Up high enough on a banjo burner, with a good flame, high enough that flames are coming out the sides, and it takes an hour to heat 8 gals to 170? Something's definately not right. Maybe it's just that the flame is up too high and too much heat is leaving around the sides?
I mean you've got a banjo burner, the Bad A$$ mofo king of homebrew burners. I've just got these cheap $8 burners and a 10 psi regulator. I'll be doing a 10 gal batch today, 8.5 gal sparge, and I'll time how long it takes. No way it'll take 30 mins and I won't have the burner all the way up.
Any other preachers of the banjo wanna speak up and help tarheels out here?