Turkey Fryer!......Yaaaay!!

[brehm21]

Well, I finally took a big step (for me), and since it tells me at the top of the page that I haven't posted for a long time, I thought I'd share some thoughts and concerns.

I got a turkey fryer at Lowes today. It's a Saf-T-Fryer brand. I've never heard of it. It has a 46k BTU burner and a 35gal aluminum kettle with a spigot. I shelled out $79.99 for it. Probably could have gone slightly cheaper with different components, but I'm sick and tired of 1.5 gallon boils on the stove top and this was the best option I could put my hands on today.

I'm a little concerned about the 46k BTUs. Think that will be enough for a full boil (5gallon batch)?

Also, am I reading right that most people doing 5 gallons will start with 6.5 to allow for evaporation?

I also just built an immersion chiller. It's only 20ft of 3/8" OD copper tubing. I'm thinking I should have more footage, but that's what I'm starting with. I asked for one for Christmas, but Santa must not have heard me.

I'm off to test it out on some water!

 

[the_bird]

Search on the site for this burner; someone was complaining within the past week that it did NOT work well at all. Seems like the flame was too far from the pot or something. Might look into this before you open the box...

Sorry to be the bearer of second-hand bad news...

 

[Orfy]

Obviously I don't know the design of the cooker but when it comes to BTUs I'd say you'll be fine. I have a 29,000 btu burner.

Don't for get that the BTU's ar inputs not outputs. You obviously can only get out a percentage of what you put out but I have a feeling that a lower BTU burner will suffer less looses than a higher BTU burner. I don't think a 100,000 BTU burner will boil 3 times faster than a 33,000 btu burner.

I'm getting My wort to a good rolling boiling in around 25 minutes.

As for the cooler I think that will be fine also. If by any chance it's not then just buy a little more copper and make it a double coil cooler.

Go make beer.

It looks like a nice fryer.

 

[JnJ]

35 Gallon or 35 Quarts? 35 gallon would be HUGE! My burner is 155K BTU and takes about 20 minutes at 60 F to bring 5.5 gal to a boil. I have a 30ft chiller that works well.
Orfy, 29K BTU to a rolling boil in 25min? that is amazing!

 

[the_bird]

Might shoot a PM to dcarter about this fryer; here's the thread I was referring to.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=18356&highlight=SafTFryer

 

[Orfy]

35 Gallon or 35 Quarts? 35 gallon would be HUGE! My burner is 155K BTU and takes about 20 minutes at 60 F to bring 5.5 gal to a boil. I have a 30ft chiller that works well.
Orfy, 29K BTU to a rolling boil in 25min? that is amazing!

I was very concerened when I bought it due to the size of burners most people in the states are using. It's the only thing over here available at a reasonable cost, that's why most people do the boil in an electric kettle, that plus the fact the weathers ****y for most of the year.

But it does the job. I've started adding first runnings to the kettle why I do my fist batch sparge. A boil used to take me around 30 minutes but now its getting towards 20 minutes.

I think that burners are rated on how much gas you can put into them not how much heat they give out. The design on mine looks like some others quoted at much higher BTUs.

 

[Orfy]

Some one with a good background in maths should be able to do the maths on "theoretical" boil times based on BTUs, volumes and all that thermal mass and kilojoules stuff. I could of done at one time before I'd drank several tankers full of beer.

 

[aekdbbop]

Also, am I reading right that most people doing 5 gallons will start with 6.5 to allow for evaporation?

i just did my first full boil, started out with 5 & 2/3 gallons, and had to add most of the third when i transfered it into the carboy... If you have room, start out with 6 gallons. Just watch it for boil over...

 

[brehm21]

Might shoot a PM to dcarter about this fryer; here's the thread I was referring to.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=18356&highlight=SafTFryer

I read that thread a couple days ago! AAARRG.... Didn't make the connection. When I searched, I searched Saf-T-Fryer. Oh well. This one seems to be okay, although I may try to make some improvements to it.

I already put it together and tested it out. In about 35 minutes I took 6 gallons of tap water from 57° to 182°. I quit there because it was getting very windy and about 39° outside. I didn't feel like wasting the propane to get to boil since I wasn't going to brew. If I worked in the barn, out of the wind, I shouldn't have a problem.
My chiller took it from around 180 down to 78° in about 22 minutes. Not too shabby, but could be a future improvement done there.

I have one concern. I've never used aluminum before, and I haven't bought in to the whole "aluminum=certain death cancerous leprousy" school of thought. However, when I was done I noticed there was a brownish tinge to the bottom of the kettle. What is that? It was there before I put in the chiller, so it's not the galvanic corrosion monster. Could it be iron from my tap water?

Thanks for all the replies!

 

[shortyshortpants]

I'm also using the same Saf-T Turkey Fryer but the flame seems to cut out at random times. Has this happened to anyone else? Any suggestions?

 

[smitty2324]

The aluminum turns brown due to the development of an oxide coating on the surface. This coating keeps your wort from reacting with the aluminum, so DO NOT go scrubbing it off. It is, in fact recommended to do a boil of water in an aluminum pot prior to using it for brewing in order to develop that oxide layer.