Measurable or clickable gas valve

[imperialipa]

In the process of building our 2 barrel set up. I would LOVE to be able to have a repeatable flow of NG goto the boil kettle so that my boil off rates are consistent.

I'm thinking there must be some sort of NG valve that clicks open or is numbered so that when the kettle gets to boil I can set it at say number 5 or set it at 5 clicks down from maximum so that each time I am applying the same amount of BTU's each time I brew a repeatable batch.

Any HVAC guys out there ever heard of anything or have a suggestion besides just eying the flame height?

 

[porcupine73]

Hm ... it almost sounds like you are looking for a valve that will restrict NG flow. But the issue is that typically the burners require a roughly constant NG flow to operate correctly. So I think the only real answer is to have it cycle on and off. Although to a degree you can adjust the manifold pressure to adjust heat output. But burners don't necessarily have a good turndown ratio. Though how that would explain let's say a grill with a knob where you can turn down the flow I don't know ... hm ... h m . . . .

 

[Gartywood]

I don't have trouble running my burner with a blue flame between very low and very high. There are multistage furnace gas valves that you might be able to utilize if you are using house pressure NG. It might not work well with your setup and it will probably cost a lot to find out if it doesn't work. I think that probably a needle valve and counting turns on the handle is probably the best way. You could also clock your gas meter with nothing else running to ensure that you have the same flow.

 

[porcupine73]

It almost seems like a modulating valve would be ideal, like it turns on full blast initially to get it up to temp, then perhaps by PID control tapers the valve off as it reaches the setpoint?

 

[imperialipa]

Sounds like counting a bleeder vale in turns might be the way to go. I just would like a means to have a measurable consistent BTU output when brewing the same batch over and over again to lock down consistency in boil off rate and predicting final gravity.