MattHollingsworth
Well-Known Member
So, the building of the brewery continues and the BTU question comes up now. I'm still searching but thus far the highest amount of BTUs I can find in a burner is around 42675 BTUs. They're listed as KW here and it's at 12.5. And even then, I may have to drive to Slovenija to get it. As I said, still searching.
I read this page here:
How many BTUs does my burner need? - Beer, Wine, Homebrew, and Everything Fermentable! - fermentarium.com
And according to their math, if I had 50% efficiency with a starting volume of 7.5 gallons and a 6 gallon finish (just rounding off numbers basically), the math would go like this:
7.5 x 1178.6 = 8839.5.
1.5 gallons of evaporation would add 12,000 to it.
So:
12,000 + 8839.5 = 20839.5
50% efficiency doubles it, so I end up with 41679 total needed IF I'm at 50% efficiency (this is to achieve a boil in one hour). With a winter brew session, efficiency would be lower. But this math also assumes that I am going to go from 70 to 212 for the boil. My mash out will be 167 or something. So, it'd be, what, going from 150 to 212 at worst? BUT, I just don't have experience with weaker burners. The one I had in the States was pretty strong though I cannot recall what it was rated at.
So, the question is, are there people here with burners in the 42k BTU range? And how do they perform? I can guess people will say I should get a stronger burner, but it might be very expensive to do that. As it is, this 12.5 KW one will be 130 euros or something which is a ripoff. I don't think the propane fittings are the same here as in the US. Maybe the same as in the rest of Europe. But even then, the mail order ones I see that are in the range of 25 KW (ie, 85350 BTUs) are like 400 Euros. At least the ones I saw thus far.
Still searching, but wondering if people have hands on experience with burners around the range I'm looking at. I don't do ten gallon batches. Usually finish around 6.
Also, if anyone has any leads on mail order for this kind of stuff in Europe that's not such a ripoff, or also I can drive to Austria, Italy, Slovenija or Hungary. Just don't know where to look.
Thanks for any insight.
I read this page here:
How many BTUs does my burner need? - Beer, Wine, Homebrew, and Everything Fermentable! - fermentarium.com
And according to their math, if I had 50% efficiency with a starting volume of 7.5 gallons and a 6 gallon finish (just rounding off numbers basically), the math would go like this:
7.5 x 1178.6 = 8839.5.
1.5 gallons of evaporation would add 12,000 to it.
So:
12,000 + 8839.5 = 20839.5
50% efficiency doubles it, so I end up with 41679 total needed IF I'm at 50% efficiency (this is to achieve a boil in one hour). With a winter brew session, efficiency would be lower. But this math also assumes that I am going to go from 70 to 212 for the boil. My mash out will be 167 or something. So, it'd be, what, going from 150 to 212 at worst? BUT, I just don't have experience with weaker burners. The one I had in the States was pretty strong though I cannot recall what it was rated at.
So, the question is, are there people here with burners in the 42k BTU range? And how do they perform? I can guess people will say I should get a stronger burner, but it might be very expensive to do that. As it is, this 12.5 KW one will be 130 euros or something which is a ripoff. I don't think the propane fittings are the same here as in the US. Maybe the same as in the rest of Europe. But even then, the mail order ones I see that are in the range of 25 KW (ie, 85350 BTUs) are like 400 Euros. At least the ones I saw thus far.
Still searching, but wondering if people have hands on experience with burners around the range I'm looking at. I don't do ten gallon batches. Usually finish around 6.
Also, if anyone has any leads on mail order for this kind of stuff in Europe that's not such a ripoff, or also I can drive to Austria, Italy, Slovenija or Hungary. Just don't know where to look.
Thanks for any insight.