Brewing With Propane and Burner

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WSURaider41

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Depending on tank size of course, but for a typical tank of propane, how many batches can you usually make before you have to refill your tank?
 
All you guys saying between 4 and 6 batches made me go back and count brews. I have brewed fourteen 5 gal batches this year with my propane burner. I have used one and half 20# tanks. I have done 60 min and 90 min boils. I wonder why I'm getting twice as many brews out of my tank than everyone else????
 
I'm getting about 6-7 brews out of my tank and that includes heating mash and sparge water and boiling.
 
All you guys saying between 4 and 6 batches made me go back and count brews. I have brewed fourteen 5 gal batches this year with my propane burner. I have used one and half 20# tanks. I have done 60 min and 90 min boils. I wonder why I'm getting twice as many brews out of my tank than everyone else????


Grain uses more water than extract. Which one are you?

Elevation how high are you? Im at +250'

burner PSI
 
I do all grain. I'm not high, I quit doing drugs years ago :D I'm in Dallas, no clue what the elevation is. And I don't know the btu's. It's a fish/turkey fryer from Bass Pro Shops.
 
I do all grain. I'm not high, I quit doing drugs years ago :D I'm in Dallas, no clue what the elevation is. And I don't know the btu's. It's a fish/turkey fryer from Bass Pro Shops.

Thats pretty crazy you can do double than I can... not sure why. I'm using a bayou burner. Perhaps its just less efficient than yours? I do heat up strike & sparge water with it as well, do you too?
 
I use it to heat strike water but usually not sparge water. I just filled my extra tank 2 weeks ago. Haven't used it yet. I'm going to mark the date on it when I do and see exactly how many I get out of one tank. But I know for sure that I have 2 tanks and have used one completey and about 1/2 of the other. And I know that I've brewed 14 beers with that set-up.
 
I'm going to have to pay attention, and do some planning and organizing...

I've got 4 tanks that I use for my BBQ, smoker, and burner, and I tend to switch them around a lot. I guess I could dedicate one for beer only and see how many uses I get. My guess is that I get 4-5 10-gallon batches out of it including heating strike and sparge.
 
All you guys saying between 4 and 6 batches made me go back and count brews. I have brewed fourteen 5 gal batches this year with my propane burner. I have used one and half 20# tanks. I have done 60 min and 90 min boils. I wonder why I'm getting twice as many brews out of my tank than everyone else????

I definitely get 10+, then again, I only do the boil on the burner, I heat sparge/strike water on the stove.


(SQ14)
 
I get around 10 beers, all strike and sparge water heated, with a 20# tank. I did build a heat shield and am not an advocate of boiling your wort to the point of jumping out of the pot. BTW, the heat shield more than doubled the number of beers i could brew on a tank of gas.
 
I get around 10 beers, all strike and sparge water heated, with a 20# tank. I did build a heat shield and am not an advocate of boiling your wort to the point of jumping out of the pot. BTW, the heat shield more than doubled the number of beers i could brew on a tank of gas.

What did you make your heat shield out of? Got any pics? Just curious what it looks like... I'd like to make something simple myself. I could see that helping a lot, latly I've been setting up garbage cans and stuff to block the wind, but I'd imagine a nice ring around the entire burner would be more helpful.
 
I get around 10 beers, all strike and sparge water heated, with a 20# tank. I did build a heat shield and am not an advocate of boiling your wort to the point of jumping out of the pot. BTW, the heat shield more than doubled the number of beers i could brew on a tank of gas.

Yeah, I'd like to see that heat shield too. I've got one. A crappy factory heat shield designed with the litigation prone BMC drinkin' zombies in mind.
 
I'll do my best to describe the heat shield. I don't have any pics and will be away from the computer for a few days.

For reference here is my turkey fryer stand - http://www.masterbuilt.com/prod-propanefryers.html.

On each leg of the stand I drilled a hole and bolted on a piece of all thread to serve as a rest for the heat shield. The bottom of the heat shield sits just above the burner where it protrudes from the stand. I then obtained some roof flashing and rivets from Lowes. Measure the circumference of your pot (in my case I use the AL pot that came with the fryer). Roll out the flashing and cut a few extra inches so that the pot will easily slide in the heat shield. I have my heat shield extending all the way to the bottom of the pot handles which required that I stack (for lack of a better term) two pieces of flashing together to achieve my desired height. You then rivet the flashing together to make a cylinder. *VERY IMPORTANT - make sure that you cut the flashing long enough to account for the space required to rivet the pieces together or your shield will be too small to fit the kettle.

