Size of burner

[Carrollyn]

I'm looking at upgrading my burner for my new big pot that I can do the boil for a five gallon batch. What BTU is a good range to look at for a nice timely boil?

 

[twistr25]

I think I have a turkey fryer setup that has 45,000 BTU, but before I was getting a good boil for 7 gallons on an apartment electric stove. So the bigger question is how long do you want to wait for it to get to boil?

 

[Carrollyn]

Don't want to wait very long. 10 minutes, at the most. Was looking at that Bayou Classic at Home Depot. Looks like a few people have gotten it.

 

[mcangeli]

Any of the turkey fryer burners (bayou classic) are good... and most of them come with a large pot as well.

 

[Pratzie]

10 minutes for a 5 gallon boil???? Ur gonna need some serious BTU's. My blichman is 72k and it takes me about 28-30 minutes for 7 gallons which i need to account for boil off.

 

[KepowOb]

Yeah... I have a 55,000 BTU Bayou Classic... I get 6.25gal up to a boil without a problem, but yesterday it took me about... oh, 45min to an hour??? I wasn't exactly timing it, but it was far from 10 minutes.

Edit: I do know there is a modifications or two that you can do to make the Bayou Classic more efficient, but I haven't attempted anything myself, but it may be worth looking into if you want a faster boil.

 

[bru-ster76]

I have a 65,000BTU burner and it takes just over 25 mins for 7G.

 

[Carrollyn]

Hmm, well I may have to modify my desires... Maybe I can go for 20-30 minutes. Knowing what other people have for BTUs and brands and how long it takes them to boil 7 gallons will be helpful.

 

[Pratzie]

My routine for all grain is to fill up my BK with strike water. Once i get the desired amount I throw it on the burner and get that cooking. I'll put a lid on the keggle to get it to heat faster.

While thats heating, i'll get out my cooler and set up everything with that. Get my grains ready and set my fermentation chamber to the temp I want it. normally I don't have to wait much longer to get to strike temperature so i'll start preheating my cooler and then doughing in.

Once i drain everything into my BK, I fire it up again and start clean up with the cooler and everything else ive used so far. Normally i start making my sanitizer at that point too so once i have all of that cleaned up and/or ready for the next step, the wort is pretty close to boiling and ready for the first hop addition.

So its not like the time is wasted since im doing other stuff while waiting for the water. Ive also read about a gentleman that sets up a heat stick in his water and uses a timer to get his water to start heating before he even wakes up. that way he can wake up and save time cuz the water is already close to strike temp.

If saving time is something ur interested in, u might wanna consider something like that as well.

Finally, keep an eye on regulators when deciding what burner u want to buy. My blichmann uses a lower, 10psi regulator, so i get great BTU's but its still pretty efficient on propane once i dial it in. I know alot of Banjo burners use higher pressure regulators, upwards of 30 PSI, so they get more BTU's, but at the cost of ALOT of propane.

And i know alot of people who use their own natural gas run into issues with getting rolling boils as well. It takes a bit longer to get it rolling if ur using that type of fuel. Just something to keep in mind.