Cost/ amount of gas?

I'm courious. As I'm looking through all these wicked awesome brew rigs I wonder how much gas they use. I know a lot are hard plumbed to the house NG or LP, but some use the little 20 pound LP tanks. On an average 3 vessel system, how much gas does it take to make one ten gallon batch?

I'm wondering if building a rig before getting a big tank (the wifey wants a gas cook top with the kitchen remodel) is putting the cart before the horse.

I brew 5 gallon batches on a turkey fryer, and get at least 3 brews out of those gas-grill propane tanks. From what I've read, NG is the way to go.

//My $.02 worth

I can usually get at least 3 10 gallon batches from one little propane tank, but I also use it for cooking sometimes. NG would be nice but it'll have to wait for my next house.

It depends on the burner, your equipment, position of burner, and much more.

I generally use between 6-8 lbs of propane for a 15 gallon batch, depending on ambient temps and how long I boil. But also +1 what Maxkling said - YMMV.

I get ~4-5 10G batches per 17 lb tank, (exchange). I cheat and use hot water from my tap, instead of cold, so it's already at ~140*F, which saves me a decent amount of LP.

shortyjacobs said:

I get ~4-5 10G batches per 17 lb tank, (exchange). I cheat and use hot water from my tap, instead of cold, so it's already at ~140*F, which saves me a decent amount of LP.

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Excuse my ignorance, but I was under the impression that hot tap water was bad for drinking, due to the water heater. I would love to do this.

Maxkling said:

It depends on the burner, your equipment, position of burner, and much more.

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Well of course. But I seem to be getting a good average. I should be able to get multiple batches off of one little tank. What makes NG so much better? Sorry, I live out in the country and we have never had NG or LP for anything. Well, other than gas grills that is...

Ive always used hot water, same with cooking.

New water heater though.

scotched said:

Excuse my ignorance, but I was under the impression that hot tap water was bad for drinking, due to the water heater. I would love to do this.

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Not really "bad". "Full of iron" would be a better statement, as those old water heaters tend to rust out. Mine is only a couple years old.

Really though, there is nothing "bad" in hot water, even from an old heater, (as long as you don't have lead pipes ). If it tastes good enough to drink, it's good enough to brew with, (or cook with). Mine, cooled off, tastes just fine, so I use it. Before I had a kid, I had the heater cranked up to about 148*F. Now that I have a babe, it's more like 138*F, but still plenty hotter than "cold".

ChandlerBang said:

Well of course. But I seem to be getting a good average. I should be able to get multiple batches off of one little tank. What makes NG so much better? Sorry, I live out in the country and we have never had NG or LP for anything. Well, other than gas grills that is...

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If you search around this topic has been covered a lot. Natural gas is so much cheaper and cleaner than propane, people use it because of cost and ease. They just tap into the supply in the house so they never have to fill tanks.

There are some people that can get more than 10 5gallon batches out of a tank of propane. There are just so many variables that can change your results. IMO there is no set equation, but I will tell you if your getting 2 5 gallon batches out of 1 tank of propane, that is incredibly inefficient and are throwing money away. Just adds to the cost of your brew day substantially.

EDIT:

After looking around most AG people with a turkey fryer are getting 4-5 5 gallon batches. Your average refill price is around 15-20$. So 3 or 4 dollars per brew day on gas, vs a few pennies if you go electric. To me its just a little bit ridiculous, if you have NG plumed in your house Id go that route, if you have 240 going to your house and enough room in the panel for a 50 or 60 amp breaker, Id go that route.

Maxkling said:

After looking around most AG people with a turkey fryer are getting 4-5 5 gallon batches. Your average refill price is around 15-20$. So 3 or 4 dollars per brew day on gas, vs a few pennies if you go electric. To me its just a little bit ridiculous, if you have NG plumed in your house Id go that route, if you have 240 going to your house and enough room in the panel for a 50 or 60 amp breaker, Id go that route.

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I've had this same thought. I could save like 4 dollars per batch if I went electric! Dude! My batches are like $50/10 gal, so that's significant! Then I realize, ok, 4 dollars for LP per batch vs maybe $0.50 for electric. That's $3.50 per batch. To convert to all electric would require a spa panel, ($60), some 6-3 wire or whatever the hell it is, ($3/ft), elements, controllers, switches, enclosure, plugs, outlets, potting for the element terminals....probably close to $300 by the time it's all over, (and that's doing it cheap...Kal's control box alone is like $1000 worth of ****). $300 / $3.50/batch is 86 batches, and I brew about 15 times per year right now...so that's 5.75 years payoff period.

I mean, yeah, in the end it gets cheaper...and of course the real reason is convenience of electric, but still, it's tough to justify on a cost basis alone. If you don't do it SUPER cheap, and end up paying more than $300 initially, the payoff period just grows and grows.

Maxkling said:

if you have 240 going to your house and enough room in the panel for a 50 or 60 amp breaker, Id go that route.

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I've thought of this too. Currently all brewing happens outside. But I have loose plans to build a brew shed on top of and old root cellar pad in my yard. I can run whatever electric to that I want. And I would definitely want to go electric in there as opposed to LP or NG....

Thanks for your thoughts. I have a tendency to dream faster than life allows things to happen. (don't we all?)