Natural Gas Burner

Brewed on my natural gas rig today using a hurricane burner with a natural gas adapter. The two in the link are exactly what I have. I brought 10 gallons of 65F water up to 156 in less than 20 minutes. After the mash (I no sparge brew) I brought the kettle to a boil with about 8.5 gallons of water in about 20 minutes. Once I left it on full blast during a 90 minute boil and boiled off 3 gallons!

http://www.williamsbrewing.com/HURRICANE-LOW-PRESSURE-BURNER-NO-STAND-P2677.aspx

http://www.williamsbrewing.com/HURRICANE-NATURAL-GAS-CONVERSION-VALVE-P2214.aspx

 

Most of us use propane because it's very easily accessible and you don't need a dedicated outside line for it. Natural gas would be a great way to save some money in the long run if you're sure that's what you want to do. If you see a clear way to brew with a dedicated natural gas line, pull the trigger.

 

I have a hurricane burner as well, built an ugly looking stand using strut from homedepot

 

Here's one that has 160,000 btu's, 32 tip natural gas for only 39.99. I have a propane 3 burner setup which has 170,000 btu's per burner and it works well for 6-20 gallon batches. When I do a 20 I use 2 burners

http://www.lonestarrestaurantsupply.com/32-tip-round-nozzle-jet-burner-natural-gas

 

I've had my turkey fryer for years, so it's hard to remember for sure, but it seems that mine came with an extra little valve part that could be changed out with the one that was already in the burner. I believe it was as simple as the size of the orifice is the difference in the burner's capability of burning natural vs. LP. Take a look at whichever burner you are considering and see if it comes with the extra little orifice part. (Maybe this is the 'conversion kit' that you mentioned above?)

 

I bought my natural gas burner from Tejas Smokers. I highly recommend them based on their excellent service. They are very responsive and helpful; had a lot of e-mails back and forth with them before deciding on what to purchase, and while their products are marketed for BBQ, you can tell they know their stuff when it comes to what is needed for home brewing.

 

http://www.tejassmokers.com/newproducts_page2.htm
Single Burner Magnum Cooker Stand, kind of towards the bottom of the page, just make sure you specify Natural Gas (looks like it's defaulted on Low Pressure Propane)

Also bought the natural gas hose from them, but you can probably get that from Lowe's.

I brew 11 gallon batches (13 gallons of pre-boil wort) with converted kegs for mash tun and kettle. It takes about 15 min to heat strike water. For the boil, we turn the burner on shortly after starting the (fly) sparge, so by the time the kettle is full, it takes about an additional 10-15 minutes to get to a boil.

It's low pressure, so the flame is not very intense, just a heads up. It's not really any faster than using my old turkey fryer, but I like the stand because it's so stout. No matter how I would rig the turkey fryer, I would never trust a 30 lb keggle filled with 13 gallons of wort. Also, no propane! The NG burner paid for itself in about 2 years, brewing 2-3 times per month, just from the cost savings of not having to buy propane (not to mention the hassle of exchanging/filling tanks or worrying about having a backup tank just in case).

 

I'd like to see a picture of that.

*Earplugs not included

 

Something to keep in mind is that a conversion and a dedicated NG hookup are 2 different things. If you are converting a propane burner to NG you will need a different orfice, but if you have no intention of using propane again for portability, etc. then an actual NG burner
from a restaurant supply (or amazon/ebay) makes more sense. I bought mine (NG burner and hookups) from 2 different suppliers:

http://caloreequipment.com/products...ck-disconnect-natural-gas-hose-connector.html

http://www.amazon.com/Tip-Round-Nozzle-Burner-natural/dp/B00ADPD86A

 

Oooo, another benefit of natural gas vs. propane...it's so QUIET.

 

But I hope ground anchors are.

 

Some things never get old! This is the same natural gas burner I use. Note that it's not particularly quiet. Since each of the 23 jets is a burner, each has its own orifice. If you want a natural gas, you can't modify it. You need to specify ng when you buy it.

 

Cool video. How far was the gas valve open when the flames reached their max in the video?

 

I use 2 of these on my rig in my garage. Sooo much better than the tip style burners I had before.

 

Link might help ehh?

http://www.brewershardware.com/10-Low-Pressure-Burner.html

 

No idea (that's not my video). If I open my valve wide open, I can't stand within two feet of it. Even open halfway, it burns the hair off my forearms when I reach over the kettle to stir (I use a ball valve, so it's hard to say exactly what 'halfway' means). This burner is a monster! I'm considering removing a few of the jets to tone it down a bit. I can't imagine the 32-jet model being practical for home brewing with a keggle but, to each his own.

It's damn cheap pretty much everywhere compared to propane. Prices vary, but in my neck of the woods (suburban Chicago), natural gas is generally 85-90% cheaper than propane. The BTU equivalent of a 20 lb tank of propane costs about $2. But, even if it was the same price, I'd choose it only for the convenience.