Is My Gas Burner Strong Enough?

[QldKev]

Digging up an old thread.

This was my experiment to find out evaporation rates and a test run of my setup.

Specs
All Grain BIAB
80L Ali Pot (Robinox)
32Jet Mongolian Burner
Adjustable Reg (Keg King)
70L of Rainwater at 12.5C

35C @ 15 mins
58C @ 30 mins
72C @ 40 mins (Strike Temp)
100C @ 60 mins

Lost 6L-7L of water to evaporation over 60 mins at a boil so around 9% evap rate.
So with a 90 min boil I expect to lose around 10 L.

Gas used: Just under half a 9kg LPG bottle so I'd be using around 2-3kg of gas an hour.

Things to consider:
Rainwater temp is lower then ambient tap water temp. Also use of hot tap water would have sped things up.
Garage door was open and it was a little windy so may have slowed things down.
These specs are for a double batch at around 55L of packaged beer, I plan on doing singles to start.

Question
Is this efficient use of LPG? If not is there anything I can do to make it more efficient? (Perhaps block up a few jets with bolts to divert the flame more towards the center of the pot)

Cheers
Midnight Brew

How far is the jets from the base of the pot, the Mongolians need to be fairly close. ekul halved his gas usage wafter moving it closer.


QldKev

 

[Smdafli]

G'Day guys

I too am working out what to purchase for my BIAB setup.
I am lucky enough to have natural gas plumbed to the back of my house and i've been looking for a burner to use with a CUB keg as my mash tun

found this on ebay but says it is on suitable for LPG. pardon my ignorance but does this mean I wouldn't be able to use it with my Natural Gas outlet??

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/4-RING-CAST-IRO...1e67e4373d#shId

Cheers

 

[stux]

G'Day guys

I too am working out what to purchase for my BIAB setup.
I am lucky enough to have natural gas plumbed to the back of my house and i've been looking for a burner to use with a CUB keg as my mash tun

found this on ebay but says it is on suitable for LPG. pardon my ignorance but does this mean I wouldn't be able to use it with my Natural Gas outlet??

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/4-RING-CAST-IRO...1e67e4373d#shId

Cheers

I assume you'd have to get it rejetted

Mongolian burners can be used on LPG or Natural Gas (as an option)
http://www.beerbelly.com.au/burners.html

 

[ekul]

I don't think that will work, i think gas bottles and natural gas are different and need different sized holes.

As for your choice of burner- I used to have one of these and it was terrible, took so long to get to the boil and was really sooty.

If you ever plan on upgrading to a bigger pot i would buy a nice big burner. I have a 32jet mongolian burner and it is great. I can do single (23L) batches with it but i also can do 100L batches with it. I reckon i could even do 200L batches with it if i had a big enough pot. The guy i bought it from said that it could be used to boil 400L if i wanted to. If the biggest size that you will ever consider is double (80L pot) then a 23jet mongolian will work well

Having the future in mind is a good thing to do. When i started brewing i was using a 2 ring burner like the one pictured, then i was using two of these because it didn't work very well. Then i bought a 4 ring burner and this was only just enough and extremely sooty. Then i wanted to do doubles and the 4 ring was only barely working. It took forever to get to the boil and when it got there is was very crappy. Brewdays would take 7-8 hours.

I got sick of it and bought the biggest burner i could find, a 32 jet mongolian. Doing things on the cheap can sometimes be expensive. As witrh all things, spending the money on the right piece of equipment first is the cheapest way to go I got my burner from www.keeferbros.com.au They also have burners specifically for natural gas.

I have heard italian spiral burners are pretty good. Here's the cheapest one i've ever seen http://www.leeswarehouse.com/shopCart.asp?productID=636

Or you could get an over the side element and go electric.