Burner Thread - Yes Another One

[QldKev]

I'm after a burner for single and double boils doing BIAB.

I have read the thread with the burner trails from a few years back - but am after something more updated including mongolian and duck bill burners.

It must be able to bring 60L from tap tamp to 69 degrees c within a reasonable time. (eg 30mins)
It must be ok to drop back for maintaining a rolling boil in both single and double batches, without sooting up too much.
It must be able to run of a standard 9kg LPG bottle
I don't want something that sounds like a jet plane is landing in my backyard.

Electricity I would need 7200w (3 x 2400w heaters) so I would need more power run all the way back to the main distribution board, and then it would not be portable, so that is out.

I'm thinking a italian spiral, but am after what people are using with real life stats.

eg Burner type, gas reg type (pressure and if adjustable), noise level at full roar, number of batches from a 9kg bottle, and approx time to get 60L from tap to 69c (or even different volume to calc from ), and does it soot up much on low/maintain rolling boil.

Thanks,

QldKev

 

[Fents]

Italian Spiral trust me. Easily bring 60L's of tap temp water to boil in under 30mins esp with a med adj reg. Quiet as a mouse too.

Have never timed mine so dont have live data but i love it.

 

[chappo1970]

Burner type: Rambo
Gas reg type: Medium Pressure not adjustable
Noise level at full roar: Have to yell over the damn thing when WOT but when backed off to rolling it's acceptable. Also mine is in a confirned area so there would be a fair bit of sound bounce.
Number of batches from a 9kg bottle: 8-9 seems to depend how full the bottle was filled and lengths/number of boils 60/90mins
Approx time to get 60L from tap to 69c: From 24C to boiling 15mins (Timed!)
Does it soot up much on low/maintain rolling boil: No never sooted up my gear.

I am very very happy with the Rambo. I have however seen others like spirals and mongo's and they are all pretty simular IMO.

Here's a photo of the new pot 3 brews old. Left hand side of photo see no soot.



Hope this help Kev?

 

[Phrak]

I've never used the italian spiral burners, but if the cost is prohibitive, look at a regular 3ring burner for about $25-$30 with an adjustable regulator.
Brings my 70L triple batches to a boil (and often over boil!) relatively easily, and I have to turn the reg quite the way down to keep a comfortable rolling boil.
Have never timed how long for cold tap water, as all heating has been from Mash temps to boiling.
Re timing in that regard, I light the burner at first runnings and by the time the sparges have finished the things is very very close to boil - Perfect timing in my book B)

 

[Tony M]

I'll concur with Phrak. I have a 4 ring and rarely use the outside ring as all it does is heat up the garage ceiling. I stoke it up when there is a good cover of wort on the boiler base and by the time the sparge is finished, the kettle is only about ten minutes short of the boil. From start of sparge to start of boil is around 30 minutes. The rate of boil is easily controlled by dropping out one of the rings. The best thing about it all, I can hear every word on my quietly playing radio.

 

[alowen474]

I've never used the italian spiral burners, but if the cost is prohibitive, look at a regular 3ring burner for about $25-$30 with an adjustable regulator.
Brings my 70L triple batches to a boil (and often over boil!) relatively easily, and I have to turn the reg quite the way down to keep a comfortable rolling boil.
Have never timed how long for cold tap water, as all heating has been from Mash temps to boiling.
Re timing in that regard, I light the burner at first runnings and by the time the sparges have finished the things is very very close to boil - Perfect timing in my book B)

+1

 

[crundle]

Sorry to jump in, but I am looking at getting a burner to let me boil a 60 litre pot for crabs. I am hoping to be able to run it off of a 9kg gas bottle with the standard regulator for a BBQ and was wondering if this is possible and secondly does anyone know where I might be able to get one in Adelaide? I am under the impression that the cheap Asian grocery stores may suitable burners going cheap, but anyone in Adelaide with recent experience of where they got their's would be greatly appreciated.

cheers,

Crundle

 

[Frag_Dog]

I've got a 32jet mongolian with adjustable medium pressure reg.

For regular 20-30L batches its overkill. It makes the ring on my keggle glow red, and not even on full throttle.

