proper propane use with Bayou Classic SP10

As it stands right now I'm getting about 3 batches per propane tank, which judging from reading other posts is less than what I should be getting. I operate mine with the air vent fully open, aside from that I don't see what else I can do.

Should I not be operating it at full blast? What am I doing wrong?

1.the air vent should be adjusted so that the flame is as blue as possible
2. you should be just barely boiling your wort

I dont know if either of those will truely reduce fuel consumption but its what I go by

Hoodweisen said:

1.the air vent should be adjusted so that the flame is as blue as possible
2. you should be just barely boiling your wort

I dont know if either of those will truely reduce fuel consumption but its what I go by

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Really, just barely boiling? I thought you had to have a "rolling boil" to minimize DMS in your beer?

also its hard to see the flame, its practically invisible

I've gotten5 so far off my 15lb tank and the sp10. Just keep the boil moving. No need to make it jump all over the place.

badmajon said:

Really, just barely boiling? I thought you had to have a "rolling boil" to minimize DMS in your beer?

also its hard to see the flame, its practically invisible

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You'll start getting protien breakdown if you boil too hot. I keep a low boil, and even with high gravity beers with a lot of boiloff to get to my final volume, I get 10 - 12 five gallon batches out of a tank.

badmajon said:

Really, just barely boiling? I thought you had to have a "rolling boil" to minimize DMS in your beer?

also its hard to see the flame, its practically invisible

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I believe dms is reduced via length of boil time (IE 90 min compared to 60 min) that is what I read in the Cream of three crops ale thread which has alot of corn in it.

I use a sp10 also and to be honest maybe I'm doing something wrong as I boil 6.5 to 7 gallons to end up with 5-5.5 at the end and with my beginning volume I get a low boil even at full throtle. That being said I'm on my 6th batch and still have appx 1/2 a tank maybe a little under left. I also do 90 minute boils to reduce dms.

When I get my wort to a boil, I turn it almost all the way down and it still keeps it to a boil. I get about five batches per tank.

Aschecte said:

I use a sp10 also and to be honest maybe I'm doing something wrong as I boil 6.5 to 7 gallons to end up with 5-5.5 at the end and with my beginning volume I get a low boil even at full throtle. That being said I'm on my 6th batch and still have appx 1/2 a tank maybe a little under left. I also do 90 minute boils to reduce dms.

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If you are full throttling the burner to get just a boil it may be air fuel mix adjust the carb till the flame is blue as possible ive had this problem with cookers making beer and frying fish with equipment.

The guy who sold me my cooker sold it to me cheap cause he thought it was broke he had the outside of the cooker covered in black suet from cranking it wide open and only haveing a orange red flame

Flame gets hotter in this color order. orange red blue white

The air shutter needs to be adjusted closed until the tips of the flame just start to turn yellow, at this point the burner should be burning quietly and at maximum efficiency. The principal behind this setting is that the fuel is completely burnt and the fire stays under the pot longer to do work, and you use a lower flame setting to get the job done. While opening the air shutter wide open will make the flame all blue, most of the heat escapes from under the pot too fast to be useful, and you have to turn up the flame to get things to happen.

I have a SP-10 and i get more then 5 batches of partial mash out of a 15lb tank, what i will do when it comes time to boil is open the needle valve adjust the air shutter to get it close to blue, do that until it comes to a rolling boil. then once it is about to boil over i close the needle valve to the point of it almost being closed and play with the air shutter again. in one batch of beer i may have to adjust the needle valve slightly a couple times to maintain a good rolling boil.

well, thanks for the help... I'm just about to start heating strike water, I'll keep it all in mind and see what happens.

I brewed yesterday and I tried to adjust it according to two principles 1) quiet as possible and 2) avoid yellow streaking. I ended up running it with the vent as closed as possible and tried to keep it quiet with the gas on about 30-40% at the regulator. I ended up burning 3.5 pounds of propane. That means with the new adjustments, I will get around 4 batches per tank. Getting better. Before I was getting 3 if I was lucky.

I just hope my beer doesn't have any DMS issues, since the boil was definately on the low side of rolling.

If only I could find some way to see the flame.