keggle enclosure

[declanhalpin]

hi all, and Happy New Year!

I use a keggle and a "low-profile" banjo burner for 10-gallon AG batches. I feel like I'm really not getting very good use out of the propane I'm burning, so I am going to try an experiment. I was hoping people might chime in with advice/warnings:

The idea is simple: Put the burner in the bottom of a 55-gallon drum which has 2" holes cut into the sides @ the bottom (for air intake). Then place the keggle on top of that, and have a 16" hole cut in the drum lid so the keggle pokes out the top. Wrap the outside with insulation and fire it up.

Kinda like a blacksmith forge. What do you folks think?

d

 

[yjfun]

Seems like a lot of work. I just set my burner 3" below my keggle and built a 5" high by 8" diameter heat shield around the burner that is 1" below the keggle. This greatly increased my heating capability and now the burner barely runs to maintain a pretty vigorous boil. At full throttle I can boil
off 3+ gallons an hour.

 

[turnaround89]

heat shield around the burner

I agree, build a heat shield