Bayou Burner using lots of propane

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lmerg

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Hi,

We're using a bayou burner (Example Here) and noticing that it uses a lot of propane (normal 15# tanks). I haven't started weighing our usage with each batch, but I intend to. I'm judging this based on the usage reported in some of the Brutus Herms threads of 3 10g batches per tank. We are getting perhaps a bit more than 2 5gal batches per tank. But without weighing, it's tough to be exact (yeah, yeah, this would be better with hard numbers, I agree).

I think it's the flame adjustment. A bit of yellow on top but mostly blue. So that's nearly impossible to control with the little spinning air vent. Is this a problem with the burner in general? Or are we just bad at this?

OMG, will this ruin my beer? (just kidding)

Thanks in advance,
Luke
 
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I almost always have a small amount of yellow flame on top of the blue with the same burner. I think it's unavoidable. The air vent seems almost useless to me. That said, I usually get about 5 sixty-minute boils on five-gallon batches from one tank.

Are you sure your tanks are full?
 
You know, if you're genuinely worried about that, you can get tanks filled instead of traded and that way you only pay for what you're actually getting. Ends up being about the same price but you get a much fuller tank. I get mine filled at Uhaul.

Tom
 
Thanks. I'll look into that. I'm much more worried that either the burner is inefficient or there is user error.
 
Yeah I have heard, and experienced, that the Blue Rhino tanks are not always as full as they should be. They tend to be lighter after the exchange then after I get them filled at the local hardware store.

As for the gas you are using, do you keep the burner on at full blast for the full boil, or do you turn it down?
 
I try to turn it down and readjust for the most efficient flame. But it still feels (which isn't a very good measure of reality) like we're burning through propane way too fast. I'll probably weigh the tank before and after the next 10g brew. I wonder how true value would feel if I showed up with a grain scale during the tank exchange...
 
I started listening to the sound. A "roar" is blowing off propane. A high blue flame with minimal yellow tipping that's almost silent is efficient...maybe a low hissing sound. My first boil I tried to get things cranking by turning up the flame...not the right method with these burners.
 
Are you using it in windy conditions? Does the flame come around the side? And flame on the side of your pot is wasted fuel. Wind is a killer, blowing away the heat, wasting fuel.

Do you try using wind blocks? You can wrap Al foil around the legs so 3 sides are closed off and you have access to light the flame still. I've heard people using foil up around the side of the pot to make sure the flame is being used as efficiently as possible. That in conjunction with maintaining a small rolling boil instead of a big rolling boil will likely make your tank last longer.
 
Dang I have Blue Rhino. If I get 5 batches out of one I think I'd be happy with that. I am expecting worse. I don't have the bayou, I have the Brinkmann but should be about the same thing I would think. The thing has been really nice for me so far tbh (1 batch). I was kinda hoping that the old lady would let me buy another tank too because I feel like I have to turn it back in with some left every time seeing as how you can't start a brewday and run out of pane half way through. Another problem is we don't have a scale here at all besides a 3 pounder. Would be nice to weigh the thing and know what I am dealing with exactly. Thanks for bringing up the topic.
 
I'm lucky to get 2 brews with a blue rhino. I have the round Bayou. After adding the 1st and 2nd runnings, the wort is about 140 degrees. Seems to take forever to get to boiling, probably 15 minutes or so then add in the 60 minute boil. I think I'll try to put up a wind break like suggested by barrooze and see if that helps.
 
I brewed with friends for a few years doing 10 gallon batches on an SQ-14 and we were getting about two batches per 15 lb tank, same as the OP.

I recently started brewing by myself at my house and am using a KAB-6. I'm getting my tanks filled at a hardware store for $16.99 for 20 lbs, but I'm flying through gas, using maybe 3/4 of a tank per batch!

I am going to get SQ-14s for my MLT and HLT and save the KAB-6 for the BK.

Honestly, I don't even think the KAB-6 is bringing it to boil much faster, though I can really get it rolling once it does. I just did my third batch with this setup and I'm working on trotting it down.
 
I've just started weighing my tank before and after brewing, and using my Bayou Classic SP10, I seem to burn about 1# of propane every 30 minutes.
A typical brewday has me burning about 3# of propane (15 min to mash in, 10 to mash out, 10 to boil, 60 min boil) for 5 gallon batches.
 
Where are you people getting 15# tanks?

I use between 7 and 8 pounds of propane per 11g batch. Heating all my water and a 60 minute boil.
 
jspence1 said:
Where are you people getting 15# tanks?

