I am using a propane burner, similar to this:
http://bayouclassicdepot.com/1114_stainless_steel_propane.htm
and it is rigged to a 20 psi regulator... pretty standard as far as I can tell.
So I slipped folded over squares of aluminum flashing under the insulation on the outside of the keg to block the lower drain holes, which seemed to help a bit. I also constructed a rudimentary heat shield out of of the aluminum flashing as well. Now it has stopped smoking at least but it is still a little stinky. The smell is low enough that I will give it a go on a brew day but I will reevaluate as I go. I wonder if it is the type of spray adhesive I used that is causing the problem: I ended up getting: super 77 which is not the most temp resistant one in the line of 3m adhesives. I will try to spray some adhesive on a piece of flashing and warm it up on the burner and see if that is the same smell I am getting.
Otherwise, some lessons learned for others:
Probably not important to run the insulation over the lower skirt of the keg, if you can stop it right at the water line, the temp the insulation and adhesive experiences should be much lower. Similar the aluminum does not need to go so low, I ran mine to 1/2 off the bottom. Since it is so close to the heat there that it is conducting heat up the side of aluminum making the outside pretty dam hot to the touch.
Here is a pic of the heat shield I came up with on the fly: not permanent yet but a good enough for now to see if it can help. I had tried a couple different diameters, but the widest one, the one in the pic is the one I liked the best and had the least impact on O2 availability for the flame.
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