Minimum burner BTU - 10 gallon batches in 15.5 gallon keggle

I'm going to be moving to boiling in a keggle soon and have only done 3 gallon boils on the stove. Naturally this necessitates using a propane burner outside and I'm wondering, as I shop for said burner, what is the minimum BTU rating I should look for?

TIA

 

http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs...Id=10053&productId=100121665&N=10000003+90401

I have this one. I think it's 40,000 or 50,000 BTU. You could get away with less but this one's $50 and works great.

 

I can't answer the 'minimum' question, but here is the one I use. I've only used it for one batch so far, but it takes about an hour to go from tap temp to boiling. I have a 30qt turkey fryer that used to be my boil kettle, but now it is used for steeping grains while the keggle heats up the rest of my water. I was aiming for 13.5g pre-boil volume, but when I added 9# DME it went to ~14.5g and I had one small boilover, but no problems after that. I'll reduce my volume by about a gallon next time to account for the DME. When I move to AG (soon), I'll probably just use the 30qt turkey fryer as my HLT and then the keggle will only have to heat from mash temp to boiling. Should work out great.

EDIT: devaspawn's much shorter reply beat me to it

 

That's the same one I have. You can decrease the to boil time by increasing gas flow and air flow to get the most efficient flame (blue with maybe the slightest yellow at the tips).

 

Wasn't difficult keeping a nice boil going, I was just afraid the Kansas wind was going to blow out the flame since I turned it down so low (it didn't).

Click image for larger version.

 

When I bought my first (and so far) only burner, I opted for a jet burner since I have a 12.5 gal brew kettle and go with full volume boils. I didn't want to get stuck with my only burner being too small.

Ace Hardware Outlet sold me a 200K BTU burner (HVDT12) for $21 and the host/regulator (PRES3HOS) for $25 + $20 shipping.

This little guy works great! The only problems I have with it are 1) even a slight breeze carries off a lot of the heat and 2) it uses what I feel to be a lot of propane.

I think both of these problems will be resolved when I build my heat shroud for it.

 

I HIGHLY recommend the KAB5 banjo burner. The thing appears to be made for heating 15 gallon kegs.

I can't get the fire cool enough to not boilover my 9gallon pot.

 

If you build your own stand, this one is hard to beat. It may be ugly, but its a fast burner. http://www.agrisupply.com/product.asp?pn=30295&cn=5400001&bhcd2=1218669125

 

This is the burner I am thinking about ordering. My only question is will a single regulator off of a single propane tank, flowing through 1/2 black pipe, be enough to keep 3 of these 170K burners going full throttle? More than likely I would only run 2, but you never knwo!

I am talking about the burners posted by beerthirty above from www.agrisupply.com

 

I run 2 with no problem going from high pressure regulator to 1/2 black pipe manifold then through 1/4 copper tubing to each burner. Just got my third, haven't set it up yet but I foresee no problems.
Make sure your stand is very sturdy. I have bowed mine slightly from the full weight of 2 keggles on it under full throttle burners. The metal stand actually blued from the heat.

 

That is good enough for me, I just ordered them. Thanks

 

Bigger is better IMO, I use this

 

I've got the SQ14 too, and last brewday I had problems getting ~7 gallons boiling. Could have easily been the wind though.

 

i use a cast iron burner out of a commercial 100 gallon boiler that had practicly zero hours on it and was thrown out.

 

This one has 185k BTU and a wind gaurd for only 34.99 shipped. I couldnt find a better deal.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000291GBQ/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

 

I had 7.5 gallons in an 8 gallon pot at a vigorous boil (yeah I was using Fermcap-S... magical stuff) with the gas about 1/4 of the way open. This was in my enclosed patio.

I would rig up a wind shield of some sort. It will save you money in fuel costs, and time to get it up to a boil.

 

That is the one I have but with an upgraded 20 psi regulator. It brings 14.5 gallons of water to boil (from about 55 degrees) in an hour.

 

So if I just grab some metal trays, drill some holes on them and tie them to the burner stand with a coathanger, that'll work?

 

BTW - I am selling two of my burners for a lot less expensive than you would pay new. I can meet you in DC... I live in NOVA.

They are listed in the classified:

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f16/two-high-output-burners-143353/

I also have a keggle with all the trimmings if you are interested. Just no lid.

 

Yeah, that will work- you can also just use a sheet of metal flashing that comes up and covers partway up the pot, for even better efficiency. It will cause the heat to flow up the sides of the pot better instead of getting blown away. There are some threads around here somewhere with pics.

 

It takes less than 10,000 btu to maintain a boil with 10 gallons, the bigger issue is how fast you can get the liquid to a boil. The more Btus you have, the faster you can bring the wort to a boil.

Lot's of people boil with 3500W electric elements. That converts to about 12,000 Btu. Of course, the electrical elements are near 100% efficient. Propane burners lose significant heat to the surroundings.

If you want to get away with as little Btus as possible, I'd highly recommend insulating your kettle with some high temp insulation and building a permanent wind screen for the burner.

 

I have this one the KAB6


had do a little modification to get the flame closer but it will boil 15 gallons in under 50 minutes and its very quiet

On real low it will maintain a nice rolling boil



burner shot at medium flame



I really like this burner and when i go single tier I will get another burner sans frame and gut this one out