Blue Rhino, Amerigas and the other tank swap places put 15 lbs in a 20 lb tank. Around me they're $20 to $23 for a swap. I have a hardware store that's only charging $16.99 for a real 20 lb fill. Unless you have no alternative, tank swap is a rip off.
 
I only do refills because the tank swap is a rip off. If I had to do a tank swap, I'd buy two tanks, run the first one until it's 100% empty, then go swap it.

That having been said, I run two tanks anyways - after carrying my full, hot 15 gallon kettle from the garage into the kitchen to straddle a couple burners and still only barely (and I mean barely) get a boil going when I ran out of propane, I realized that having a backup tank full of propane was probably a really good idea.
 
Good to know guys. I am a charcoal guy so I don't know much about propane since I just got the burner. I need to have a second tank though or I could be sending it back with 4 pounds gas in it. Then you are really taking it in the butt.
 
Yeah I have heard, and experienced, that the Blue Rhino tanks are not always as full as they should be. They tend to be lighter after the exchange then after I get them filled at the local hardware store.

this! i had that issue
 
Two tanks is pretty mandatory in my mind. I wouldn't even start a brew without knowing one was full.
 
I exchange my tank at Menards and they claim to give 13% more gas than blue rhino or amerigas. It's the Heritage Propane Exchange system. It's about $17 for a refill I believe.
 
I usually refill my Blue Rhino Tank. I had to exchange it at Home Depot last Sunday because the refill station was closed and I wanted to brew on the 4th. Took the tank inside, paid for my return and met the young guy at the propane tanks out front.

This was one of those stations where you can exchange a tank any time. It had these doors that opened automatically. The store worker had to scan my bar code into the machine then it started making noises checking for empty and full tanks. It opened a door and the machine told me to put my empty in that spot. Only problem is there was an empty already there. The worker closed the door. The machine opened another door with a full tank in it. Worker pulls out the tank and slams that door closed.

I tell him "shouldn't we have put the empty in that cubbyhole'? He looks a little confused then tells me to just take the empty with me that I can get the discount again that way. I was very happy to get a second tank out of that deal.
 
I tell him "shouldn't we have put the empty in that cubbyhole'? He looks a little confused then tells me to just take the empty with me that I can get the discount again that way. I was very happy to get a second tank out of that deal.

haha awesome
 
I started listening to the sound. A "roar" is blowing off propane. A high blue flame with minimal yellow tipping that's almost silent is efficient...maybe a low hissing sound. My first boil I tried to get things cranking by turning up the flame...not the right method with these burners.

I agree with this. When I run my burner, there is minimal hissing. If it's cranked, you can definitely hear the difference: it sounds like a plane taking off (obvious exaggeration, but you get the idea; LOUD.) If it's up too high, you lose heat around the sides of the kettle due to the huge flame. If too small, the water won't boil. It's all about the happy medium.
 
I have the round Bayou and get 4-5 brews done on a tank, doing 5gal batches. I just take it to the gas station to get filled, its usually around 15 bucks.

I noticed that once i surrounded the burner with some stove pipe to keep the wind out that I got at least 1 additional batch out of a tank.
 
Since I changed my boil pot to aluminum from stainless steel I use less gas, not sure how much less but it is significant. I also quit using exchange tanks because you're not getting 20 lbs.
 
Good thread. Since I switched to my large (25 gal) stainless pot I have trouble getting my small burner to get 10+ gal to boil in a reasonable time. I had some bubble reflector insulation (silvery, foil-coated, about 1/4 inch thick with bubbles like packaging material, a high R-value reflective insulator) so I made a big loose box out of it (cube with no bottom) and draped it over the pot, with about 4 inches standoff. My boil time shortened appreciably. After a few uses, the material got pretty droopy from the heat because it got too close from time to time. . . (hey - what's that burning smell, don't let it touch the pot !!). I have been thinking about making a simple wood frame to keep the reflective material a safe distance away, and a removable top for the boil-off. I feel pretty encouraged to do so after reading the thread, maybe it will save me some propane.
 
I'm glad this was a helpful thread.

We have three tanks from blue rhino which we normally exchange. I'll be looking into alternatives soon. It's not windy here, although we did create a wind shield from a 55-gal drum for our first few batches. We stopped using it once we got a sight glass and thermometer. Honestly it didn't work very well (there are some pictures of it in my photos via the sig link).

It also made it difficult to adjust the flame. Although we keep our burner inside out of the weather, I'm noticing some signs of rust in only one year around the nozzle threads. The real problem is that the oxygen / air adjuster doesn't seem to give me the precise control to burn below the "aircraft sound" level. (Should we call this an adjuster, a carburetor, a flue? or just a metal spinny disk that obstructs air flow?) Maybe this is because we already have the gas up too high. (We're heating up a keggle and a Blichmann 20g using the one burner.)

