Melted handle on my Keggle

Anyone else have an issue of getting too hot on their burner and
burning/damaging their valve?

My last session, I had to crank my 60,000 BTU turkey fryer burner
for 60 min on my keggle to get it up to boiling. I used some alum. foil
to hold heat in under the kettle and caught the paint on the stand on fire
and later the valve handle coating melted on me.

I'm thinking of making some sort of heavy gauge deflector to keep the
heat off of the valve. Any other suggestions?

Nadguard(tm) was equally effective in reducing ball valve handle combustion.



When are we going to group-brew man?

I really can't imagine why you would have to crank your burner all the way up for an hour to get to a boil. I never turn mine all the way up. If I did, I'd probably melt my ball valve handle, too before long.

I just posted this in another thread, but I start heating the kettle during the sparge, and it only takes a few minutes to get to a boil when I'm done sparging. My burner's a little closer to the keggle on my brew stand than it was on my turkey fryer. I think this helps with efficient heat transfer, because the flame really spreads around the bottom of the keggle, and not too much heat is escaping around the bottom. I think for me, just turning up the burner would just waste propane. I need to take a pic with my burner on low and show you what I mean. Right now I can just show you this so you can see the distance from burner to keggle.

No, but my valves stick out more and are a bit higher than yours. I do you a foil heat shiled on my HLT to guard the sight tube I made with plastic compression fitted tubing. (the stuff used for ice makers)

Bobby_M said:

Nadguard(tm) was equally effective in reducing ball valve handle combustion.

Click to expand...

I think you could shorten this to say, "Nadguard was equally effective in reducing ball combustion.

Sounds like you need to stop brewing beer and start marketing

Did you put your valve over the hole in the Keggle skirt. That's a no-no that sometimes gets overlooked.

Spark,
I like your setup. Is that a galv. strip or alum. holding the burner?
I have a second burner that I could take apart and do something like that.

As far as the keg, I made sure to keep the valve away from the holes
on the bottom. I even plugged them with alum. foil. I don't think I can heat
earlier, because I'm fly sparging. It would mess up my hop/boil schedule.
A may pick up a jet burner from a buddy.

Bobby,
I'd certainly welcome a group brew session. Although I would be doing
more listening than sharing of my brewing knowledge. I'll PM my cell.

Looks like it'll have to be the Nadguard(tm) for now until I come up
with something a little more robust.

Once I mount this keggle on a proper sculpture, I'll be adding a wind/heat shield out of aluminum roof flashing. I have a bunch sitting around just waiting to be used.

If you have enough heat to melt stuff on the side of your keggle, there is a ton of heat being wasted. I want a fast boil as much as the next guy, but I think these burners have gotten out of control heat wise.

I'm going to investigate using propane fueled radiant heaters under my pots. I suspect that will inncrease the energy efficiency a lot. Maybe boil the wort faster too.

megavites said:

Spark,
I like your setup. Is that a galv. strip or alum. holding the burner?
I have a second burner that I could take apart and do something like that.

Click to expand...

Thanks. Honestly, I don't know what kind of metal that is. I picked it up at HD. It was thin enough to bend, but sturdy enough to hold the burners.

brewman ! said:

If you have enough heat to melt stuff on the side of your keggle, there is a ton of heat being wasted. I want a fast boil as much as the next guy, but I think these burners have gotten out of control heat wise.

I'm going to investigate using propane fueled radiant heaters under my pots. I suspect that will inncrease the energy efficiency a lot. Maybe boil the wort faster too.

Click to expand...

I agree about the wasted heat. I never turn any of my burners all the way up. If I did, I doubt it would help much. They already put out so much heat even on a med or med-high setting.

I like the way you think out-of-the-box. Are you talking about something like this? If so, I'm not sure they're going to put out enough heat and the heatup times would be very slow, although they might be more efficient.

Bobby_M I know this is a little off topic but what size cooler is that Igloo Maxxcold in your picture? I bought that same cooler about two years ago and since I didn't care about quart size then it didn't matter and it's not labeled anywhere...just curious? Thanks....resume topic!

Taking about wasted heat and efficiency, I have a Banjo Classic cooker. I almost emptied a proptane tank in just about two AG brews. The first day, however, I was out brewing in 20 degree temps; it was windy too. The second day, it was 40 and also. How many brew sesssions do you all get out of a propane tank. ( I dont remember the size, just the ones your can exchange at the grocery store )

NadGuard™

vasie said:

Taking about wasted heat and efficiency, I have a Banjo Classic cooker. I almost emptied a proptane tank in just about two AG brews. The first day, however, I was out brewing in 20 degree temps; it was windy too. The second day, it was 40 and also. How many brew sesssions do you all get out of a propane tank. ( I dont remember the size, just the ones your can exchange at the grocery store )

Click to expand...

I get about 5 brew sessions. I think a lot of people probably waste propane by running their burners too high. Only 2 is rediculous! Turn that burner down and get a good wind screen or brew in the garage.

CollinsBrew said:

Bobby_M I know this is a little off topic but what size cooler is that Igloo Maxxcold in your picture? I bought that same cooler about two years ago and since I didn't care about quart size then it didn't matter and it's not labeled anywhere...just curious? Thanks....resume topic!

Click to expand...

I have no idea what the capacity is. It's not marked anywhere. I've done up to 12 pound grain bill mashes in there and it was only filled half way. I know I can probably do really big 5gal beers or small to moderate beers at 10gallons. I just happened to have it for general BBQ purposes so I used it.