Gas Burner Advice for BIAB

[hwall95]

Hey guys,

Pre-word: Current setup is a 3 ring burner connected to a 3.5kg gas cylinder. Not sure what reg. is, will have to find out - probably low pressure though. Mash volume was 34L and boil volume was 36L I believe.

Just did my first all-grain yesterday which overall went pretty well despite clogging the pot valve.. However the main problem is that the burner we were using took over an 1 and half to heat to mash temp and then over 20 minutes to get to 68-76 degrees and then over an hour to make it to boil from then so it made for a very long brew day and miscalculated boil off and ended up with an extra 3L. Also because of the extra time and low heating, we nearly used a gull 3.5kg gas cylinder which made the brew quite expensive as well..

So I'm wondering whether it's most likely just the regulator that's the problem or I should just buy a whole new burner, regulator and a large gas bottle to avoid messing around with. Luckily the tax man gave me some money back so I have a little bit to spend on it if quickly solves the problem without any worries.

Research:

I had a quick look over a range of burners and seems that 3-ring burners are the lowest burner you can get away with for a full boil of 30L+, however generally they recommend using a medium or high pressure regulator. However they're are NASA, Mongolian and Italian burners that people use that super powerful and quick, however may an overkill for only brewing single batches?

Anyways, if anyone has any advice on burners, regulators etc. it would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers

 

[slcmorro]

What I do, is I use a 19L stockpot on the stove inside to heat up to boiling and that helps greatly with getting my mash temp fast and cheap.

I have just a standard reg on my 4 burner setup, but it's built into a type of enclosure that retains a lot of the heat so it improves my heating efficiency in terms of heat loss and speed, which reduces how many rings I use and therefore how much gas also.

I can maintain a good rolling boil with just two rings on my 4 ring burner. I also use the lid on my keggle when heating strike water in it which helps, and I still leave the lid on after I sparge etc and am ramping to boil. I haven't noticed any ill effects doing this, and as far as I know DMS isn't 'released' until there is a boil going anyways.

 

[Mr B]

I use the same burner to boil 30l of water for 23l batches. Its a lot faster than that. I also use a standard BBQ reg.

Do you have a wind shield? I have mine fitted into a couple of old rims so its completely shielded from the wind.

 

[QldKev]

I've had a 3-ring, a 20-jet Mong, NASA burners and now electric.

3-ring
It was quite, but slow. I modified it by drilling out the outlets and jets which helped. Then I used a 0-207kpa reg which helped more. For a single sized batch the upgraded reg is great, but you can turn it up too far without blowing out the flame.

Mong
Dirty piece of shit. It had decent heat and with a 0-207kpa reg I managed to run a 112L batch. But as soon as you turned it down it just covered everything in black soot.

NASA
They come in 100,000btu and 150,000btu versions. I ran 2 x 150,000btu versions under my 140L kettle. One would have done the job, but NASA burners get loud the more you turn them up; hence the nickname NASA. So by having 2 under there I could run them at lower pressure and a lot quieter. These things are excellent if you dont mind the noise level. They can be turned down to run a 25L batch without sooting up, or cranked up for a +100L. With the NASA burners I needed to run a 0-207kpa reg and dedicated 9kg LPG bottle each.

With all the burners I found I averaged around 1kg of LPG per 25L vol. A decent wind shield helps a lot for all the burners.


I now run 6kw in my kettle and allowing I'll always have enough power to run them I will never be going back to LPG. 6kw is almost as powerful as one of my old 150,000btu NASA burners.



edit: I'm not suggesting you need 6kw for your sized batch, mine is a 112L

 

[hwall95]

Hmm.. maybe it's just an old burner, it looks a bit aged and haven't used it for a while.We used a few bricks to make a wind block which worked pretty well as prior to the wind block the burner couldn't sustain a full flame which was a scare.

I'm thinking I might further investigate the NASA burners as that way in the future if we upgrade, should be set for large boils etc. Not really keen to look into electrical because I live with mates and not all of them brew with me or drink beer so the electricity cost as well the cost to have an electrician install a higher amp plug wouldn't be worth it - especially since we're renting and about to move again.

I'll have a look around for some cheaper NASA burners, don't really mind the noise - will just play some music over the top so neighbours don't think I'm launching a rocket, hopefully they like my taste in music..

 

[slcmorro]

Definitely drill out the holes in the cast iron ring burners. I did that also, and it made a HUGE difference.

 

[hwall95]

Was just talking to my dad and he's keen to get into all grain so we decided to buy a NASA burner each, found pretty cheap one from amazon, minus the reg. and line. So that should solve our problems. All up the cost was $56 for two burners including postage.

When it arrives will just need to source a regulator, gas line and any fittings since I assume it will fitted to American specifications rather then Australian. Hopefully shouldn't be too much of hassle for the peace of mind that the burner will burn well and consistently.

 

[QldKev]

My entire 3V runs from just many standard 10amp GPOs. 3 x 10amp for elements, and another shared 10amp outlet in the garage. That way if I move hopefully I can still use it.