I've since taken (it think) 18 of the jets out and plugged them with high tensile bolts. It still boils 20-30L no worries and will hold a rolling boil on the lowest setting just before it starts producing soot. I use a combination of the regulator and a ball valve to control the flame.

For noise I have nothing to compair it with so... but it is reasonably loud on full throttle.

 

[QldKev]

Thanks for the replies.

Once I have converted the 82L keggle I am going to try the 3 ring with a higher pressure reg. If this isn't quick enough I will try the Italian spiral.

QldKev

 

[roller997]

I've never used the italian spiral burners, but if the cost is prohibitive, look at a regular 3ring burner for about $25-$30 with an adjustable regulator.
Brings my 70L triple batches to a boil (and often over boil!) relatively easily, and I have to turn the reg quite the way down to keep a comfortable rolling boil.
Have never timed how long for cold tap water, as all heating has been from Mash temps to boiling.
Re timing in that regard, I light the burner at first runnings and by the time the sparges have finished the things is very very close to boil - Perfect timing in my book B)

Does the adjustable regulator turbo charge it?
I have a 4 ring burner with a fixed regulator and I would take more than 30 minutes to go from 75 degrees to 100 degrees with all 4 rings on on 50 liters. With 3 rings it is a mediocre boil and I turn the 4th ring on a few times during the boil to give it a kick.
To get things done a bit quicker, I bougt a turkey burner with an adjustable regulator and that was substantially less powerful than the 4 ring burner so I have resorted back to the 4 ring burner with the fixed regulator.
After talking to someone who is involved in building gas boilers, I was going to install a larger jet into the 3 and 2 ring, upgrading them by one level each as I have a spare 4 ring burner I have barely used to speed things up. Perhaps I will just try out the high pressure regulator on the 4 ring burner and that might speed things up a bit.

Cheers

 

[Doogiechap]

Does the adjustable regulator turbo charge it?
I have a 4 ring burner with a fixed regulator and I would take more than 30 minutes to go from 75 degrees to 100 degrees with all 4 rings on on 50 liters. With 3 rings it is a mediocre boil and I turn the 4th ring on a few times during the boil to give it a kick.
To get things done a bit quicker, I bougt a turkey burner with an adjustable regulator and that was substantially less powerful than the 4 ring burner so I have resorted back to the 4 ring burner with the fixed regulator.
After talking to someone who is involved in building gas boilers, I was going to install a larger jet into the 3 and 2 ring, upgrading them by one level each as I have a spare 4 ring burner I have barely used to speed things up. Perhaps I will just try out the high pressure regulator on the 4 ring burner and that might speed things up a bit.

Cheers

Roller I have a medium pressure adjustable reg which makes the world of difference for my 4 ring (with standard jets). As long as your HP reg is adjustable to a point of nearly zero output it should be worth a shot
Cheers
Doug

 

[Phrak]

Does the adjustable regulator turbo charge it?

oh f*cken oath it does! I comfortably boil a 70L triple batch on my trusty 3-ring with my adjustable MP reg.

I'd avoid trying to use a non-adjustable HP reg on a 3 or 4 ring burner. The gas pressure will likely be too high to even light the flame. Never personally tested it, but I very very very very rarely run mine anywhere near full-clap. I've found that, apart from over-pressure flame-outs, it's more efficient when dialed down a bit.

The one I have is the MP adjustable reg, exactly the same as the fire-engine red one from beer-belly:

 

[Sammus]

I have a 3-ring an italian spiral and a rambo single ring HP100 or something (used to be on mashmaster). All run off a BOC adjustable LPG reg. The 3 ring was sh!thouse I thought, everyone talks them up, but just like the staino braid mash tun (which is also talk up a lot on here) it just didnt work anywhere near my expectations based on the hype here.

The italian spiral seemed like it would've been good, but the stand it comes with is a PITA and my keggle didnt sit on it properly (keggle has legs welded on it to bring it up above the 3ring I had) so was never great for me.

Now I use a rambo with auto ignite, fits well under the keggle and seems to be the most powerful of the lot. Not any more noisy than the other burners on a high pressure reg, and has the advantage of auto ignition. I think it's also the most expensive of the bunch.

