Before using my new Turkey Fryer...

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If its an aluminum pot, fill it up and boil water in it for 45 minutes. You'll build up a dark gray (some say black) oxide layer, which will protect your wort from metallic tastes. Don't ever scrub that layer off, or you'll have to do it again. After using your pot for wort, rinse it and clean it with a soft sponge or rag. You could use a gentle dish soap, but that's about it. That's about it, if its a SS pot, wash it and fire away. Enjoy
 
O.k, so I'm outside boiling my water. How high a flame do you use? I've got it really pretty low and the flame is still licking up the sides of my brewpot turning it black... should I be concerned or is this to be expected? I've been out here about 1-hr and the 3-gals I put in to prep my pot still isn't boiling (about 180F) and it's about 30F outside...

Thanks,
 
Mine gets the water to a boil very fast. I dont have any flames going up the side of my pot though. That could just be the different burner styles. Mine just shoots flames from a ring in the center, and blasts across the bottom of the pot. Its only about a 3.5 inch burner in the center. I can get 3 gallons to boil in under 15 minutes or so I would say.
 
Don't be afraid to crank it up all the way to get the water boiling, just be carefull of boilover at hot-break. The blackening is ugly and indicative of a poor gas/air mix but wan't hurt anything. Most if not all of it will come off when you wash the pot.

rodneypierce: What you describe is pobably not a turkey frier but a 100k+ BTU boiler. Most trukey fryers are 50k BTU or less. The 100K ones are great for brewing and crawfish boiling but are considered dangerous for turkey frying.
 
rodneypierce: What you describe is pobably not a turkey frier but a 100k+ BTU boiler. Most trukey fryers are 50k BTU or less. The 100K ones are great for brewing and crawfish boiling but are considered dangerous for turkey frying.

here is a picture of it:
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I will go out and see if I can find a BTU rating on it somewhere. Just one minute.
 
Yeah, you need to adjust your air intake ( that round thing with holes in it right where the gas hose connects) until your flame is only blue. You're wasting gas if you've got yellow flames with soot, because you're getting incomplete combustion.
 
And you're gonna wanna fill that pot to the rim. Iirc, your pot is 30 qts, so 3 g is less than half full. Fll thapt sucker to the rim, and when you get your flame adjusted it should take about 2o to 30 minutes with the lid on
 
With Turkey fryers, you need to open it wide open on the propane tank and the air intake. You flame should get blue, not yellow. It will almost sound like a jet engine.
 
With Turkey fryers, you need to open it wide open on the propane tank and the air intake. You flame should get blue, not yellow. It will almost sound like a jet engine.

Agreed on the blue and jet engine part. Our fryers must be different, mine goes out though if I leave the air intake wide open. Just play around with the opening, you'll get it right. (Yeah, that's what she said).
 
Thanks everyone - that was exactly it, I had the burner turned down way too low. Turning it up made a world of difference, not only with heating the pot faster, but the color of the flame changed too. I did have one sooty mess to clean up when I was done, but as you said it all came off pretty easily. My brew is now happily fermenting away :mug:
 
I have soot outside of my pot sometimes, but I think it might have to do with brewing in windy conditions sometimes. That or some of the huge boilovers I've suffered in the past :)
 
RP:
That one is a turkey fryer not the uber-boiler I was talking about. It's around 50k BTU. They work fine but the 100k ones really get boiling quick. Just don't use tham for heating oil.
 
I have the same turkey fryer and I was just going to start using mine for brewin. Mine gets black on the outside if that air adjuster isn't opened all the way. Make sure it is open all the way and if that doesn't fix the problem you may need to clean out the burner. Mine was clogged with oil this thanksgiving and I had to clean it out to get the flame high and back to blue. Like the earlier poster said the flame should be blue and it will sound like a jet. Crank that sucker up full blast. Let it run a while with air vent wide open that may burn the gun out of the burner as well. Good Luck.
 
I had a turkey fryer similar to yours. It was painted and when I ran it, the paint started burning off, creating lots of soot, ultimately plugging many of the vents for the flames. It was a mess that I was able to scrape up but also just burning cleaned it up a bit.
 
Thanks everyone - that was exactly it, I had the burner turned down way too low. Turning it up made a world of difference, not only with heating the pot faster, but the color of the flame changed too. I did have one sooty mess to clean up when I was done, but as you said it all came off pretty easily. My brew is now happily fermenting away :mug:

Cleaning the soot sucks! I'm using the same turkey fryer I started with years ago and every once in a while, I get black soot that 'climbs' up the side. You can take those burners apart very easily and clean them out using a string of attached pipe cleaners. So much easier than destroying the sink with soot... :)
 
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