But more around the size of your setup my 1V has a 32L pre-boil vol from a single 2kw element. So I can run the controller, pump and element of a single standard 10amp outlet. I did need to apply a lot of insulation to get the boil off %, but it works. It costs under $1 in electricity for a full brew. Only downside of the 2kw element it takes almost an hour to get 34L of water to 66c.

Back to the LPG, firstly I would clean out the outlets and jets to ensure there is no corrosion in the way. Then I would try and source a 0-207kpa reg and give it a go on your 3ring, you just will not be able to turn up the pressure too far but it will be able to run a lot hotter than the standard bbq reg. With my 3 ring with the jets and outlets drilled out using the 0-207kpa reg I could get 29L of water to 69c in 15mins. Later on if you want more heat for bigger batches use that same reg on a NASA.

 

[QldKev]

Was just talking to my dad and he's keen to get into all grain so we decided to buy a NASA burner each, found pretty cheap one from amazon, minus the reg. and line. So that should solve our problems. All up the cost was $56 for two burners including postage.

When it arrives will just need to source a regulator, gas line and any fittings since I assume it will fitted to American specifications rather then Australian. Hopefully shouldn't be too much of hassle for the peace of mind that the burner will burn well and consistently.

I got my NASA burners from the US too. I found Aust uses two sized fittings on our bbq regs, and most regs have an adapter to allow either. The larger Aust sized fitting fitted straight up to my NASA.

 

[hwall95]

I got my NASA burners from the US too. I found Aust uses two sized fittings on our bbq regs, and most regs have an adapter to allow either. The larger Aust sized fitting fitted straight up to my NASA.

Okay cheers, looks like it may be an easier brew set up then I thought. Well hopefully this will make my next brew day go a lot quicker. Cheers for the advice guys!

 

[Tahoose]

Just bought an Italian spiral burner with the medium adjustable reg.

Got it from beer belly. Ran my first double batch on it last week, and I thought I may aswell start heating the first runnings while I do a couple of batch sparges. Had to turn the thing off as I was boiling before I'd got my full volume into the kettle.

Still prefer all electric but the spiral burner gets a thumbs up from me.

 

[warra48]

Don't just clean out or drill the holes in the 3 ring.
Also disassemble the gas outlets on the burner and clean them all out. Sometimes little bits of gunk get caught in there, and reduce the gas flow. Also look at clearing the tubes from the gas outlets through to the burner rings. All of those places are potential blockage candidates. I speak from experience.

 

[hwall95]

So this is the burner I ended up getting today: http://www.amazon.com/Bayou-Classic-BG10-Cast-Iron-Replacement/dp/B0009JXYSW/ref=sr_1_1?s=lawn-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1414322696&sr=1-1&keywords=Round+Bayou+Classic+Cooker+Frames

Made to put out 150,000 BTU's so should defintely do the job. Then I'm going to grab these for the regulator and hose, and then just pop by a hardware shop to find a suitable adapter.

Hose: https://www.auscrown.com.au/page/shop/flypage/product_id/110/a/category/e/hose_regulators_hoses

Regulator: https://www.auscrown.com.au/page/shop/flypage/product_id/80/a/category/e/hose_regulators_regulators

So all up around $100 (including postage) for all new burner set up which isn't too bad considering the price for the ones that come set up are around $220.

 

[QldKev]

Looks like a great combo, I got the reg and hose from auscrown too and have never had an issue with them.

You will still need the orifice as that burner doesn't seem to come with it.

After a couple of uses the silver paint will burn off, and block the outlets. So you jest unscrew the bolt through the middle and run a file around the serrated edge to clean it back up.

 

[hwall95]

Cheers Kev, forget about the orifice. Unfortunately amazon couldn't sell me one for some reason so I grabbed one of ebay for basically the same price.

It should all arrive by the and of my uni exams so I'll have plenty of time to play around with it, calibrate boil rate in beersmith and do a few brews with it.

 

[Mr B]

Nice one hwall. What was the delivery time like?

 

[Mr B]

Ahh, may have only ordered today ....

 

[hwall95]

Ahh, may have only ordered today ....

Yeah sorry mate, they said around 12 days for the items from the US, but if it arrives by 3 weeks I'll be pretty happy. Auscrown is less then a week I'm pretty sure

 

[hwall95]

So my orifice finally arrived today and realised I need an adapter for my gas hose which lead me to drive all over brisbane to multiple gas shops looking for a 3/4" to 1/4" adapter however they all seemed to have no idea and the best idea someone had was to sell me a new gas hose for $107 which I was surely not going to pay...



So my hose has a 1/4" female BSP and my orifice has a 3/8" male Flare and I'm not exactly sure how to join them. Happy to buy another hose at a reasonable price if it solves my problems but am yet to find one. These are the hose and orifice respectively: https://www.auscrown.com.au/page/shop/flypage/product_id/110/a/category/e/hose_regulators_hoses & http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/191320688664?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649.

And these are photos of both the fittings respectively:




Argh how I wish I looked out the fitting sizes prior but safe to say it made for a good learning experience. If anyone has any advice, that would be great as it was quite frustrating driving place to place today without any having an idea.

 

[hwall95]

If anyone runs into a similar issue, a simple fix is to grab a bunnings gas hose which comes with the right adapter. Shame they don't sell them separately but better then nothing. Cheers Kev for the advice about it.