Boil issues with keggle and Propane burner

I purchased a Bayou Cooker KAB4 model to heat my 15 gal. keggle. I have brewed 4 times with this setup and had decent rolling boils, although the blue flames appear to be a bit small. I brewed a 1.070 O.G. stout over the weekend (all of my previous beers have been lighter colored and between 1.055 -1.060 O.G.) and just couldn't get the boil going. Temp was 212-214 and it would not get any higher.

Since the burner is new, I don't think cleanliness or blockage is an issue. I'm thinking faulty regulator or tank freeze, but it's nearly 100 degrees outside. Any ideas of what could have caused this? Any suggestions on fixing the problem?..like achieving a more aggressive flame.

Propane tank running low?

No. It was a new one.

Do you have the burner too far away from the bottom of the keggle?

Burner should be 5-6 inches below keggle....what is the psi of your regulator? Do you have the black or green Acme nut on your regulator?

Stoutsmith6 said:

...Temp was 212-214 and it would not get any higher...

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What was the wind like? and does the burner have a shroud? Also water (wort) boils at 212, it will never get hotter than this unless it is under pressure.

helibrewer said:

Burner should be 5-6 inches below keggle [...]

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As measured to what point on the keggle?

Cheers!

helibrewer said:

Burner should be 5-6 inches below keggle....what is the psi of your regulator? Do you have the black or green Acme nut on your regulator?

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It's 30 psi. green nut. Burner sits ~4.5-5 inches below keggle.

mattd2 said:

What was the wind like? and does the burner have a shroud? Also water (wort) boils at 212, it will never get hotter than this unless it is under pressure.

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I wonder why it didn't "roll" then. There was minimal movement on the top of the wort. I could see particles swimming around but definitely no rolling action.

Stoutsmith6 said:

I wonder why it didn't "roll" then. There was minimal movement on the top of the wort. I could see particles swimming around but definitely no rolling action.

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Sorry should have been clear, it will never get hotter than 212 but the more heat you put in the more vigerous the boil (water is being changed into steam faster)

helibrewer said:

Burner should be 5-6 inches below keggle....what is the psi of your regulator? Do you have the black or green Acme nut on your regulator?

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I know that the 4 - 6 inch distance is how they are shipped but I strongly feel that the distance is too large and it greatly hinders the efficiency of the burner. I would direct the OP to this thread that discusses influence of this large distance on the burner's efficiency. For a $20 bill I had my burner modified so that the distance between the burner and kettle is around an inch. The difference is night and day in terms of burner efficiency and propane use.

I had this exact same problem yesterday. A brand new bayou burner and a brand new propane tank with a 15 gal keggle. Ive used this keggle on a different burner and it was boiling waaaay too hard. Last night I thought the flame looked ok getting my steeping temp 152 deg. It held this perfectly too........then i tried kicking it up to the boil and it took FOREVER. I'm talking 80 mins to get to 212 and i was never able to get a rolling boil. I looked up the bayou and it may have been the regulator feature that causes it to reduce output by 90% if you dont follow the instruction of SLOWLY opening up the regulator. I tried to relite using their instructions and still the flame didn't get any bigger. The flame wasn't tiny by any means so I'm not sure if that was even the issue. I know it didn't help that it was 21 F outside, but I didn't think this would matter too much with this burner.

I used beersmith and calculated I needed to start with 9 gallons to end up with 5 gallon after grain absorption (partial mash) and post boil........but I ended up with a lot more wort than anticipated due to not much of a boil. I now have 2 carboys instead of 1. I'm guessing its just gonna be like a light version of my original recipe, although I only had 1 vial of yeast.......man it was a ***** of a brew day.

Anyway, after all that did the OP ever get the problem fixed and how?

Hey. It turns out i just wasn't using the regulator properly. I wasn't opening it up more after the original lighting of the flame and adjusting the air intake. I have been getting great boils now. Sometimes i get propane freeze near the end of the tank, which greatly reduces the flame intensity. It sounds like you know what your doing, so this probably isn't much help. It could be that it just too cold and those keggles probably aren't the best insulators. May want to try insulating the keggle before modding the burner.

If you have a lid (wifes skillet cover), you can (briefly) cover the keggle during the boil and the roll will come back.

For what its worth, the beer from the original post turned out to be fine without ever rolling.