Is a 7,500 BTU propane burner good enough to boil 3 gallons of water?

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I started off by trying to boil water on my glass top stove. Last batch I did I was able to boil on the stove although barely. This time was a no-go. After a good 1 to 1 1/2 hours I decided to go buy a portable propane burner. I bought a 7,500 BTU propane camp burner. A good hour of heat and still no boil. Frustrated and in a bad mood I got a little better when my wife found pint sized packages of blueberries for $1. I had her pick up 20 packages (these will be used later for a blueberry stout). Still though, I have 3 gallons of water that I'm not going to let go to waste.

I grab a bunch of firewood and my grill. I proceed to build a fire and boil my wort on top of that. It's a rolling boil for sure, but I have no control over it. A turkey fryer isn't that expensive, so I'm going to invest in one sometime before my next brew day.

BTW, I finally got my boil a good 3 hours after I intended to...
 
idk i am kinda new to home brewing but i use a turky fryer, and it takes 20-40 min to bring 3 gal to boil
 
Go to amazon and pick up a bayou classic burner. The sp10 will eat propane if you leave it on full throttle but holy **** can it heat fast. Think as in boiling almost 8 gallons while sitting there watching the pot fast.
 
hey i never thought of using my grill to boil. i gess you have to do what you hahave to do. yea the turky fry i have was i think $60 and it came the the big pot. i dont no the size its just big. lol
 
While Chilling my wort I ran into yet another problem. I cooled the wort to around 110 degrees before adding it to my bucket with 2 gallons of frozen filtered water. Bad move. The wort was sitting at around 48 degrees and I had huge chunks of ice floating in it. I washed my hands thoroughly and removed the ice. I had to thaw it in the microwave and add it back into the wort once it was thawed.

Note to self: Don't cool the wort AT ALL before adding it to two gallons of ice.
 
Typical turkey fryers run anywhere from 25k btu up to over 300k for high end burners. So, the 7500 btu burner you mention is much less. Having said that, I often boil on my electric stovetop. While electric burners aren't measured in btus, the rough equivilent for my burner is about 4500 btu. While it doesn't produce a violent rolling boil, it does the trick in about an hour. Not ideal, but I'm surprised your 7500 didn't do the trick.
Roughly, it takes 1 btu/lb to raise water 1 F. Water weighs 8.3 lb/gal. In order to bring 3 gallons of water from room temp to boiling would be 3 x 8.3 x (212 - 70) = 3535 btu's. So if you assume 100% heat transfer, a 7500 btu burner should bring 3 gallons to boil in roughly 25 minutes. If you assume 50% efficiency of transfer, it should take just under an hour to bring to boil.

It would seem your burner isn't as efficient as advertised or you boil pot bleeds heat. Is it aluminum by chance?

A standard turkey fryer burner should do a world of good for you!
 
cimirie said:
Typical turkey fryers run anywhere from 25k btu up to over 300k for high end burners. So, the 7500 btu burner you mention is much less. Having said that, I often boil on my electric stovetop. While electric burners aren't measured in btus, the rough equivilent for my burner is about 4500 btu. While it doesn't produce a violent rolling boil, it does the trick in about an hour. Not ideal, but I'm surprised your 7500 didn't do the trick.
Roughly, it takes 1 btu/lb to raise water 1 F. Water weighs 8.3 lb/gal. In order to bring 3 gallons of water from room temp to boiling would be 3 x 8.3 x (212 - 70) = 3535 btu's. So if you assume 100% heat transfer, a 7500 btu burner should bring 3 gallons to boil in roughly 25 minutes. If you assume 50% efficiency of transfer, it should take just under an hour to bring to boil.

It would seem your burner isn't as efficient as advertised or you boil pot bleeds heat. Is it aluminum by chance?

A standard turkey fryer burner should do a world of good for you!
Click to expand...

My pot is stainless steel. I'm returning the burner tomorrow if possible. If not it will end up on craigslist. Just ordered one of these. Link
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I ran into that same issue with my last batch I did a week and a half ago. I just moved and the stove that was in the house when I bought it was a glass top electric. I couldn't get a rolling boil on 3 gallons, just a mild boil. Probably didn't get full hop utilization, but only time will tell. I was going to buy a turkey fryer but decided that since I can't stand to cook on electric anyway, I would just replace the stove. My new gas range arrives tomorrow morning. It has a 17,500 BTU power burner so it should do the trick.
 
johnsc12002 said:
I ran into that same issue with my last batch I did a week and a half ago. I just moved and the stove that was in the house when I bought it was a glass top electric. I couldn't get a rolling boil on 3 gallons, just a mild boil. Probably didn't get full hop utilization, but only time will tell. I was going to buy a turkey fryer but decided that since I can't stand to cook on electric anyway, I would just replace the stove. My new gas range arrives tomorrow morning. It has a 17,500 BTU power burner so it should do the trick.
Click to expand...

Sounds nice. That should easily do the trick.
 

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