I'm happy to say that this problem became much less important after I popped open my first summer batch and found it over carbed and belgian flavored. It's a AHS American Ale kit. So now I'm tracking down potential flaws in my sanitation instead of heating efficiency.
 
I think as I get more experience ill get more out of a tank. Realized on this brew that I can keep the flame pretty low and still maintain a nice boil. Also if I hit my numbers better I won't be heating up extra water to raise the temp.
 
I'm finding as I get more experience I'm caring less and less how much propane I use as long as my beers are good. Not much beats sitting in the sun, music blasting, and sipping on a delicious homebrew thinking 'I made this' while making more. Using an extra dollar or two worth of fuel is irrelevant to me in that state of mind.

It probably helps that the first thing I did when I bought my burner was to make a heat shield and my first batch with it (boil only) only used two pounds of propane.
 
I am with you man my point is is that I feel like I am wasting a lot of fuel just screwing around with my technique.
 
I definitely need to make an adjustment to mine. The flame is all yellow and blows out of the sides of the pot. Then I get this black carbon "soot" crap all over the pot that is hard as hell to clean up. And I think I've had infestation of some sorts in some of the burners because they are definitely plugged.


Also I know it's using too much fuel the way it's running now. But besides the damper adjuster, I'm not sure how to get a better fire.
 
The damper on mine is about 80 - 85% open, it's working pretty well for me so I haven't experimented with adjusting it more.

As was suggested earlier I tried to use sound as a guide when I first started it up. It's kind of tough to gauge since it's somewhat relative. Once finding the lowest pressure that would hold a steady boil I marked it with a sharpie on my regulator. If I collected an extra gallon or so of runnings I can turn it up from there, and when I'm getting close to boil I'll turn it up to ensure a good hot break, then drop it back down and adjust from that mark as necessary. My last couple of batches I ran my boil at 1 o'clock from it.

The flames on mine are only visible at night, but they are about 1" - 1 1/4" and all blue when at my mark.
 
I have a KAB6 and a Blichmann. Just got the KAB6 on my brew stand and have only used it once for my HLT. It definitely needed help as it was taking forever to get water to mash and sparge temps. Pot sits much higher from flame than on Blichmann. And I was completely outside for the first time, as prior brews have been in the breezeway. I finally figured that the wind and huge gap were the culprit and made a wind shield. Luckily I had some thin aluminum sheet and wrapped it around the legs of the Bayou, duct taped it temporarily and voila, great improvement. I've since riveted the thing together and it tightly fits around the legs so I can just slide it up out of the way if need be to.

If/when I change from a cooler mash tun to heat controlled, I would definitely go with the Blichmann as opposed to the Bayou, or build my own heat stand with just the burner.
 
I'm still building my brew rig using 3 Bg12 burners & I am wondering what a good pot to burner distance is. I do like the stove pipe idea, very informative thread!
 
If you are thinking of going from tank swapping to refills at the local propane distributor or hardware store, you should check the manufacturing date on the tank. By law, a tank must be either retired or recertified after 12 years. A recertification can only be done once, and is good for only 5 years. If you have an old tank that is near or past the end of its refillable life, you can play Blue Rhino Roulette and hope to get a better tank, but at $24.99 for 15 pounds of propane, versus $20 for 20 pounds, 3 such exchanges would pay for a brand new tank. Unless you are good friends with the guy who runs the tank exchange, it is unlikely you will get a new or nearly new tank.
 
I dunno, I have a Bayou Burner and even with the short-filled exchange tanks I'm still getting at least five 60 minute boils on 5 gallon batches. I tried to use the spinny adjustment thingy and gave up trying, I think it is mostly open now. I generally go full blast to get the boil going then keep a pretty vigorous boil, as high as I can keep the flame w/o excessive foaming or boil-overs. It can be windy here to and I don't do much to block that.

I will note that I heat all of my strike and sparge water inside on the gas stove, so I don't use any propane doing that.

I kind of skimmed the thread so maybe I missed it, but have you checked all your connections with something like windex to make sure you don't have any leaks?
 
In terms of using bg12 burners, I have 2 of them on my brew stand and I think 2.5 to 3 inches between top if burner to pot bottom is ideal, mine are 3 inches.
 
The regulators make a difference too on how well these burners perform.
You need a low pressure regulator for the small banjo style burners.
You also have to open the tank before opening the regulator for it to work correctly.
 

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