B3 Sculpture: Gas question

[CharlosCarlies]

Hey guys,

We decided on a B3 20g Tippy system for our pilot but ran into a bit of a snag w/ the gas system.

My current residence has LP propane. The brewery is going to have natural gas, but our building won't be ready for another 3-6 months and we'd obviously like to brew sooner. I called MoreBeer and apparently the natural gas and LP propane systems use the jet style burners. Is this going to make swapping between LP/NG a royal PITA?

Also, the rep told me only their HP system comes w/ Banjo style burners (which I would prefer anyways). Wouldn't this style burner be enough to boil 15-20g even on NG?

Thanks in advance!

 

[CharlosCarlies]

Just talked to one of their reps again. Apparently they won't even ship out a low pressure system w/ Hurricane/Banjo burners even if I request it.

?!?!?

 

[brewguyver]

Just talked to one of their reps again. Apparently they won't even ship out a low pressure system w/ Hurricane/Banjo burners even if I request it.

?!?!?

As far as I know, banjo burners are built for high pressure propane. I don't think they'll work with low pressure - banjo burners have so many holes you wouldn't get a good flame. Have you seen anything different?

 

[CharlosCarlies]

They definitely work w/ low pressure if you drill out the orifice, but I still haven't really gotten confirmation that it would put out enough heat to boil 15-20+ gallons. The fact that MoreBeer won't even sell their 20g sculpture w/ one is a bad sign though huh?

 

[phoenixs4r]

I always get my burner terminology mixed up. Is this what they refer to as a banjo burner?

http://www.williamsbrewing.com/HURRICANE-LOW-PRESSURE-BURNER-NO-STAND-P2677C87.aspx

If so I know for a fact it can boil 15 gallons on natural gas.

 

[CharlosCarlies]

Yes sir.

How long would you say it takes to get to boil from first runnings?

 

[phoenixs4r]

Yes sir.

How long would you say it takes to get to boil from first runnings?

I never actually timed it to be honest. My preboils are generally around 13 gallons for my batches so I'll time it for you tomorrow. I generally heat 15 gallons of mash infusion water up to about 160 and I want to say it takes about a half hour to 45 minutes. I brew tomorrow so I'll actually keep tabs on it and reply back.

 

[phoenixs4r]

Just talked to one of their reps again. Apparently they won't even ship out a low pressure system w/ Hurricane/Banjo burners even if I request it.

?!?!?

Do they ship ANYTHING with a banjo burner? I looked on their website and they don't seem to stock them, could account for why they wont add it.

 

[phoenixs4r]

40 minutes to get from 60* to 165 for mash in. Keggle with the burner I linked above with natural gas. The hurricane support staff is pretty awesome as well. The original burner sent to me made a whistling noise that bothered me a bit. Even though I bought it from Williams they sent another burner to me free of charge to see if it worked better, and since it didn't whistle, they told me to just trash the other one. Good folks

 

[CharlosCarlies]

Good to hear. Thanks for the info!

I'll prob just go w/ the standard B3 jet burners and swap them out for hurricanes/banjos when we make the switch to NG.

 

[sr20steve]

Yes sir.

How long would you say it takes to get to boil from first runnings?

I have those burners on my B3 replica, they really kick ass. You have to dial in the air vents but as soon as you get that figured out its great. You could always use a needle valve in place of a ball valve to throttle flow better for HP propane (thats the way Im going to be doing it without a orifice). I have been getting a boil going on 12-13 gallons of mash out temp wort (170) in about 20-30 minutes tops.

I even use a smaller banjo on the mash tun, works great with the same HP propane regulator that the big ones use.

 

[krazydave]

Just talked to one of their reps again. Apparently they won't even ship out a low pressure system w/ Hurricane/Banjo burners even if I request it.

?!?!?

Maybe it's a liability or consistency thing? With propane they have the regulators and everything set up how they want them. With NG, they'd be trying to predict what your pressure is and "hope" that you'd have sufficient flow.

I have the Blichmann burners, which are the same as the BG14 Banjo burners. I run those on NG and they work great. Propane is slightly faster, but they're still no slouch by any means!