King Kooker Dual Burner Cart...thoughts?

Just curious if any of you have brewed on one of these and what the pros/cons have been. The price looks good and I'm interested.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00264G584/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

I can't get that link to look right...the Amazon link will take you to the King Kooker on Amazon.

That thing looks awesome! I'm amazed I've never seen it before. It seems like a really good deal and there are a couple positive reviews from homebrewers.

I thought the same thing...my purchase finger is getting itchy...

I just bought one of these about a month ago. I'm a new brewer and have only used this once, so my opinion may not count for much..but I love it! its much sturdier than it looks. I am only doing 5g boils now, but i feel like it will handle 10gallon boils with no problem. I brought 6 gallons to a boil within 15 mins with it on the smaller (60k btu) burner, so i can't imagine how quick the jet burner will do it with 105k btus. the only downside so far is that the propane 'holder' is kind of janky and doesn't hold the tank well..but that's not a big deal to me i just unhook the propane after i brew anyways. i say go for it if you're looking for a nice burner for a decent price

I think I'm just gonna pull the trigger on it...it looks cool enough! Thanks for the feedback!

Shoot some pictures, I'd love to see how it stands up to some larger kettles, and how it works on brewday!

I have seen those,and before I could say anything my wife gave me the look. so I dont have one....yet.

Never tried it, but I know that for the same price you can get 2 of these and 1 of these.

Yeah, there are plenty of other options available...but I am more than happy with this for now. I just brewed yesterday..I wish i had seen this I would have snapped a few pics. This is the only pic of it I have off of my phone, but I will try and take a couple more pics of it today and get them up. It puts out some decent heat...the jet burner scares me a bit

looking good- definitely more pics of your brewdays required. This may be on my homebrew list (the nano list is too long already, haha).

I was looking at a similar cart without the tier. My only beef against the cart you originally linked to is the lower jet burner...is it loud? flame is VERY direct in that manner...center of the boil kettle could get very hot.

I saw this cart as a two burner option that could incorporate pumps: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0002YXN12...e=asn&creative=395105&creativeASIN=B0002YXN12

The burners on the cart appear to be the same that's on the SQ-14, which I love.



Anyone use something similar ever?

~Adam

Does anybody know the dimensions between the two burners? I am thinking about buying one to use the top stand for the mash and gravity feed to the bottom to the boil kettle and would like to be sure that the tier is tall enough to do this. Any info and more pics would be appreciated.

sorry it's taken so long to respond. the jet burner can get a little loud if turned up all the way. I can take a video on my phone and post soon. The height from the bottom burner to the top is 13", so I'm not sure if it would work for a gravity-fed system. the dimensions on the burners are about 15"x15" for the outside 'rims', then 13.5"x13.5" on the inside of the 'rim.' I don't see this being a problem for larger keggles..it feels like it would support it just fine. Unfortunately, i'm still on extract brews (planning to do my first ag this week), but here's a pic of a 7.5gallon pot on the burner just for an idea.

So glad I found this thread - I stumbled onto this thing as I was researching propane burners on Amazon. I was looking into batch sparging with a converted cooler until I got as sweet keggle on Craigslist, complete with ball valve, thermometer and false bottom. I thought the deal I got on that would save me money until I realized how expensive it can be just to get a 3-tier gravity system setup (especially if you're not particularly handy, like me). This thing looks great. Would love to put the keggle MT on the top burner and then gravity feed into a brew kettle on the jet burner. I can just use a shelf or wire rack to suspend the HLT.

Unfortunately, 13 inches doesn't seem like enough height for that. Unless I can find a nice short-but-wide brew kettle in the 10 gallon range. Then this system will be perfect.

Anyway, long story short, I just pulled the trigger. At $153.00 and super saver shipping, I couldn't pass it up. Now, it's off to brew kettle shopping.....

I recommend the Blichmann boil kettle. Worth every cent... albeit a couple more cents than other kettles!

Google Spike Kettles for a good HLT option.

Careful direct firing your mash tun! Don't scorch the mash!

~Adam

Those Blichmann kettles are a little saucy for me - and even the 10 gallon is over 16" high. If I can find a brewpot in the 13-14" height range, I think that I can gravity feed right from the top burner to the bottom.

The 40 qt cheapo pots from Adventures in Homebrewing are just over 13" and the Brewer's Edge series are 14".

Northern Brewer's 40 qt Megapot is 13" high and seems like a good compromise between the really cheap ones and the Polarware/Blinchmann's.

http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/review/product/list/id/5513/

The height of the Blichmann is optimized for boil off. Shorter pots are wider, more surface area exposed to the air, more evaporation.

