How many brew sessions on a propane tank?

Depending on your method it will vary. I have found I average 3-5 brew days for grain and 5-8 for extract type brews. This is off a 20lb can and 5 gallon batches. Best thing I can say is pick up another bottle. When you run out of gas and lose $ in your pot, its cheaper to own another bottle of gas.

 

Expect to run out in the middle of a brew session, so get a back up. I've never been able to gauge how many I get on one tank because the outdoor brewing season coincides with the grilling season. I never had a dedicated tank.

 

Semi-Related: What's the price of a 20 lb refill these days?

 

I want say I paid about $15.00 a 20lb tank. My home is all electric, however have propane for back up heat. I get a decent rate on gas with my account. I am actually looking to split off my big tank to my grill area. Some years my house tank never even gets used.

 

I use my grill tank as emergency back up and bought a 40lb tank for brewing. Costs $17 to fill the 20lb tank and $22 to fill the 40lb'er, so it paid for itself in just a few brewing seasons. Eventually would like to do as Ed Ross is talking about and split off a line from the big propane tank at my house, but for now the $0.55/lb will have to do.
I brew 11 gallon batches mainly so not a great analogy, but can usually get about 8 batches in before I need to re-fill....which is conveniently about how many batches I do in a year.

 

I roughly get about 3-5 batches per 20# tank depending on what I'm brewing and time of year. I pay $10 per tank to fill, which a good rate. I usually run two burners with two tanks going. I have a gas grill too so I usually keep 5 tanks around and refill 2-3 three at a time to make sure I have backups. My wife wants to get a gas stove for the house so some day I'm hoping to have a big tank outside that I can tap into for brewing.

 

I obtain exchanges for my propane; the company is AmeriGas (e.g., Home Depot exchange). While those tanks are rated for 20 lbs. they actually contain less (17 lbs. I believe).

Unless you are getting your tanks refilled you will get even less batches from the 17 lb. exchange tanks.

Cheers!

 

When I used to use propane, I think around 4-5 batches per 20 lb tank...didn't take long to realize I needed a backup tank. But it just got way too expensive/inconvenient to keep getting refills/exchanges, and I have a natural gas line that goes out onto my back patio where I brew (I'm guessing for a grill hookup), so I bought a low pressure natural gas burner. I love that thing. Seemed to pay for itself in about 2 years of brewing (I'm guesstimating), and I don't notice a difference on my energy bill.

It's still nice having 2 propane tanks, just for grilling. One of these days, I might hook the grill up to the natural gas line, but that would involve some drilling on my grill, risking ruining it, and I've read of other people having issues doing this on this here forum (basically the flame is either full blast or so low it doesn't do anything).

So my advise is, if you can hook up to your large propane tank that you pay much less for per lb than exchanging/re-filling, I strongly advise that. Propane is a significant "ingredient" cost per batch that doesn't get much attention on this forum.

 

Carteravebrew has a good point on fuel. I keep good brew records and expenses,fuel, even to pick up my supplies. It sounds overkill, but I like to know what my real cost per batch is, not ball park. Fuel is a significant ingredient/expense in brewing .

 

It's essential to have a backup tank. Keep one filled all the time. I learned that years ago when I was using propane for my grill. FWIW, most of us do the same with CO2 tanks.

Regarding the cost for a refill, the price varies in different parts of the country. In the Chicago area, it's usually about $20 for a 20 lb refill. Most exchanges are about the same price, but you're only getting 15-17 lbs, so the price per lb is significantly higher (AmeriGas only gives 15 lbs here). If you're fortunate enough to have a big tank, you can save quite a bit of coin.

I switched my grill and brewery to natural gas a few years ago. Running out in the middle of a brew session or a cookout just doesn't happen. The convenience is priceless! The icing on the cake is $$$. At today's price for NG, the equivalent of a 20 lb refill (in BTUs) costs under $2. Extrapolating from some of the posts on this subject, that would be about 40 to 60 cents per batch of beer versus $4 to $6 per batch for propane ($5.33 to $8 if I exchanged my tanks). But even if the price was the same, I'd use NG for the convenience, alone.

I use propane for my road show - Big Brew, for example. I have two 20 lb tanks, one of which is always full.

 

I think I'm around 15 and some change. Mind you, this a fill, and not a swap thing. I own my own tanks, and like getting a fuller fill.

I also end up running through my tanks fast in the winter, between brewing and my patio heaters.

 

4-5 from a 20# tank and I get it refilled at the local hardware store for 17$.
Like others have said the exchange tanks are not full so who knows.

Next time you are brewing and the gas is running check out the side of the tank for condensation. That will tell you how low the "gas" is and you can make an educated guess on how much is left.

If there is a tare on the tank you can weigh it as well.

 

Always have a full tank on hand just in case.

 

When I brew five gallon batches I heat mash/sparge water on the electric stove when I can and that slows the use of much more expensive propane. All the mash water can go on the stove but sometimes the sparge volume is large enough that I need to do it outside on the turkey fryer. So generally I am just using propane for the boil and nothing else. That saves quite a bit of fuel and I can extend a 20lb. tank for 10+ batches.

Look for a place in your area that does fills not exchanges and charges for what they fill not just a flat rate for a fill. The exchanges are a ripoff IMO and many people have found the exchange tanks to be filled to various levels that are never 20lb. You can pay less to refill a tank and you can refill it when the tank is low but not empty. That ensures you do not have an empty tank in the middle of a brew. (And/or buy a spare tank as an insurance policy.) If you have a bathroom scale you can weigh out the tank before a brew and after to see how much propane you are using. Then you should have a good idea how much gas you are using per brew day and divide 20 by that number. Then you'll know to refill it at one or two brewdays short of empty.

 

That depends on your cost for electricity and propane. There are approximately 440,000 BTUs in 20# of propane. That's roughly equivalent to 130 kWh. At a marginal price of .15/kWh for electricity and $1/lb for propane, for example, it's just about a wash. Granted, there are a lot of variables - with electricity, it's a lot easier to get the heat into the kettle than it is with gas, for example. Nevertheless, it's a bit broad to say that propane is "much more expensive" than electricity in this context. For cost comparisons, is much easier to compare gas with gas.

 

I have two propane tanks and still occasionally run out of propane on brew day. Howdy neighbor!

 

First of all my electric rates are far less than 0.15/kWh. Second, why would I compare gases? My options are propane or electricity.

 

Electricity rates are all over the map, from 0.08 in Washington to 0.35 in Hawaii, as are propane prices. The example I gave is in the ballpark of average in the US - that's why I used that as an illustration. Regarding comparing gases, I was simply trying to emphasize the inherent difficulty in comparing gas to electricity.