Natural Gas Burner ?'s

hoplobster · 03-19-2008, 09:55 PM

I will be buying a house soon and I plan on transporting my brewery to my new basement when all is said and done and I plan on straying away from my stove to the comfy confines of a natural gas jet burner.

I found this place that sells such burners and I was eying the10 jet model, which seems reasonably priced: Top Food Service

They list the 10 burner model @ 75,000 BTU and I plan on brewing 3-10 gallon AG batches... Would this suit my needs or do should I go with the (lower priced!) 20 jet model which is listed @ 150,000 BTU?

Also, does anyone have any tips/pictures with such installations?

Just to keep things on topic, this will be professionally done, I will pull permits, the basement can be vented, I will have a CO meter in the brewery, fire extinguisher at the ready and a high pressure hose near by just in case.

malkore · 03-19-2008, 10:32 PM

odd that the higher BTU is cheaper...does the 10 jet appear to be fancy fancy?

either should work. a normal kitchen range is only about 8,000 BTU.

**springer** · 03-19-2008, 11:05 PM

looks like the higher priced model is American made while the 20 jet is made in China . I say this because there is one 20 jet burner that is 48.15 and the other is 21.35 and the fact the lower one states China while the other does not

tentacles · 03-20-2008, 03:12 AM

Well, you don't have to operate it at full bore, so a higher BTU unit would have more flexibility - but probably can't be turned quite as low as the 75000. They have an 8" (20 jet) for $26 and it doesn't say china on it.

**Bobby_M** · 03-20-2008, 03:32 AM

That's actually not true. I know it seems intuitive because your typical range is infinitely adjustable. Since these use venturi tips, they need a minimum velocity to pull air in for combustion. I have the 23 tip ones and needed to plug up 10 of the tips to make it right. You do get a certain range of adjustment, but it's like from medium high to high, no low. You'll be happy with the 10 or there's also the a 16 tip with cover for the same price.

**Yuri_Rage** · 03-20-2008, 03:34 AM

I used a 32 jet model hooked up to the natural gas grill stub at the back of the house. I bought about 16' of 3/8" flexible gas line designed for grill use in order to hook it up and place it where I wanted it. It brought 20 gallons of cold water to a very sustainable rolling boil in under 30 minutes.

sleepystevenson · 03-21-2008, 12:56 AM

Hmmm, nice find on that link, Hoplobster!

My brother and I are working on a new single tier one barrel brewery, kinda brutus ten style, only using one barrel kegs that we have. So...We will be brewing 20-25 gals at a time.

So, It looks like that 32 jet big boy would be perfect for the brew kettle and the HLT maybe, but I am thinking a smaller one for the mashtun since it will be direct fired, and I don't wanna burn the mashing grains...

Whattaya think?

It will be circulating, but still...

**Bobby_M** · 03-21-2008, 01:10 AM

I just want to reiterate my warning. Even the 23 tip is HOT. With 10 of the 23 tips plugged up, I can boil over 11 gallons of wort in a 1/2bbl keggle with the flame on medium. I had to move the burner down lower away from the pot to keep it under control ;-)

sleepystevenson · 03-21-2008, 07:59 PM

So, Bobby, you think that the 32 jet job is too big even for 20-25 gallons, eh?

I wonder how the pilot works on those ones with the cover? Might be nice to have a pilot built in to the burner, if 160K BTU would handle 20-25 gals.

Hmmmm....

**Bobby_M** · 03-21-2008, 08:11 PM

I think it might be borderline at that volume meaning you'd be happy with either 23 or 32 but the 32 is going to require a VERY adequate gas supply. If you think tapping off of a long 1/2" pipe run will do it, you'll be disappointed.

I've been OK with a single 23 tip running off a 30' run of 1/2" that's tapped into a 1" trunk but it's not so great trying to run two burners at the same time.

My plan is to go all the way back to the meter and pull 3/4" off the 1" line, take a 1/2" tap off that to the gas clothes drier nearby, then continue 3/4" all the way to the garage about 25 feet away. This will open up the flow but more importantly reduce how much flexible hose I have to use.

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