There are other intangables about the Blichmann I like. I'm not a sales rep...just a user. Sight glass tube integrated, temp gauge, ball valve, and the lid hangs / rests on the handles so you don't have to set it down somewhere.

Cheers!

There's no doubt the Blickmann pots are superior in every way, and I recognize that a shorter, wider pot will lead to increased evaporation.

That said, I'm a bit of a frugal and I'm mostly lazy. The 13" megapot will let me gravity feed on the King Kooker (which should arrive Monday) from the top burner to the bottom, so I'm pretty much sold.

I'll be happy to post pictures of my proposed setup once I get it.

Please do! Who doesn't love pictures of homebrew setups!?

Looking at the King Kooker 94/90TKD myself and noticed that you can pick one up @ Cabela's (ship to store) for $160.

It's also available @ Sam's Club for $128.

They seem a little flimsy for a keggle set up. Might be ok for a 5gal boil....I think 10 would be pushing it.

Mine just arrived - I haven't opened the box yet, but on the outside it says that it's not suitable for turkey frying. Anyone know why? I thought maybe I could use it to try my hand at turkey frying next Thanksgiving, and I'm not sure why this would be different from any other burner. Maybe just because the burners are elevated.

I'll post my thoughts once it's setup - now I need to find a good deal on a propane tank.

I have used this for 2 10 gallon brews now, both started out with close to 14 gallons of wort. brought it to a boil (on the top, weaker burner) in around 30 minutes. it's a lot sturdier than it looks! my boils were in the bayou classic 15g ss pots that I see a lot of people use on here, so i think it's a lot smaller than a keggle would be. I've done about 10 brews total on it so far and it's holding up pretty well for a cheaper burner.

no idea why it wouldn't be good for a turkey fryer though...maybe because they didn't put the 15 min shutoff timer on it..? who knows..I hope it works out for you though!

I ordered one yesterday from Sams. I know it has been brought up about the height and gravity feeding the boiling pot but what if you just stuck your boil pot on the ground and gravity fed to it then just moved it to the jet burner should work fine correct?

orion7144 said:

I ordered one yesterday from Sams. I know it has been brought up about the height and gravity feeding the boiling pot but what if you just stuck your boil pot on the ground and gravity fed to it then just moved it to the jet burner should work fine correct?

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That should work fine - my only concern with that would be lifting the brewpot onto the burner with 6+ gallons of wort in it. It would be much easier to gravity feed right from one burner to the other. Otherwise, I feel like I wouldn't be taking advantage of the offset burner setup.

But it would certainly be easy enough to just lift it onto the burner, as the lower one is not far off the ground.

It looks like things are going to work out just fine. In the past month I have received and assembled the King Kooker, plus a 10 gallon Megapot with valve and brewmometer, and a keggle I've been holding onto for use a mash tun, with new ball valve. Behind it on the floor you can see the insulation I plan to wrap the keg in.

I specifically went with the megapot since it is short and wide - this leaves enough clearance to feed straight from the MLT to the kettle. I have an Electrim Bin for use as an HLT which I'll probably put on a shelf next to the whole thing.

I have not brewed on it yet, and I plan to do a full boil extract batch first as a test run - but what do you guys think?

Looks good, Effington. I just put together my King Kooker today. I'm interested to hear how it performed for you...especially the jet burner. Any scorching?

When I was in the planning stages of this, I was planning on using keggles on the stand for a gravity fed system and building a separate stand for the HLT, but as it turns out the 13" height difference on the stand is not ideal for keggles. Should have done more research. But...after seeing this, I may just do what you did and get a 10 gal brew pot for the boil kettle instead.

I have not brewed on it yet due to some nasty cold weather in the northeast, but I may brew on it this weekend thanks to some unseasonably warm temps this week.

That's my brewstand!

I love it! Use it the same as you, but I have a pump and use a SS kettle rather then a keggle for my MT. I also just recirc with my pump and direct fire (keep the flame almost as low as it can go to prevent scorching) if I lose temp or miss my mash in temp, but I can hold temp in my kettle with a bunch of towels wrapped around it (mostly over the lid portion) for 90 minutes. I direct fire and recirc/vorlauf while I heat the sparge water, and I batch sparge and switch the BK with the HLT when I'm done moving the sparge water.

