In need of a burner

My head is spinning from all this discussion on burners here. I figured I would defer to some of your expertise. I am an extract brewer with hopes of going all grain at some point in the future. I am planning on getting a Blichmann or a B3 kettle in the very near future so that I can do 10-15 gallon batches. I am in need of an outdoor burner. I would like to go natural gas, but I just don't think that it's possible at this time. I'm not brewing at my house and my buddy is not that into modding his house. My question.

Will someone please just tell me what to buy given my aspirations and current setup. It will make my life a whole lot easier.

Many thanks

I have a 15gallon kettle on a Bayou Classic SQ14 burner. Ample room to hold that large diameter pot on the burner. No problem heating water/wort. Look at setups and what's available in your area.

I just ordered a second Banjo burner from Austin Homebrew Supply. It was $99.99 with $7.99 shipping, I believe. The Banjo sure does the trick for me.

Don't mean to hijack your thread eric1489 but this seams like the perfect time to ask a question thats been on my mind. Could you not just use some BBQ side burners ? with a little work and some freebie BBQ's you could have your self a couple of free burners or would they not be able to heat the water enough ?

I picked up a banjo cooker after Christmas. I love the thing. It will crank out the BTUs and it is very quiet.

Anderz said:

Don't mean to hijack your thread eric1489 but this seams like the perfect time to ask a question thats been on my mind. Could you not just use some BBQ side burners ? with a little work and some freebie BBQ's you could have your self a couple of free burners or would they not be able to heat the water enough ?

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IMO I don't think that most of them are strong enough.

BBQ side burners have no where near the power needed for brewing. The typical propane turkey fryer burners are not expensive and they work well. This is not the place where you want to try to save money. Most are very competitively priced and you can occasionally snag them on sale at stores or at gargage sales.

I got a Bayou SP10 for about $55 shipped on Amazon (from Amazon, free super save shipping) and it's awesome.

Find the cheapest turkey fryer you can find. It'll have plenty of BTUs. If you shop around, you'll find them for ~ $30.

I too am looking for a burner. What BTU would be good for a keggle?

homebeerbrewer said:

I too am looking for a burner. What BTU would be good for a keggle?

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Like I said in my previous post - any turkey fryer setup will do. For a keggle, you'll want a square frame, though, so the keg will sit on it right. Round frames don't work well with kegs because they have to sit on the skirt. Make that your primary requirement. If you're not using a keg, buy the cheapest one you can find.

Look for one like one of these:

I should mention, these types of jet burners usually aren't recommended. They put out plenty of BTUs, but they waste a lot of propane compared to the other burners.

I started with a decent turkey fryer but this sucked up the propane, was noisey, and wasn't of any value for anything larger than 5 gal... and it was marginal at that on the 5 gal.

Check out the Huricane Burner. It's a banjo clone and usually can be found for much less.

I modified my for NG (conversion available) and it cooks. Boiling wort in a 15 gal SS pot will drive off about 2gal/hr at 2/3 throttle. I did have to incorporate a grate to accommodate the larger pot similar to what was said regarding the use of a keg.

If I were starting over I'd do this again.... very pleased. This is the one piece of equipment I don't think I'll ever need to replace.

Eric,
I presume that you are cooking on a stove top. If you do a search on my screen name, you will find several threads about which burner to buy. I was looking for a burner(s) to mount on a single tier rig. Everyone on here has a different opinion. I don't think you'll get a true consensus. I finally bought 2 Banjo Burner-BG14s. I have a small write up on a thread about my learnings. Having said all that, I used a turkey fryer for years. It was loud and used a moderate amount of propane. It worked fine for 5 gal. I never tried any more than that. I think the main thing I would be worried about on one "out of the box" is the stand strength. If you do 10 gal., thats ~100lbs. There are several threads on here about what people did to modify or improve their stand. Some people have modified their stands to the point where I think you could get one custom fabbed for the same price. At the end of the day, no matter what you buy, you'll probably want to upgrade at some point. IIWY(If I Were You), I'd buy one of the Banjos or Hurricanes in a stand that I could cannibalize to put in my next "system". Let us know what you decide. Luck - Dwain

Lil' Sparky said:

Look for one like one of these:

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These are the two burners that I have owned. The Bayou Classic (sq-14) was cheap and it did the job. The banjo burner is a little over twice as much and it is a bad mamma jamma. You get what you pay for. That sucker will get 15 gallons to a boil in no time. I have used and would recomend either of these for 10-15 gallon boils. It just depends how much you want to spend.

Lil' Sparky said:

Like I said in my previous post - any turkey fryer setup will do. For a keggle, you'll want a square frame, though, so the keg will sit on it right. Round frames don't work well with kegs because they have to sit on the skirt. Make that your primary requirement. If you're not using a keg, buy the cheapest one you can find.

