Hey Blichmann burner users...

Bout how long dies it take you guys to get about 7.5/8 gallons water to strike temp? Doing an initial run-through tonight before my first brew tomorrow. Using a keggle. Damn, the valve is untouchable it's so hot. How do y'all deal with this also?

As a reference point, my well water runs in the mid-fifties year 'round. Beyond that, I try not to waste gas by heating the air around my HLT, plus I really don't want to warp the bottoms of my Boilermakers anyway, so I try to heat at what might appear to be a leisurely pace. All that taken into account, bringing ~8 gallons to strike temp typically takes around 40 minutes.

My Boilermakers came with a sheet of stainless steel that I stick one long edge between the edge of the kettles and the pot rests, protecting both the ball valve/male camlock fitting and the sight gauge from heat. This has worked very well indeed, such that the vinyl cover over the ball valve lever is still pristine after a couple of years of brewing...

hth

Cheers!

I run natural gas conversion on mine but its about enough time to get about 9 gallons at 60 degrees to:

drag out the tun and get it preheating
clean those last fibbles of grist off the braid
fill the carboy with sanitizer
weigh and mix in the gypsum
weigh out and mill the grain bill (low tech hand drill powered mill)

Like Day Trippr, I usually don't crank it up. In fact, half of the time I blow past my strike temp and have to let the mash in water drop down a little.

Roughly about 30-40 minutes, but in no way is the Blichmann the limiting resource.