Pros: It works as I just described
Cons: Would like more heat control on the MLT without as much fear of scorching and faster heating. Jet burner (on mine) came with no flame distributor (the little piece of steel plate over the top of the jet flame that spreads it out) The top burner doesn't fit my ss kettle well, so it must tilt in one direction or the other. I alleviate this by using a BBQ grill grate over the top of it and my MLT will sit level. Your keggle may not have this problem. It doesn't have a 3rd burner (but I can deal with that..it's one quick lift of my BK to the jet burner from a plastic step stool right next to it). You can also get around that with a floor burner, though without replumbing you'll need a second propane tank.

LOL..enough thoughts for ya?

Edit: regarding scorching the wort, if I don't feel like stirring, I just recirc it through my pump. No scorching. Very little scorching in the MLT as well, though that's been a bit more challenging.

Enough? I can't get enough thoughts on it!

I'd really like to add a pump at some point, but what drew me to the King Kooker was its potential for an easy, gravity fed system. My HLT is a plastic bucket with a heating element built in. Strange, I know, but in testing it seems to keep water a steady temp, as long as I'm not trying to heat it from near freezing.

That said... I still haven't used any of this good stuff yet. Like I said in an earlier post, I'd like to do one batch of full boil extract before giving AG a go.

Do you have pictures of your rig, with pump?

Effington said:

Enough? I can't get enough thoughts on it!

I'd really like to add a pump at some point, but what drew me to the King Kooker was its potential for an easy, gravity fed system. My HLT is a plastic bucket with a heating element built in. Strange, I know, but in testing it seems to keep water a steady temp, as long as I'm not trying to heat it from near freezing.

That said... I still haven't used any of this good stuff yet. Like I said in an earlier post, I'd like to do one batch of full boil extract before giving AG a go.

Do you have pictures of your rig, with pump?

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Just so happens I do. I have upgraded to a direct fire SS mashtun since this pic. The pump is mounted to a 1"x5" which I clamp to the stand.

raney said:

no idea why it wouldn't be good for a turkey fryer though...maybe because they didn't put the 15 min shutoff timer on it..? who knows..I hope it works out for you though!

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There is some federal law that turkey fryers need to have an auto-shutoff timer so that is most likely the case

Any updates on this? I'm considering the same King Kooker.

I've already got a Blickman burner, so I'm trying to figure out how to use it in conjunction with (or replacement of) the built in burners.

My plan is to stick with a cooler instead of direct fire, similar to the picture above.

Any lessons learned you can share?

TravisF said:

Any updates on this? I'm considering the same King Kooker.

I've already got a Blickman burner, so I'm trying to figure out how to use it in conjunction with (or replacement of) the built in burners.

My plan is to stick with a cooler instead of direct fire, similar to the picture above.

Any lessons learned you can share?

Click to expand...

If you already have a blichman burner I would stay away from this. I wish I would have spent the money I did on this originally on a blichman burner. Since you are looking at this you have a couple options since you already have the burner. You could get another for about the same price as this and just add the leg extensions and you have a two tier system or just build something to hold your cooler. I was lucky enough to be able to get the top tier (replaced the king kooker) and could not be happier. The amount of gas I am saving is nice as well as the shortened brew day. I think the jet burners are over rated. They are loud and waste a ton of gas.

orion7144 said:

If you already have a blichman burner I would stay away from this. I wish I would have spent the money I did on this originally on a blichman burner. Since you are looking at this you have a couple options since you already have the burner. You could get another for about the same price as this and just add the leg extensions and you have a two tier system or just build something to hold your cooler. I was lucky enough to be able to get the top tier (replaced the king kooker) and could not be happier. The amount of gas I am saving is nice as well as the shortened brew day. I think the jet burners are over rated. They are loud and waste a ton of gas.

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I'm in agreement with this. For the budget minded, the King Kooker is not a bad choice. But orion is right - the jet burner is loud and guzzles propane. Blichmann is the way to go.

That said, I've done a few full boils on the jet burner with great success. It certainly works and will fit my needs.

I have one of these ...did some mod's, installed reinforcement bars (for 10 Gal batches) and mounting brackets. I'm pretty happy with it right now. Still have some items to add, but its ready to go like this.

The burner is bad ass. For a buck 50. Talk about steal. I'm confident it could handle a 25gallon brew pot. For under a 1000 bucks, I'm super happy with the system. Those are 16 gallon bayou classic kettles. A 20 pound propane take last 2 brews. No problem get 16 gallons rolling in 25 minutes on the bottom buner, 35 on the top if not less. For the price it is a steal.

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^ It does handle a 25G brewpot. I use one when doing double batches.