Propane use on big system?

[SanPancho]

Have been tasked with setting up 1bbl rig. Gas is cheapest and easiest. Looking at blichmann hellfire xl for 50gal kettle. While natural gas is available its also gonna be a bit annoying to set up and then break down. Thinking of just using propane.

assuming my wort comes into kettle at around 145-150ish, how much propane would folks expect us to use getting to boil? Im guessing like 40gal at start of boil. Would a little propane swap tank be enough? Or would i need to get a bigger tank, or multiple tanks?

thx

 

[wilserbrewer]

Not much help, but I would think and hope a 20 pound tank would get a batch done, guessing about ten pounds.

Can’t imagine how set up and break down of natural gas would be difficult....

Do they offer quick connect idk....

Hooking up a flex natural gas feed once installed isn’t any more difficult than hooking up a propane tank...I would think imo

 

[ba-brewer]

Been a while since I used propane but I think I got about 4 5gal batches out of 20lb tank. That is taking tap to sparge temp then up to boil for an hour maybe 70min. I used a Edelmetall burner.

There was a bit of trade off for speed vs propane use. A larger pot might be more efficient, a lot of heat is lost up the side of the pot.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/threads/how-many-batches-per-propane-tank.248121/

 

[SanPancho]

Got it. Then in theory i think maybe that is at least a batch, maybe a bit more. Might just be better to keep two tanks on hand.

 

[ba-brewer]

Seems like one tank might be OK. A backup would be a good thing, really sucks running out mid boil, even when you have an extra tank.