Blichmann 55 gallon boilermaker

I have my eyes set on a blichmann 55 gallon boilermaker. I am throwing out a question to those of you who have them. What are you guys using for burners, and what kind of gas (I use propane) consumption are you seeing? My burner is 60,000 btu, what can I expect to see in terms time to reach a boil, and how long are you guys waiting to reach a boil

I've brewed on my buddy's before - he has the 55 gallon boilermaker and the blichmann floor burner, burning NG - not sure how that compares to your burner setup.

Anyway, we had a lot of trouble getting it to boil. I think the bottom half of the kettle was boiling, but not the top half - every few minutes, we'd get some bubbling up top, But as soon as that cleared, nothing for another few minutes.

I suspect if we insulated up the kettle walls with a couple wraps of reflectix, we might have better results - but we haven't brewed on the big kettles since that first time.

Never brought my 55 Gal to boil as its currently used for my HLT, but I have no doubt my 23 tip jet burner could bring 30 gal to boil easily.

Sounds like a job for electric elements.

openthewell said:

Never brought my 55 Gal to boil as its currently used for my HLT, but I have no doubt my 23 tip jet burner could bring 30 gal to boil easily.

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is this the burner you use? if it is how kind of life do you see from a propane tank
Natural Gas Jet Burners, 23 Jet Natural Gas Jet Burner 619NG

stratslinger said:

I've brewed on my buddy's before - he has the 55 gallon boilermaker and the blichmann floor burner, burning NG - not sure how that compares to your burner setup.

Anyway, we had a lot of trouble getting it to boil. I think the bottom half of the kettle was boiling, but not the top half - every few minutes, we'd get some bubbling up top, But as soon as that cleared, nothing for another few minutes.

I suspect if we insulated up the kettle walls with a couple wraps of reflectix, we might have better results - but we haven't brewed on the big kettles since that first time.

Click to expand...

The blichman burner is rated at a higher BTU than mine by about 20,000 BTU if I remember correctly, so thats a bit disheartening. Looks like a burner upgrade is in the furture.

wildwest450 said:

Sounds like a job for electric elements.

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I would love to go that route, but from what I understand most people are using 2 5500w elements to get a reasonable boil, which isn't this side of possible right now

I know this is an older post but I have the 55 and at 1st I used a 60k btu burner that was purchased at Sportsman warehouse. This burner I was using for a few years with my 10 gallon kettle. It was tough with the 55 so needed to improve. I found a Thunder Group 32 jet LP burner that would fit my the burner stand. It is the Thunder Group model IRBR003L. I found it at Instawares. After the retrofit I found that this burner is overkill. Probably getting the same burner that has only 23 jet would do the job fine.
BTW - The Blichmann 55 kettle wall thickness is less than my 10 gallon kettle. I think this helps to get it up to temperature faster. I am real please with the kettle too.

Has anyone else has trouble getting the 55gal pot to boil when heating with a natural gas floor model TopTier burner?

stratslinger said:

I've brewed on my buddy's before - he has the 55 gallon boilermaker and the blichmann floor burner, burning NG - not sure how that compares to your burner setup.

Anyway, we had a lot of trouble getting it to boil. I think the bottom half of the kettle was boiling, but not the top half - every few minutes, we'd get some bubbling up top, But as soon as that cleared, nothing for another few minutes.

I suspect if we insulated up the kettle walls with a couple wraps of reflectix, we might have better results - but we haven't brewed on the big kettles since that first time.

Click to expand...