I then just rest the heat shield on the all-thread supports I attached to the fryer legs.

The pot handles will get very hot because all of the heat is going up the sides of the kettle and not blowing out the bottom. Be sure to use good oven mits when handling the kettle.

I hope this helps and if you've any more question feel free to ask. Though it may be a couple of days until I respond.

This whole project cost $8 and probably paid for itself in about 2 batches of beer. When I'm boiling the burner is down so low you can barely hear it running. This has greatly decreased my time to heat sparge and strike water as well. Not to mention saving a ton of money on propane.
 
The pot handles will get very hot because all of the heat is going up the sides of the kettle and not blowing out the bottom. Be sure to use good oven mits when handling the kettle.

This has greatly decreased my time to heat sparge and strike water as well. Not to mention saving a ton of money on propane.

So, if I'm seeing this right, it's a tall narrow chimney extending below the burner up around the sides of the pot? Hmmmm....

I'm wondering if a half height version would be beneficial without super heating the handles? Might just have to try that. Thanks.
 
So, if I'm seeing this right, it's a tall narrow chimney extending below the burner up around the sides of the pot? Hmmmm....

I'm wondering if a half height version would be beneficial without super heating the handles? Might just have to try that. Thanks.

That's a great discription, a chimney made of flashing. Only extending the chimney half way has to be better than nothing. I would guess the handles will still be hot (and you'll still need oven mits) because nearly all the heat from the burner is going up, instead of up and out the sides on bottom.
 
That's a great discription, a chimney made of flashing.

Good deal. We're making a supply run today for some brewing hardware, and I'll look around and see what I can find that would work. I can't see buying an entire roll of flashing to make this one piece but we'll see. Thanks for the idea. I'm going to try to do two AGs next weekend and any time saver is a good thing. And using less gas would just be a bonus. If I find something suitable, I'll post pictures as soon as I get it done. Again, thanks.
 
Flashing is cheap. I think I paid $8 for a roll. You will recoup your costs very quickly.

Good luck and let us know if it works for you.
 
Flashing is cheap. I think I paid $8 for a roll.

Well, maybe in your part of the country. Down here, extreme SW Florida, that stuff is imported and you have to pay the import fees. Found a 10 foot roll for $13. Think I'll keep looking. And, maybe scrounge around the side of the road. I could use the aluminum siding the last hurricane stripped from a mobile home.
 
It depends on how much propane is in the tank you start with. The tanks at a local gas station or store... the ones in the cages where you swap your empty for a "full" tank" typically contain 15# propane, . I take my tank to a propane refill place and pay for how much they actually put into the tank. If I feel that I don't have enough to start with I can take a partial tank and have it topped off... so I have never really figured out how much I use for a 5 gallon batch. My estimate is 4 batches....I need to build a heat shield and see if I get better efficiency.
 
Well, maybe in your part of the country. Down here, extreme SW Florida, that stuff is imported and you have to pay the import fees. Found a 10 foot roll for $13. Think I'll keep looking. And, maybe scrounge around the side of the road. I could use the aluminum siding the last hurricane stripped from a mobile home.

Trust me, it will be a well spent $13. I'm tight on money as well and can assure you will save a lot of gas if you build a heat shield and do not use more gas than needed to keep a rolling boil.

It depends on how much propane is in the tank you start with. The tanks at a local gas station or store... the ones in the cages where you swap your empty for a "full" tank" typically contain 15# propane, . I take my tank to a propane refill place and pay for how much they actually put into the tank. If I feel that I don't have enough to start with I can take a partial tank and have it topped off... so I have never really figured out how much I use for a 5 gallon batch. My estimate is 4 batches....I need to build a heat shield and see if I get better efficiency.

FWIW, all my tank fills are NOT exchanges. I get a full 20# each fill and am brewing ~10 batches per tank.
 
Trust me, it will be a well spent $13. I'm tight on money as well and can assure you will save a lot of gas if you build a heat shield and do not use more gas than needed to keep a rolling boil.

