It's time for a propane burner to move out of the kitchen and get into bigger volume full boil brews... Suggestions, vendors, best place to pick one up?
[open the floodgates!] If you're willing to build your own stand, I would recommend this: It can be found here: http://tinyurl.com/pg5u2jl It comes in both propane and natural gas versions for around $30+shipping. I would strongly recommend natural gas if that can be made available in your brew house. I built a stand for about $40 in parts from Home Depot. It looks rather like an erector set project. Though, if you're handy with a welder, or know someone who is, you can build it a lot prettier.
I use a Bayou Classic that I've had for about 3 years now. $45, and you can get it at any Home Depot. I recommend buying 2 propane tanks though, that way if you're ever in the middle of a brew/boil and you run out of propane, you can always have another full one as backup.
Anyone ever use a turkey fryer kit like one of these to make beer? Sorry for the BBB link but I am registering for my wedding gifts, and this is about the only cool thing I could find. http://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/sto...-turkey-fryer/1018632284?Keyword=turkey+fryer
I currently use a turkey fryer and had another in use for years. Be aware that many now come with a shutoff timer so you may want to search for methods of disabling the timer before actually buying something.
Actually I own that exact burner. The solenoid has a spring that is pretty easy to remove negating the timer feature.
Interesting. He said both gas valves were wide open. I can't do that with my NG jet burner. The flames would envelop the keggle . I can't stand within two feet of it in that case. No way in hell I could run it full tilt in the garage. It didn't look like the one he was using was quite that aggressive. I'm not suggesting the test was not valid. Only that it's hard to generalize.
That's why I didn't offer an opinion one way or the other. I have been happy with my banjo burner but have no experience with the torch style burners. I do know my large banjo can bring 13 gallons of wort to a rapid boil quickly, but have never actually timed it.
I have a propane fired banjo style burner that does a fine job. Like you, I've never timed it. But it gets the job done nicely, so I don't sweat it. That said, I'll take my NG jet burner any day of the week, thank you!
I use a square banjo burner, it sips propane but can be hard to control and is quite loud. For all parts of a brew system though the burner is not a place I'm too stoked to splurge on
http://www.williamsbrewing.com/HURRICANE-STOVE-P2213.aspx This stove works great...easy to change to Natural Gas also...
Depending on the burner and the fuel, it can add $7 or more to a 5 gal batch of beer. Hardly trivial, IMO.