I haven't timed anything, but going full biccy at 150kpa it brings ~35L to the boil from ~60C in ~10min - might give you an idea of power.

 

[roller997]

Your turkey burner or NASA burner should have made a huge difference.

My NASA will get 50 litres of cold water to the boil in 15 minutes if it is going flat out.

Did you have the reg at the highest pressure?


Wally

If I have it on higher pressure, the flames get blown out so I am assuming it is on a fairly high pressure. Got the controller from the same shop as the Turkey Burner so I assume it was matched up fairly well. I get blue flames so the oxygen control is fairly right as well. From cold water, I would guess a minimum of 1.5 hours to get to a boil but I haven't been patient enough to do that. I heat my mash in liquor in a 30 liter Urn and also use that Urn for sparging (80 degrees roughly) so the most I have to heat the wort is from about 75 degrees to a boil and with the turkey burner it was at least twice as slow as the 4 ring. I am told that the NASA / Turkey burners are supposed to be faster but I haven't had any luck with mine.

 

[T.D.]

I've got a 32jet mongolian with adjustable medium pressure reg.

For regular 20-30L batches its overkill. It makes the ring on my keggle glow red, and not even on full throttle.

I've since taken (it think) 18 of the jets out and plugged them with high tensile bolts. It still boils 20-30L no worries and will hold a rolling boil on the lowest setting just before it starts producing soot. I use a combination of the regulator and a ball valve to control the flame.

For noise I have nothing to compair it with so... but it is reasonably loud on full throttle.

I use one of these on my big brewery to boil upwards of 165L of wort and it does it without even trying, and that's on a low pressure (bbq) reg. I hate to think what it would be like with a higher pressure reg! I'm surprised the bottom of your kettle is still in tact! :lol:

 

[roller997]

oh f*cken oath it does! I comfortably boil a 70L triple batch on my trusty 3-ring with my adjustable MP reg.

I'd avoid trying to use a non-adjustable HP reg on a 3 or 4 ring burner. The gas pressure will likely be too high to even light the flame. Never personally tested it, but I very very very very rarely run mine anywhere near full-clap. I've found that, apart from over-pressure flame-outs, it's more efficient when dialed down a bit.

The one I have is the MP adjustable reg, exactly the same as the fire-engine red one from beer-belly:
View attachment 31042

Thanks for that. I have an "identical" looking regulator which is adjustable for my Turkey Burner. Bearing in mind that the look of the regulator doesn't tell you the types of pressure range it will regulate, while the two might look identical, mine might be different. I was told it was a high pressure adjustable regulator, however the person selling it may not have been qualified to tell the difference. The non adjustable regulator is a low pressure one, so it provides flames that are not too intense (therein lies my problem) and definately not at a pressure level where the flames are blown out (I get that with the adjustable regulator if I turn it up on the Turkey burner) a bit more than 1/3 of the range.
I will try out the 4 ring burner with the adjustable regulator and by the sounds of it, I might have all my issues resolved as I was not keen to go for a burner that was not adjustable to cater for rolling boils while wanting something that provides a decent boost so I am not waiting too long for the boil.
The 4 rings are ideal as they can be turned on and off in any combination so it saves on gas or it saves on time. As long as they provide more heat than they currently do, it is the ideal solution.

 

[roller997]

My NASA is set so that the air control is fully open; it never gets adjusted. I only adjust the gas flow through the regulator.

Mine can flow enough gas that ice will form on the outside of the gas cylinder.

Have you pulled the burner apart and cleaned out the burnt paint?

How close to the kettle is your burner?

This is what mine looks like going flat out.

View attachment 31044

Cheers,

Wally

Thanks Wally,
Yes, I did take it apart after the first run and cleaned out the paint - I didn't clean out the tube from the gas inlet as that was quite sizeable and wasn't as likely to have had paint run into it but I will examine that as well.
Yours looks a lot more intense than mine so there is definately something wrong with my Turkey Burner setup and by the sounds of it I might benefit from using the adjustable regulator on the 4 ring burner. I am unlikely to have time today, however if I do, I will run a couple of experiments and report back - This might not be until mid week.

Thanks

Roller