I'm sure it will be but it's on hold for this weekend. Just spent a bunch on ingredients, copper tubing, and fittings etc.

But, this raises a question for me. I plan two all grain BIAB sessions this weekend. I wonder what the heat shield will do to the paint strainer bag hanging over the edge of the pot?

I'm thinking, bring strike water to temp, insert bag, only use burner to maintain temp shouldn't expose bag to extreme heat for long, remove bag, crank burner for boil.

Maybe the heat shield will help retain some heat during the mash? Maybe remove heat shield for temperature maintenance burn? Replace at flame off? Anyone?
 
I only get about 3-4 batches out of mine, but Im also doing 10 gallon batches, but full boil so its really 11.75 gallons so i end with 10 gallons. I think it depends on 3 things, one if you are doing any specialty grains which make the boil longer, the original size of the batch, and three how fast you go from your specialty grain temp to boil. The faster you raise the temp the more gas you use.
 
I'm sure it will be but it's on hold for this weekend. Just spent a bunch on ingredients, copper tubing, and fittings etc.

But, this raises a question for me. I plan two all grain BIAB sessions this weekend. I wonder what the heat shield will do to the paint strainer bag hanging over the edge of the pot?

I'm thinking, bring strike water to temp, insert bag, only use burner to maintain temp shouldn't expose bag to extreme heat for long, remove bag, crank burner for boil.

Maybe the heat shield will help retain some heat during the mash? Maybe remove heat shield for temperature maintenance burn? Replace at flame off? Anyone?

Assuming you are using nylon bags for BIAB, I would probably not use the heat shield for fear of melting the bag. Maybe just use the shield to heat strike water and for the boil? I guess you won't know 'till you try. Good luck and let us know how it works for you.
 
Trust me, it will be a well spent $13. I'm tight on money as well and can assure you will save a lot of gas if you build a heat shield and do not use more gas than needed to keep a rolling boil.

The man is correct. I went from 4 batches a tank (including strike and sparge) to more like 7, possible 8 (don't really pay that much attention).

My chimney only extends up two inches above the bottom of my pot. My logic is that retains most of the heat while keeping the handles cooler. I don't have a picture but mine was from an old metal desk (18 ga steel?) that was left behind when I moved in. I cut a rectangle out, wrapped it around the stand, clamped it temporarily, and pop riveted it together. Voila! Double the amount of brewing on a tank...

Mine has been going strong for two years now. Kinda rusty looking now bout otherwise good. One of the best and cheapest mods for your turkey burner for sure.
 
I'm guessing those that build heat shields don't have thermometers on their kettles? I don't want to overheat mine, and was thinking about using a half circle heat shield instead. I figure keeping the wind from stripping heat is almost as good as trapping all the heat against the kettle.
 
Assuming you are using nylon bags for BIAB, I would probably not use the heat shield for fear of melting the bag. Maybe just use the shield to heat strike water and for the boil? I guess you won't know 'till you try. Good luck and let us know how it works for you.

Will do. But, could be a bit till I get it going. I was thinking of a heat shield that just sits on top of my flat burner. I could take it off during the mash if I needed to crank the burner.

My chimney only extends up two inches above the bottom of my pot. My logic is that retains most of the heat while keeping the handles cooler. I don't have a picture but mine was from an old metal desk (18 ga steel?) that was left behind when I moved in. I cut a rectangle out, wrapped it around the stand, clamped it temporarily, and pop riveted it together. Voila! Double the amount of brewing on a tank...

This is pretty much exactly what I was thinking of doing. But, I might make mine a bit taller. I have a tall narrow kettle. I'm going to keep my eyes open for something I can "re-purpose" for this before I just buy the flashing. And with a rivet gun, I can piece two smaller pieces together. Hmmm, I've got a couple old "road" signs that were left at this house when I moved in....

BTW, the flashing I've seen is galvanized. Isn't there a problem with heating galvanized metal? Gives off deadly toxic fumes?
 
I'm guessing those that build heat shields don't have thermometers on their kettles? I don't want to overheat mine, and was thinking about using a half circle heat shield instead. I figure keeping the wind from stripping heat is almost as good as trapping all the heat against the kettle.

Or, you could go with a full circle heat shield for the pot, and a half circle heat shield protecting your thermometer. Small piece of metal, a pair of snips, and a couple more rivets FTW.
 
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