. I really liked that as a feature to minimize space required when not brewing.

[duboman]

Thanks Steve, that's one of the features I thought was nice. The only thing I see with Ruby is its pretty basic with a lot of add one, the Synergy has many more components that are standard like  2 pumps and all stainless construction, etc. so I'm looking to see if anyone has actual brewing experience with the two as well

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[yso191]

I have had a Synergy brew stand for about 2 years.  I really like it.  No issues.  No that is not entirely true.  For whatever reason they put the valves for the burners at the back of the stand which was very awkward.  I had my son in law re-weld it at the front.  They may have fixed this, I don't know.

*edit*  I just checked their website and indeed it looks like the valves are in the front now.

[Stevie]

Other than being shiny when new, I don't see much point in going with a stainless stand. If taken care of, a steel stand will last plenty long. All of the stainless stands I have seen at buddies places are covered in baked on crud from spills and boil overs.

[wingnut]

I wound up making my own a few years ago so that I could incorporate automatic valves.  (I wound up with an ugly jurry riged stand that I still frown at when looking at it... from spare parts... and put the money I was going to put into a stand... into valves and PLC controls to automate the brewing process) 

When I was dong my stand research though....

From a brew stand...standpoint.  I was going to go with the Ruby stand. The stand is powdercoated... so the paint is much stonger and robust than a typical painted stand, (and like the stainless stands.. it will last "forever") and I Iiked the design for mobility, and conviently tipping for compact storage.   The valves being accesible for the gas was a big thing for me, and the Ruby Stands are really set up nice to allow future expansion... and was just setup in a way that made adding a piece here or there as time goes on easy.  The frame has more places to bolt things onto, and looked more robust.  Since then, I noticed the local brew pub uses these stands for their brewing. 

They went with them because the guys making the Ruby stand were really easy to work with to put the bells and whistles onto the stand just they way they wanted.

Having said that, with what I know today... I would NOT go with the base burner package of the Ruby system.  The base burners are not really conducive to converting over to natrual gas. The burners on the Synergy system are.  (my old brew satand had the ruby style propane burners... and they were LOUD, and were not able to be converted to natural gas... my new brew stand, I made with burners simlar to what is in the synergy stand.  They are far quieter, I would even say silent, they  put out more BTUs evenly under the kettle, and I have since made them Natural Gas)  I know the brewpub has burners like the synergy stand on thier Ruby stands...so I know Ruby offers them.. but I dont know what the price difference is.

Good luck, hope your new stand, whatever directin you go, brings you many happy brew years!
Having said that, 

[duboman]

Thanks Steve and Wingnnut, just the info I was looking for! I like the Ruby for the stand and storage function but the model is more expensive than the Synergy system and requires quite a few add-ons to bring it up to par with what you get out of the box on the Synergy system. The prices of their add-ons also seem to be a bit steep in price putting them even higher in price. I also like that with Synergy I am dealing direct where Ruby I am going through a distributor, albeit a great distributor and I'm sure a great bunch of manufacturers as well.

Still doing research and evaluating funds but will let you know what I decide, if I move forward with either.

Gary

[Stevie]

Yeah, that synergy stand does work out to be cheaper in stainless compared to the powder coated ruby street.