Please help pick a compatible burner/regulator

[HopHog87]

Hey guys, I need your advice as to which burner to install on my current brew sculpture project.

I will be using keggles (I finally decided to bite the bullet and convert some new kegs) and they will be sitting on a 1 1/2" square tube steel frame. I am going with a single tier three vessle setup but only heating under the HLT and BK.

I am so confused, reading through the multitudinal threads on burners/orifices/regulators/manifolds. I don't even really know what all is required for a burner to be HP vs LP. I jus want to make sure that my burner can boil up to 12 gallons (not that I plan on doing 10 gallon batches for now) and that the regulator I purchase is compatible. But I want a simple, cost effective solution.

Coul you guys please tell me exactly which cost-effective burner will work with exactly which regulator and if I need a special adapter to connect the two through a manifold (I plan on running the hose from reg into black pipe manifold through a couple tees up to the burner). Thanks in advance.

 

[cubalz]

Subscribed.

 

[MindenMan]

There are many ways to answer your question, but tell me a few things: how far away from the bottom of the keggle will your burner be mounted? Are you brewing in a windproof area? Are you brewing outside on the patio, or, are you brewing inside a well vented garage? How fast do want your wort to come to a boil, and, do you have an unlimited free supply of propane? Actually, I'm not kidding. These are some of the things you need to think about. A 6" banjo style burner with an adjustable 20 psi regulator would provide more than enough heat to hold a rolling boil in a 10 gallon keggle. Some would say that size of a burner is too small, it takes too long to heat the wort, and I would ask, compared to which burner and regulator combination? The 10" banjo burner, some might recommend, is the ticket for bringing 10 gallons to a boil, sure, okay, it will boil quite fast, you are right. What about when I am going for my optimum boil off rate, and I still have more heat than I want, but if I turn the burner down anymore than it is, it will go out. A burner that won't hold a low boil is really not a burner, it becomes a POS I wish I would not have purchased. A 6" banjo with a 20 psi adjustable regulator, and not the kind with the fixed pressure regulator and a needle valve in line in front of the burner. Here is a thread you might want to read: http://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/burners-bayou-classic-sp-10-vs-sq-14.87366/. I have an SP10 "cup style" burner with an adjustable 5 psi regulator, and I can get 8 gallons of wort boiling quickly enough for me to be happy. A 60 minute boil, including heat the strike water and the sparge water, uses 3.5 pounds of propane. 5 batches per tank, $3.00 worth of propane.

 

[HopHog87]

Thanks for the reply. I plan on using no wind deflectors and probably position maybe 3 inches under keggle (I need to do more research on this). Mainly brewing in garage with door fully open and occasionally out in driveway during summer. I am leaning toward the bg10 jet burners with a high pressure orifice and an adjustable high pressure regulator. This reg would run through a manifold then two on/off ball valves to the orifice. Does that sound right?

The biggest question now is...what sort of contraption is required to run line from a (say) 3/8" ball valve and then into the orifice? I don't know what sort of threads go into the burner and what sort hook into the supply line. Thanks.

 

[MindenMan]

Generally speaking the bg10 (sp10) burners will heat 5 gallons of water from 67°F to boiling in 17 minutes. Since the burners are not cast in one piece, you may need to fiddle with the center piece to get the optimum flame. Mine was sooty when I first lit it, I then adjusted the center, and got clean even flame all around. In order to hook the black pipe up to your burners, there are adapter fittings at the hardware store.