Outside Brewing

[Paxsman]

I am moving from indoor stovetop to outdoor brewing. I am currently putting my equipment together to go from extract to all grain. My question is how many burners do most people use one two or more. I am looking at either buying a two burner combo or two separate burners. Or will one get the job done? My thought process is while I am boiling or heating up water it would be nice to have access to another burner to have two pot going for any of a number of reasons. What do you all think.
Thanks

 

[birvine]

Either way. You can use one burner to heat the HLT and the other for the BK. I used one for the BK and heated the HLT on the stove top.

B

 

[Airborneguy]

I bew outside (mostly) and only use one burner, heating my sparge water a few minutes before I start my run off.

 

[Clonefarmer]

I use one burner. There is a fair amount of lifting involved and I can only heat one pot at a time. I think having two would make the brew day easier.

 

[beerloaf]

You can get by with using one burner. I did it for a while. I just recetly built a 3 tier stand with 2 burners to make things easier and cut down on brew time. If you have the resources then I would go with 2 right off the bat. It will make things logistically simpler and faster when it comes to heating up and boiling wort right off the sparge. Basically will let you do 2 things at once vs having to stop and switch equipment around to get boiling. It becomes more of a personall preference for most people. Do whatever will be easier for you.

beerloaf

 

[SpottedDogBrewing]

If I knew what I knew now, it aint much
I would go with two separate burners or together with equal BTU output
One can heat up the water for mash/sparge and the other can boil.
I'd go big right of the bat....

 

[Paxsman]

Sounds like two is the way to go. I think I will do two singles that way if I just need one for something I will have it. Is 50 to 60 thousand btu burners good for 5-10 gallons?
Thanks

 

[poislb]

Get one quality burner (blichmann) and heat up your strike/sparge water on the stove...2 burners would be great, for a sibgle tier stand with pumps...If your still gravity feeding, one is all ya need..

 

[insubordinateK]

I do it all outside on one burner.

 

[Zamial]

I am going to say get 2 and here is why. You will want to heat your strike water (HLT) and your BK. The MLT is VERY optional. If you get the square bayou burner (or the cheapy knock off) you can take 4 pieces of pipe to stick on the legs to elevate it and it will hold a keggle with no problems. This is a great way to make a 3 teir gravity system for little investment and minimal work. There is a thread on it in the DIY section but my search foo is failing ATM.

BTW craigs list is a great place to source these if you can't locate a great deal.

 

[kh54s10]

I use one at the moment. What is a PITA is getting the mash and sparge water into the tun. I think that I will eventually get a new, bigger, boil kettle. Then add a valve to another for a HLT.
And another burner for the boil kettle.

Or, if I come across some money somewhere, ditch it all and go electric.

 

[birvine]

Or, if I come across some money somewhere, ditch it all and go electric.

Or go electric step-by-step. My HLT is now electric. As I type this I am giving it a test run to see how long it takes to bring water up to 155°F, 170° and 212°.

If you are even slightly handy (like me) you can slowly re-tool your setup to be electric.

B

 

[BigfootCounty]

I only use one burner it seems to work fine.

i heat my strike water, mash, start heating my sparge water 30 minutes before I plan on sparging and boil

the way my rig works I'm never heating more than one thing at a time.

 

[Toga]

I only use one burner it seems to work fine.

i heat my strike water, mash, start heating my sparge water 30 minutes before I plan on sparging and boil

the way my rig works I'm never heating more than one thing at a time.

I do the exact same if I am doing the whole brew outside. During the winter months I just do the boil outside and mash inside using the stove to heat my water.