I am looking to make the jump to 10g batches and wanted to get some feedback on burners. I am looking at the Anvil burner at my LHBS due to a gift card I have there. It seems to be well built solid feeling burner, but its only rated at 45,000 BTU. Is this enough to boil up to 15g efficiently? It states it can do 20g, but will 45,000 BTU take hours to get it boiling? Using a turkey burner now which seems to take forever with 8g. Would like to increase the volume, but reduce the time it takes if possible. Cheers
If you have access to Natural Gas it is much cheaper than propane. I have restaurant style "wok" burners that I can only open about 1/2 way without blueing my keggles. Portability is the only drawback...other than having too much beer on hand.
I have an edelmetal burner thats awesome. You can get a bayou burner of the same btu for half the price.
For my money? Ask your LHS to order a Blichmann burner for you. The 'standard' (original) Blichmann Floor-standing/TopTier burner is rated at 72,000 BTU. I have two of them. They're rock-solid and have no trouble getting up to and sustaining a vigorous boil in my 20 gallon boilermaker for batches up to 15 gallons on even the coldest of days. The next-gen 'Hellfire' burner looks even better (variable output from 80k to 140k BTU/hr), comes with an improved heat shield,and only costs $50 more than the Anvil. A 50% price-increase may seem like a lot, but you'll never have to buy another burner. just my $0.02.
Yes, this is the dilemma/enigma of brewing larger batches. A 10 gal. batch will save you from an entire brew day...but at the same time it's not twice the time economy. Once you go larger, it leads to more equipment and cleaning..things like out-of-kettle chillers, pumps, hoses, valves, hopbacks, burners and other assorted needs. I like having my 10 gal setup, but I still brew way more 5 gal batches. Cheers
Thanks for the feedback. After thinking about my process as a whole, I may go a different direction. I was not thinking about how to lift and move 15+ gallons of wort around like I can with 7-8 gallons. My real want is to be able to split batches to compare adjuncts, like difference in dry hops, yeast, ect. I think I may go the other direction and get a couple 2 1/2g kegs and split my 5g batches. Probably still get a new burner though, so thanks for all the feedback on those.
Well, in short? You either *don't* move it all at once, or you get yourself a hand truck. I'm not a big guy. I can lift and move (short distances) 11.5 gallons in a half-barrel keg that I use for primary by myself - but it's not what I'd call easy. So, I bought a hand truck. Suddenly, going up/down the bilco stairs in my old basement was feasible as a one-man move. When I do any batches larger than that? I either split it into buckets or some some combination of buckets & keg OR I pump it all straight into one of the big conicals that don't have to be moved anywhere. If you're talking about moving a kettle with 15 gallons or more in it? Just don't. There are better ways to do things.
With my current setup I can boil my strike water on the burner w/ stand and just open the valve to pre heat the mash tun. But I have to pick up the mash tun to raise it above the boil kettle for gravity to do it's thing. The I can drain into primary from there. If I increase in batch size I think Ill need to go with a tree or pumps.
Been there. Sometimes I miss the ol' 3-tier gravity days c. 2010... Then: Then I come to my senses when I remember what a PITA it was to set up, and I still had to heft the cooler full of sparge water up onto the highest (and most precarious) tier or ladle water into it one potful at a time (read: lots of heat loss)... Pumps = good. Now:
