Brew Kettle And Burner

[Thirsty Boy]

My rig is specifically designed to be a nice compromise between single and double batches. I mainly brew singles - so its targeted at that, but doubles feature regularly enough to have been considered in the design.

I have a 50L mash tun - its never even come close to not being big enough.. possibly if I tried a double batch of barley wine or something, but I doubt it.

I have a 65L aluminium kettle. A $120 stockpot with a homemade weldless pick-up/tap fitout. Its not stupidly big for single batches and double batches start with 50-55L so I still have some headspace and only have to be normally watchful for boilovers. I get acceptable boil vigor and evaporation at both single and double batch size with this pot.

Burner - I use electricity now - but prior... A stock 3 ring burner on an every day BBQ reg. I just can't understand why people seem to need these massively powerful burners... end of sparge to 55L boiling has never been a more than 15-20min exercise for me. The 3 ring reaches and holds a 55L boil at more than sufficient vigor - with ease. With a single batch - wort was always boiling before sparge was finished and rings had to be turned off during the boil.

 

[hopie89]

Thanks TB, ill mostly be doing singles once I've bought the gear anyway so think a 3 ring will suit me fine, plus I got a voucher for bcf for chrissy, so the three ring from there will most likely be my first purchase.
Cheers,
Hopie

 

[pk.sax]

@TB, just wondering if your 3-ring is drilled out?

Also, if u have a BCF voucher, look at their big high powered burner! It comes with a high pressure reg in the box and people have seemed to like them.

 

[A3k]

I had a 4ring burner and loved it. even did a quad batches with it once with no problems.
I now have italian spiral burners. they're good but i probably prefered the 4 ring burners.
[edit] both with high pressure adjust reg

the reason for the change is that i built a brew stand. i wanted to mount the burners under the frame, but the 4 ring would've required the frame to be too big.
maybe i should've put the burner above it and saved myself a lot of money.

 

[Jazzafish]

I have 3 x 50L vessels. I can get 2 x 22L batches out of this without issue - but have to brew high gravity and aim to dilute to target into the fermenter with ~3 to 5 litres of water in recipe formulation. If anything, a bigger HLT would be easier so I don't have to refill it

 

[RdeVjun]

I have 3 x 50L vessels. I can get 2 x 22L batches out of this without issue - but have to brew high gravity and aim to dilute to target into the fermenter with ~3 to 5 litres of water in recipe formulation. If anything, a bigger HLT would be easier so I don't have to refill it

Similar sort of thing here, but I use a 36L pot to do MaxiBIAB doubles, its a squeeze but certainly achievable and I get 2 * 15L cubes which are diluted at pitching to 2 * 23L of around 1.050. So if the double batch upgrade is prohibitive in terms of cost or re- arranging all of the equipment, it is worth considering.
The spiral burner and MP reg seem to be a great match (compliance issues aside), both efficient and powerful.

 

[komodo]

70L kettle and Italian spiral with adjustable medium pressure reg. I can get a double batch boiling from mash temps fairly quickly though I am concidering alternatives.
If I had my time over I would have gone all elec. brewery. I'm getting a big electric HLT soon.
Definately when I build my next house I'll have the power put into the shed with enough grunt to do big batch electric brewing.

 

[Thirsty Boy]

@TB, just wondering if your 3-ring is drilled out?

Also, if u have a BCF voucher, look at their big high powered burner! It comes with a high pressure reg in the box and people have seemed to like them.

nope, gets a wire brush every now and again when it looks like the holes are blocking up a bit and thats it. I don't think I have any sort of super efficient burner either... the 4 ring we sometimes use for demos at G&G performs similarly.

3-4 rings are also quiet, couldn't handle one of those high pressure units roaring away while i was trying to have a nice peaceful brewday.

electricity now - Only 2400W so slower, but IMO cheaper, more consistent and all in all better.

 

[pk.sax]

nice. I never heard complaints about the 3-rings, only sooting complaints about the 4-ring burners (And seen that in action too). tbqh, I run my italian spiral on a normal flow rate reg with an adjustable lo-medium pressure range. Its pretty darn quiet but boils 36-40 L of wort in a heartbeat, ok.. few heart beats. Never really understood why people get the big red adjustable regs (high flow rate ones) with their italian spiral, beerbelly itself (used to say) its quite OK for normal-ish batches with a standard reg, and given its shape and the way it sucks in air, it burns pretty efficient too. I certainly couldn't justify a high flow rate burner (thats what causes all the noise I reckon).