Outdoor Brewing

[Cappy1041]

I bought one of them there turkey fryers to brew with outside. Before I brewed with it I thought I'd boil some corn in it for a big get together just to get used to using it. Well... It sucked 3 hours to boil the corn, adjusted the dern thing about a hundred times trying to get the flame right. No joy.

I haven't brewed in over a year, and I'm anxious to get back into it. So this year I'm going to brew over a fire pit. My plan is to do a test run here in April. I'm building the fire pit now so I'm building it with two rings. A larger general burning ring, and a smaller brewing ring. The brewing ring will have a metal grate over it to hold the kettle. I should be able to control temps some what by moving coals in and out of the Brewing pit.

If everything goes well in April I will give it another go in May, then do it monthly on nice summer nights and have the crew over to drink the a previous batch while we brew the next. Hopefully this will make for a nice get together as well as introduce some of the gang to brewing as something more than just drinking my homebrew lol.

I did some fishing here on the site and found only one thread. Anyone have any tips or input for me?

 

[Suthrncomfrt1884]

I think you're going to have a harder time regulating temps than you think. Plus, it's more work than it's worth. I'd also be concerned about ashes from the fire getting into my beer whenever I take the lid off (you need to boil without a lid anyways).

Are you using the turkey fryer to heat your mash or something? It's very annoying trying to keep a temp perfect on a turkey fryer if you ask me. If you're just using it to boil and heat water, then they're great. Sounds like you just need a windscreen.

 

[bruin_ale]

Never had that problem with my turkey fryer. It brought stuff to a boil pretty quickly (not as quickly as the 5500W e-kettle I have now, but not all that far off).

Plenty of people using turkey fryers without issue, 3 hours to boil corn makes me think you had somethin funny going on. I'd fix that before giving up on propane altogether.

That said, it would be pretty cool to make beer on a giant fire pit - but it'd make me a bit nervous, I could easily cut the propane to stop a boilover with my turkey fryer, messing with coals when you've got foam about to crest the top of the pot doesn't sound like much fun to me.

 

[RM-MN]

Set your propane tank in a container of warm/hot water and try it again. My turkey fryer took water from 40 degrees to boiling in one hour when the temperature outside was in the teens. I think your propane tank is getting too cold and not putting out enough pressure for your burner.

 

[Salmonhouse]

I think there is something up with the opd valves on the propane tanks too. They have a float valve or something in them. I mentioned that the gas would sometimes come out as if the thing was nearly empty but he suggested shutting it off turning it upside down and trying again.

 

[Cappy1041]

okay I'll test the fryer again. I can always run that next to the fire. Although at a safe distance for sure. I think I may still try this, They have arms for fire places, perhaps I can mount that to a pole and use that to swing it off the pit in case boil over. LOL if worse comes to worse I'll film it for a laugh on youtube.

 

[malkore]

I've heard you can get a 'smoked' character in the wort due to the wood fuel source.

more subdued than using smoked malt though.

 

[BWN]

I would think this is the way they did it before they had propane.

 

[Ralelen]

This summer Im going to do a porter on the fire pit in the back yard. Im not really concerned about the ashes as that they should drop out during fermentation. Should be interesting.

 

[buffalobrewer]

mine sometime has a real low flame. What seems to work is to connect the tank, open the valve on the tank, close the valve, reopen the valve on tank, open valve on burner, and light. It seems like the opd valve on the tank partially closes when the tank quickly pressurizes the hose, and resets when the valve is closed.

 

[McMalty]

I'm interested, how was the corn?

 

[starrfish]

I've figured out I need a wind break of some sort with my bayou square... i'm trying a part of a disposable turkey pan set just inside the burner frame... some one posted about a stove pipe reducer that fit well.... will be looking for that if this works

 

[Gator1]

Good plan, you will need a wind break. If that don't do the trick there is something wrong with the burner. Take it back and ask for a new one. I can bring 7.5 gal to boil in about 30 min and that's not on the high setting