Rocket stove for boiling water

I'm a cheap skate when it comes to certain things and making beer is one of them. Propane isn't cheap and I tend to use a lot when brewing up a batch.
I decided that I'd take a stab at making a rocket stove and see if it would boil water. I didn't think it would work but, I figured I'd still give it a try for the hell of it. The stove took about a half hour to build out of stuff I had laying around the garage. My test pot of water was two gallons.
After 40 minutes with a lid on it I had boiling water. I took the lid off and was able to sustain a boil for as long as I kept the fire going. I used kiln dried wood for the test but, didn't use much. Next time I will use dried branches, which I have an endless supply of. I plan on brewing a batch on it sometime this week. I enjoy doing self sufficient type things and it will be great to be able to heat my water for free.
I still have some refining to do on the stove so I hope to be able to get my boil time down.

Google rocket stoves to find out what they are. Mine is bigger than most that you'll see. I used 6 inch stove pipe.

How much soot does this thing leave behind? Seems like with the kiln dried lumber it shouldn't be much of a problem, but I don't know about normal firewood. Just for kicks, it would be fun to try out some manzanita branches. If you burn that stuff in a wood stove you can melt your flough and/or burn your house down. Almond wood is pretty cheap around here from all the orchards...I might have to look into this.

It burns wood very efficiently. Not much smoke at all once it gets going. I'm thinking about putting secondary burn tubes on it to see if I can get it even more efficient.

Put a blower on that thing and you could smith some shoes! Or, if you really want to be off the grid and gas less, build a set of bellows for it.

check out wood gas and gasifiers

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Wc8aqW4XBs]YouTube - Wood Gas Stove[/ame]

Gasifier Experimenters Kit

The ones I've seen in operation completely cover the pot in soot...that would get old real quick! I suppose the amount of soot depends on the type of wood you're burning, but you're always going to get some. I'd also get tired of continuously feeding the fire.

Still, I'm quite intrigued by these things...just not for brewing.

Soot is an easy fix that I learned in boy scouts way to many years a go. Rub the bottom of the pot with liquid dish soap. When your done brewing hose it off. The soot will not stick to the pot and the soap is already there for cleaning. (No I don't use soap inside my brew pots.)

Get the bastage hot enough in the "chimny" and you will combust those gases that create soot. Get the chimney/flu long enough and introduce sufficient (but not too much) combustible air from the bottom and you won't have soot problems any more.

Google the thing and you'll see it's being used all over the planet.