Need burner advice

[djelemenohpee]

Hi all,
I'm about to start my first home brew and I'm lookin to buy a propane burner. In hopes of keeping costs low I found someone selling a Bayou Classic SQ-14 plus propane tank for $40. Is this good enough to do 5gallon batches? It says it does 50,000 btu is that enough to boil the 5gallons? Is this a good deal?

Thanks

 

[BigBlueDog]

That's a popular choice and should work fine.

 

[Fennis]

I've used the Bayou Classic SQ-14 for about 6 months now. I mostly brew in a bag, and will do full boils starting somewhere around 7 gallons. It does an excellent job at getting that amount of water to boil quickly. When you get used to the regulator and air flow mechanism, which is literally just a piece of metal you move left and right to change the gas/air mixture, once you get a rolling boil, you can turn the gas way back and get a nice blue flame going--and use very little propane.

The only downside I've noticed is that it does not provide good wind protection for the burner. I usually brew within a garage with the doors open, but sometimes when there is a wind blowing directly into the garage it can be a pain. I've figured out ways to block the wind, but if you happen to brew outdoors, its the only con I have about that burner.

 

[OneHoppyGuy]

That burner is more than adequate.

 

[djelemenohpee]

Great. Thank you for your input. I think I'll be emailing that guy back to pick it up. Can't beat $40 plus propane