Look for one like one of these:

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I own and recommend both of those. I actually prefer the patio stove (the one on the right); it's a LOT easier to control the flame, it's a little bigger (better fit for a keggle), it's not quite as thirsty, it's got PLENTY of power, and it's cheaper (about $40). The Banjo's got some cajones, but it's hard to get it to burn cleanly and it feels like it's sucking right through the propane.

EDIT: One thing I dislike about the Banjo is that the regulator is fixed, then you control the flame with the little valve right behind it. It doesn't work as well as being able to control the regulator directly.

I just posted a thread about this, but might as well mention it here. I just went to Joe's where they're going out of business and they had a bunch of burners like this there and they're liquidating everything. Might be worth checking out if you're in the Northwest and you have one around you.

Bird, how much more propane would you estimate the banjo uses over the sq-14? does the power/speed of the boil justify the propane use?

Hard for me to say. At least for 5-gallon boils, I don't think there's really very much difference in how long it takes to bring the wort to boil (and it's a lot easier to maintain a gentle boil with the sq-14). They're both great burners, and I should say that what I have *not* done with the banjo is modify the air intake plate; I know Chillhayze was having better luck getting a clean flame with his Banjo by increasing the air inflow, that might make the flame cleaner and more efficient.

My SQ-14 rocks at full blast, yet can be dialed down to a very low and controlled flame. I would like to test drive the banjo sometime. It seems to be just a larger diameter ring type burner which should provide better heat distribution. I would have to run side by side tests in order to make a valid comparison.

Side by side comparison would be great, I need to upgrade and don't know what I should do. I can get the SQ-14 for $50 locally or pay $100 online for the banjo. Obviously I wouldn't enjoy burning through propane, but if it heats up water faster and decreases the time spent waiting to get up to temp/boil I would be happy. Plus i'm never satisfied, if I buy the SQ-14 I'll probably be kicking myself even if it worked great, just because...

I honestly don't think the banjo is any faster. You can always do what I did - buy one, then buy the other!

Here's another thing; if you ever want to play with decoctions, the Banjo's not nearly controllable enough. That's why I bought the SQ-14, the Banjo was a big ol' FAIL with decoctions. Too little control.

I just love my.... bugle burners? you know the cheap cast iron ones you can get for $10. No I didn't get a stand with it, but when I started brewing the old metal milk crate worked great to hold the keg. Toss a cheap $2 needle valve inline after the regulator and I have full control from 0-170,000 BTUs. My rig has changed three times but I'm still using those cheap burners and needle valves.

the_bird said:

I honestly don't think the banjo is any faster. You can always do what I did - buy one, then buy the other!

Here's another thing; if you ever want to play with decoctions, the Banjo's not nearly controllable enough. That's why I bought the SQ-14, the Banjo was a big ol' FAIL with decoctions. Too little control.

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I agree completely with the above. There is only so much heat that can be transferred through the kettle bottom and it has a lot to do with the surface area of the kettle bottom. Bigger burners might provide a slight edge, but it won't likely be much of a difference. You can't go wrong with the SQ-14 IMO. Think versatility and the decision is a slam dunk. Don't bother worrying about BTU ratings either. Most are highly exaggerated and there's nothing to back up mfg's btu claims. An honest 60 k is better than an imaginary 100k IMO.

The banjo might be a poor choice for a direct fired RIMS due to the poor low level flame control from what the bird describes. I use a Camp Chef low pressure 30 k ring burner for this and it works perfectly for this. It's also good for cooking when camping. I have three burners total. The Camp Chef low pressure, the SQ-14 w/adjustable regulator and another Cajun Cooker with a diffuser type buner and an adjustable regulator. I mostly only use the SQ-14 and the Camp Chef.

beerthirty said:

I just love my.... bugle burners? you know the cheap cast iron ones you can get for $10. No I didn't get a stand with it, but when I started brewing the old metal milk crate worked great to hold the keg. Toss a cheap $2 needle valve inline after the regulator and I have full control from 0-170,000 BTUs. My rig has changed three times but I'm still using those cheap burners and needle valves.

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You mean like these?



I've got 3 of those on my stand and they work great. Those are the ones that come on most cheap turkey fryers, which is what I recommended, unless you've got a keggle, in which case a square stand becomes important. You can also apply more propane pressure to those than the low pressure ring burner, like the one below. The ring burners want to blow themselves out with much propane.

That would be the one. Cheap, controllable and pretty much idiot proof. The only mod I made to mine was to drill out and tap the center hole for 1/4-20 vs the 10-32? it came with. I did this only because mine bounce down the road alot and I didn't think 10-32 would support the weight while bouncing. They are rock solid now.
Cat, manufactures claims aside, this burner sitting next to any other brewers that I have brewed with will heat strike or sparge water up faster. I'm usually finished doughing in while they watch their thermometer rise. Also the different BTU claims for the same burner come from the different size jets the burners can be equipped with. I have seen this burner rated from 55k to 170k. Its all about how much gas you are willing to use.