The power of 210,000 BTUs

Yakima 728
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It gets 10 gallons to mash temps in about 30-40 minutes for me from 50 degree water.
 
Turn that burner upside down, crank that 30 psi hose up and you'll be going to the moon with that bad boy!
Bigger is better.
 
I really like how nice the flame is at the low setting. My burners don't do so well when you turn them way down. They want to flame out, even if when you close off the air intake as much as possible. I may have to upgrade before too long.
 
Lil' Sparky said:
I really like how nice the flame is at the low setting. My burners don't do so well when you turn them way down. They want to flame out, even if when you close off the air intake as much as possible. I may have to upgrade before too long.
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Yeah, I know about that. What pushed me over the edge was I used my system and 2 others to fry 10 turkeys last weekend. Mine had a tough time keeping the oil at 300 degrees while going full blast.

I think the only thing I'll miss about it is the free time I had while waiting for my wort to boil. I could always get the MLT dumped out for the deer and clean it up and put it out to dry, etc.

We'll see how much propane it uses. I have backup tanks. :D
 
I have one and the fuel consumption is not bad, but the flame is. If you're not careful you can over heat your pot handles if you have them.
 
EdWort said:
...10 turkeys last weekend.

I think the only thing I'll miss about it is the free time I had while waiting for my wort to boil. I could always get the MLT dumped out for the deer and clean it up and put it out to dry, etc.
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ED! Is this a new beer your working on?! Maybe something experimental from Germany, ala Apfelwein?!!

LMAO on the first read thru!:ban:
 
I'm running 2 of those burners, 1 on the HLT and 1 on the boil kettle each with it's own 20lb tank and I am getting 3 brews per tank. Now I am thinking about getting a large tank and having the truck come by and fill it.
 
Brewiz said:
I'm running 2 of those burners, 1 on the HLT and 1 on the boil kettle each with it's own 20lb tank and I am getting 3 brews per tank. Now I am thinking about getting a large tank and having the truck come by and fill it.
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Yeah. Something like this should last for a couple brew sessions. :D

propane_big_hor.gif
 
uuurang said:
ED! Is this a new beer your working on?! Maybe something experimental from Germany, ala Apfelwein?!!
LMAO on the first read thru!:ban:
Click to expand...

Here's what I do with my spent grains. Hot rocks in front of the house.

MoreSpentGrains.jpg
 
Our city offers natural gas. After a little research, I think I'm going to investigate that. I have two of these banjo cookers but I would like to also convert our hot water heater and clothes dryer.

From www.usepropane.com

Electricity - $29.45 cost per million Btu
Propane $20.33 cost per million Btu
No.2 Heating Oil $14.77 cost per million Btu
Natural Gas $5.65 cost per million Btu

If this holds, Natural Gas seems to provide significant savings...
 
I bought one of these and it is still in the box. Doing two brews in the next couple days and I plan to get some use out of it!
My next house will have natural gas for the grill - bye, bye propane!
 
Yuri_Rage said:
Nice work, Ed! Looks like pictures aren't going to cut it for DIY entries anymore...YouTube is slowly taking over!
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Yeah, that's what I figure. I found my tripod and put my new 6 MP Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX3 digital camera on it ($199 on sale at Costco).

It makes great MOV movies. You need a quicktime viewer for it, but Youtube takes the files just fine. This little video was about 60 MB in size.

I got about 5 minutes last night of Larry the Cable Guy (at the Irwin Center in Austin) before I got busted, still it's about 360 MB of some funny ****.

I need to get at least a 2 MB card for it as the movies it makes are pretty good in quality.
 
John Beere said:
Anyone have any idea what it costs to get one of these setup?
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You can rent the tank or buy one. Buying a 500 gallon tank will cost about $1,100, but you can then use whatever propane supplyer you wish.

Leasing one will cost about $100 a year unless you use alot a propane and most will not charge you if you are going through it.

I'm going to buy a 500 gallon tank so I can hook up a whole house generator to it. These puppies excercise themselves once a week and can switch you off the grid and fire up when they sense a power failure.

Nothing like cold beer and A/C when the power is out and the rest of the neighborhood is sweating.
 
EdWort said:
Here's what I do with my spent grains. Hot rocks in front of the house.

