Burners

[drdyancey]

How big/expensive a burner do you really need?
Edelmetall says their 72k BTU burner will do 30 gallons, so would a simple turkey fryer with 50K BTU be enough for 10-12 gallon batches as I grow.


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[Cyclman]

If budget is a concern, start with a discounted turkey fryer from a big box store. It'll do fine.

You'll save gas and heat faster and with more control with a top end burner, better heat dispersion, but starting it's hardly necessary.

 

[TopherM]

The BTU specifications of most burners are borderline useless.

There are 200,000 BTU burners that are wildly inefficient where you are basically wasting a ton of propane and heating the air more than your kettle, then there are 50,000 BTU burners that are very efficient where the vast majority of those BTUs are actually used to heat your wort.

The actual Banjo burner orifice is the industry standard for homebrewers. It's the burner orifice that's in most of the great burners out there, including the Blichmann Burner and the Edelmetall. It's about as efficient as it gets. You can get the same performance from the $65.00 and up Bayou Classic burners that have the Banjo orifice as you do from the $150-200 burners with the same orifice.

Stick with one of those guys, and you'll be golden.