SQ14 arrives tomorrow, any tips/tricks

My Bayou Classic SQ14 arrives tomorrow and I will be doing all-grain outdoors for the first time. This is my first adventure into propane aside from a gas grill.

The manual online looks pretty straightforward for connections.

I plan on brewing in the garage (door open) to avoid any blowing leaves etc, that I might get in the driveway.

Any tips or suggestions for this weekend? I am going to do 5 gal batch full boil, how long for the wort to come to a boil on this burner??

thanks
Joe

 

Spend a few minutes dialing in the venturi at various flame heights. You want a blue flame at all settings but it should never blow so hard as to blow out.

Do a test run and bring a pot of water to a boil. This will burn off the paint on the stand. The burning paint is kinda nasty and may leave some residue on your pot. So plan on scrubbing the bottom of the pot following the test boil.

 

+1 to this, it took me a little bit to dial mine in. The only other thing I can think of is that once you get to a boil, you can tone down the flame to maintain it and not have to burn so much propane. I've never timed it but I figure it takes me about 20mins to get to a good hard boil, for 6 3/4 gallons.

 

+2 on adjusting the air gas mix disc so your flame burns efficiently. watch how high you turn it up the first time, it can pump enough gas to blow itself out.

Once you get the hang of it it's great! play with the adjustments while getting your mash water heated... If you get too high one or two jets will go out. I 've found the spot where I can have running with all jets firing & marked it.

 

you might consider adding a heat/wind shield. There are a couple of posts that describe them. i put one on mine and it helped with large batches.

I built mine out of a 6 Inch to 8 inch stove pipe connector. the 6 inch side fits right around the burner and it was just tall enough to fit between the support bar under the burner and the bottom of the spider used for the grill top. It really helps on windy days.

 

brewed in the wind 2 weeks ago may be building a wind shield of some sort wind was a PIMA.

got a pic of yours cooner? sounds like a simple quick solution.

thanks

 

I'll try to get one uploaded. I'm browsing at work right now.

 

As stated above, the first burn will be horrible with toxic fumes from the scorched paint. As also stated above, do the burn with your water-filled kettle on the burner. I did my initial burn without a pot, burned off the paint, and figured I was good to go. Surprise surprise, when I did my first boil (with the pot on the burner) the reflected heat caused much more paint to burn off, to my disgust. Moral I learned: do your test burn with a pot (with some water in it) in place. Have fun! It's a kickass move into the outdoors. SWMBO will love you for it. No more in-your-face brew sessions...

 

Hi Guys,

Here's my version of wind screen for the SQ-14

 

I like it! that's 6 inch to 8 inch stove pipe you say?

 

Got it at Home Depot for about 7 bucks.

 

Agreed. Just got my SQ14 today, I'll have to make a parts run tomorrow.

 

I've had mine for ~2+ years and have kept looking for the appropriate piece - I've seen threads in the past, but haven't been able to find them again. Look like this is a winner!