MoreSpentGrains.jpg
Click to expand...

Wow! Am I ever red-faced:confused: :mad:
Sorry. I mis-read your original post. I thought it was a typo. Instead of deer, I thought it was supposed to be beer.:drunk: DOH! that still don't make sense either! I'll try harder next time.
 
EdWort said:
Yeah, that's what I figure. I found my tripod and put my new 6 MP Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX3 digital camera on it ($199 on sale at Costco).
Click to expand...
Sweet! I got SWMBO the DMC-FX07 for Christmas. I think it's got a 1GB card in it at the moment. Maybe I'll do some movies sometime.
 
Just bought that burner on Amazon. I guess I'm crossing over to the Dark side of Brewing outside! Also got a 4mm 10 gal Al pot off ebay. I'm gonna strain via a homemade hopstopper and siphon. Other than the propane, anything else I need?
 
I'm running 2 of those burners, 1 on the HLT and 1 on the boil kettle each with it's own 20lb tank and I am getting 3 brews per tank. Now I am thinking about getting a large tank and having the truck come by and fill it.
Click to expand...

Does anyone other than me find this incredibly energy wasteful ? These high output propane burners are nice because they are fast, but I think they are incredibly inefficient.

BTW: I have a banjo burner ! I have mixed feelings about it.

It gets 10 gallons to mash temps in about 30-40 minutes for me from 50 degree water.
Click to expand...

10 gallons x 8.33 lbs/gallon x (170-50) = 10,000 btus. If you are running the burner at 100,000 btus for 40 minutes, that 66,000 btus. Efficiency is only 15% !

Propane and natural gas might be cheaper on a per btu basis, but electric heating is nearly 100% efficient. The speed factor of these big burners is nice, but with something like mash water, one could easily plan ahead and have it heated electrically.

I was debating this weekend whether I would heat the water on my new brewstand electrically or with propane/natgas. I hate the thought of having a bunch of 220V power running around my brewstand, but the efficiency and propane cost per brew is causing me to reconsider.

In the above example, 10,000 BTUs is less than 3KWHr with electric heating. At 7cents per KWHr, the cost is 21 cents to heat that water. Propane is $10 per 20 pound tank. 66,000 BTU is about 3 pounds, so it costs $1.50 to heat the water.
 
brewman ! said:
Does anyone other than me find this incredibly energy wasteful ? These high output propane burners are nice because they are fast, but I think they are incredibly inefficient.
Click to expand...

Fast is a measure of efficiency.
220v brewstand isn't very portable.
Blue flames are purty.
 
brewman ! said:
At 7cents per KWHr, the cost is 21 cents to heat that water. Propane is $10 per 20 pound tank.
Click to expand...

Wow brewman ! Wish I had those kinda prices! Down here I'm paying 12 cents per KWHr.....and thats with a really cheap company that has NO customer service...they just automaticly bill my credit card thats the only way they work!

And to refill a propane tank is like $25....a new one is $45!
 
I don't want to switch this up here but is part of the inefficiency due to the heat transfer of the pot? I think what I'm asking is, would there be a big difference if there was a skirt on the pot and the burner was encased to contain the heat? I know my fryer heats the ground quite a bit and there is a lot of heat coming up beside my keggle.

Any thoughts? Would it be safe?

I forget who but someone on here had a burner like this in an old stainless pot to prevent wind and such.


brewman ! said:
Does anyone other than me find this incredibly energy wasteful ? These high output propane burners are nice because they are fast, but I think they are incredibly inefficient.

BTW: I have a banjo burner ! I have mixed feelings about it.



10 gallons x 8.33 lbs/gallon x (170-50) = 10,000 btus. If you are running the burner at 100,000 btus for 40 minutes, that 66,000 btus. Efficiency is only 15% !

Propane and natural gas might be cheaper on a per btu basis, but electric heating is nearly 100% efficient. The speed factor of these big burners is nice, but with something like mash water, one could easily plan ahead and have it heated electrically.

I was debating this weekend whether I would heat the water on my new brewstand electrically or with propane/natgas. I hate the thought of having a bunch of 220V power running around my brewstand, but the efficiency and propane cost per brew is causing me to reconsider.

