distance from burner to keggle.

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Black Island Brewer

An Ode to Beer
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Over the summer I finished my 2-tier brew stand, to which I mounted three 10 inch banjo burners to heat the HLT, the MLT, and the boil keggle. I used them for both the high BTUs when needed, ad well as good flame control. I mounted them into a galvanized tube as a wind screen, and mounted that to the frame. I've done 4 batches, and I'm wondering about the distance from the top of the burner to the bottom of the keggles. I've got 10 inches to the bottom of the chines. I seem to get a lot of heat loss around the sides. I mounted them that low to try to prevent scorching the mash when I apply direct heat and recirc, and to not scorch the wort in the boil kettle.

Does anyone use these burners with keggles, and if so, how far below?
 
I'm hoping to build a system too and had wondered the same thing. Hopefully someone will chime in with a response.
 
The use of galvanized steel is not recommended since it emits some nasty fumes when heated.

A distance of ten inches seems a lot, it must take forever to bring it up to temp. There are some threads on this issue documenting actual boil times at varying distances. I have two 10" high pressure propane burners and they are around 2 3/8" from the bottom of the kettles. Each system is different so you need to experiment.

You definitely want to capture that heat loss around the bottom of the keggles to decrease heat loss and lower boil times. There is a link in my signature "pot skirt" for a bit more info on this.
 
The use of galvanized steel is not recommended since it emits some nasty fumes when heated.
Thanks, yeah, I was aware. Burned it off out doors before first use.

A distance of ten inches seems a lot, it must take forever to bring it up to temp. There are some threads on this issue documenting actual boil times at varying distances. I have two 10" high pressure propane burners and they are around 2 3/8" from the bottom of the kettles. Each system is different so you need to experiment.
This is exactly what I was hoping to hear. Is your distance to the bottom of the chine, or the floor of the kettle? I will check out other threads as well. When I posted this I was on my phone, and the search function isn't as helpful. I had previously used a Camp Chef ring burner, and managed to burn the crap out of a barleywine due to too high of a flame too close to the bottom. Only the third batch of beer I've dumped in 18 years.

You definitely want to capture that heat loss around the bottom of the keggles to decrease heat loss and lower boil times. There is a link in my signature "pot skirt" for a bit more info on this.
That is a great idea! I might have to play around with it. Getting the cut-outs around my sight glasses and the whirlpool port might be a PITA, though.
 
I have a single tier HERMS system with 2 burners. I had 2 ten inch low pressure Hurricane burners. They were stand alone burners, the distance from the top of the burner to the bottom of the kettle or chine was 3 inches. It will bring 10 gallons to a boil in roughly 18 minutes.

I reused parts of the burner stand to make a place to hang my hoses.

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The distance is to the bottom of the chine.

To capture all of the heat you must make sure that the skirt is below chine. I added bolts to the chine to lift the keggle slightly. To cut holes accurately make a paper template first so there is no guessing.

Since using the pot skirt I don't have to turn the burner up very much at all. In fact I have to lower it quite a bit once it gets boiling. Also during flame out hop additions there is still a lot of heat in the keggle that I have to remove the welding blanket or it will keep simmering.

Here is a video of the boil, with the burner turned way down.

http://s94.photobucket.com/user/purple11haze/media/20130810_182016_zpse5864033.mp4.html
 
Great info guys. But what is the "chine?" I'm not familiar with that term. Is that the bottom ring of the keggle?

purplehaze, I love that pot skirt. I have been looking at different rig designs for the last 4 months and I have not seen that before. Makes perfect sense. Before I switched to a keggle, I had a short fat kettle and really had very little heat come up the sides. But when I switched to a keggle, that was the first thing that I noticed - tons of heat coming up the sides. I will definitely look into making one of those.
 
The boil rate is higher but I have not calculated it since my sight glass melted when the welding blanket slipped. Installing some snaps will keep it in place.

Just make sure the skirt sits lower than the pot to capture all of the exhaust gasses. On my setup the skirt actually sits on the stand and the keggle is raised up on some bolts I installed.

 
The boil rate is higher but I have not calculated it since my sight glass melted when the welding blanket slipped. Installing some snaps will keep it in place.

Just make sure the skirt sits lower than the pot to capture all of the exhaust gasses. On my setup the skirt actually sits on the stand and the keggle is raised up on some bolts I installed.

Yeah, I noticed you said that, and thanks for the pic. I too am worried about melting my sight glass. I'm thinking of modifying the design, and making a 3/4 or 7/8 around skirt. It wouldn't be perfect, but it would still be more efficient than what I have, and would save me from having to muss with the cut-outs for the ports. I'm also thinking of making it easily removable, because I don't use CIP, and toss around my vessels when I'm cleaning them out, which would damage the skirt. I know you mentioned that the stainless was expensive, is the pic you posted stainless or aluminum or some other sheet metal?
 
I use 20 tip NG jet burners. I've never had any trouble with burning my sight glass. When I crank it up when I'm starting up, I just wrap some aluminum foil on the bottom of it and it is fine. Once I crank the burner down no more worries. I made the mistake of adding an air gap to exhaust heat and make for more air flow. Need to repair that! By the way, for the jet burners I'm 14" jet tip to kettle bottom.
 
Black Island Brewer, the pic in this thread is stainless. If you follow the pot skirt link the first two pics are of the aluminum one and the others are SS.

Dog House Brew, in this instance the heat comes from the keggle sides not the bottom.
 
If the heat is coming from the sides I wouldn't be concerned about the sight tube. Mine is poly and have not had any trouble. I think it would have to take almost direct flame. My exhaust gap goes directly on my sight tube. The gap created by the bolt head is more like it. My gap from the way I made my stand is 1/2", not sure what I was thinking. Guess I wanted inefficiency. :drunk:
 
I never worried about my sight glass either until I added a pot skirt.

With the pot skirt the exhaust/heat from the burner is not wasted by dissipating on the wind but is trapped and rises up between the skirt and pot like a chimney.

These exhaust gasses help heat the sides of the pot so it takes less time to boil and uses less propane. It also makes the wort boil more from the sides of the keggle than from the bottom. The gap between the skirt and keggle is fairly important mine is approximately 1/2". The welding blanket adds insulation and protects the sight glass and ball valve handles from melting.
 
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