In the above example, 10,000 BTUs is less than 3KWHr with electric heating. At 7cents per KWHr, the cost is 21 cents to heat that water. Propane is $10 per 20 pound tank. 66,000 BTU is about 3 pounds, so it costs $1.50 to heat the water.
Click to expand...
 
I don't want to switch this up here but is part of the inefficiency due to the heat transfer of the pot?
Click to expand...

Yes, its all the inefficiency of the heat transfer to the pot. On the other hand, natural gas hot water heaters are very efficient. Lots of surface area to conduct the heat.

The burning of the gas is good as long as the flame is blue. An orange flame means not enough air.

I think what I'm asking is, would there be a big difference if there was a skirt on the pot and the burner was encased to contain the heat? I know my fryer heats the ground quite a bit and there is a lot of heat coming up beside my keggle.
Click to expand...

A skirt underneath and around the bottom and around the sides of the pot will all help. And I know that pots used for moutaineering can have heat exchanger ruffles on them. All this would help. But how much does one want to do to save a few dollars of propane ?

I wonder how one of these heaters would work ?
http://www2.northerntool.com/product-1/200332705.htm

28,000 BTU doesn't sound like much, but its still 8.20 KW ! If the bottom of the pot was totally black, one of these might be a really efficient heater. Plus you could insulate the outside of the pot to keep it warm. If the 28K BTU radiant heater was 50% efficient, it would warm the water faster than the flame would.
 
olllllo said:
Fast is a measure of efficiency.
220v brewstand isn't very portable.
Blue flames are purty.
Click to expand...

Amen Brotha! A buck fiddy for fast! I'm all about that! :fro:
 
Don't ever boil the pot over or the flame goes out. And I find the draft adjustment at the intake to be sensitive. I've had the flame snap back and burn at the needle valve several times.

I think there are much better burners out there, specifically these:
http://morebeer.com/product.html?product_id=17249

I'm going to test one of these and if its good, I'll be selling my banjo burner.
 
It is 50F and windy today but I want to save some time. I'm going for it!

For me, my time is worth way more than a few bucks saved in energy efficiency. Oh, and global warming is as real as y2k was... :D

Oh damn, why didn't I see that one from bb&mb earlier...?
 
brewman ! said:
10 gallons x 8.33 lbs/gallon x (170-50) = 10,000 btus. If you are running the burner at 100,000 btus for 40 minutes, that 66,000 btus. Efficiency is only 15% !



I'm not sure I'm following your logic on this. What's the 170-50?
Since 1 BTU is equal to 252 calories.
1 BTU will raise 252 grams of water 1 degree centigrade OR 1 gram of water 252 degrees.

That rate is linear until the boiling point of the water (wort) is reached. Then it takes 2.13 BTU (539.6 calories) to get that 1 gram of water to boil (heat of vaporization for water).
This assumes that the heat transfer is 100% and there is no heat lost to the enclosure (pot) or surrounding atmosphere.

Water is 8.3 lbs. per gallon
and 1 lbs. is 453 grams.
Therefore 5 gallons of water is 37,600 grams.

Assuming perfect heat transfer from the burner to the water -
it will take a minimum of 80,770 BTU to get the 5 gallons of water from 100 degrees Centigrade to boiling.
Click to expand...
 
I'm not sure I'm following your logic on this. What's the 170-50?
Click to expand...
He said:
It gets 10 gallons to mash temps in about 30-40 minutes for me from 50 degree water.
Click to expand...
So I assumed that mash temp was 170F, as in the water used for sparging the mash.

it will take a minimum of 80,770 BTU to get the 5 gallons of water from 100 degrees Centigrade to boiling.
Click to expand...
That is only true if you boiled away 100% of your water. The heat of vaporization assumes you are converting all the water to vapor. What really happens when you "boil" the wort is you boil about a gallon of it and the rest just gets heated to 100C.

.
 
brewman ! said:
Don't ever boil the pot over or the flame goes out. And I find the draft adjustment at the intake to be sensitive. I've had the flame snap back and burn at the needle valve several times.

I think there are much better burners out there, specifically these:
http://morebeer.com/product.html?product_id=17249

I'm going to test one of these and if its good, I'll be selling my banjo burner.
Click to expand...


My question is how do you hook it up? Are there premade stands to install this thing in or do you fabricate it?


Dan
 

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