What is the best 10 gallon burner?

Are you tied to propane or do you have Natural Gas available?

 

I downgraded from a KAB4 to an SP10 about a year ago. The SP10 is about all the more you're going to get out of a turkey fryer setup. I brew 12 gallons of wort successfully, but it's a little slow to come up to a boil. I have a 60qt pot and I tend to do 5 gal batches. If you can get your first runnings under the flame while you draw the rest of your sparge this helps speed up the process. It's a little extra legwork.

With the KAB4 I got 3 60 min boils out of a standard 20# 5 gal LP propane tank. With the SP 10 I get 5 to 6 60 min boils out of the same tank. Let's call it 4 10 gal batches. Cost is a moderate to high concern for me and my time is cheap on brewday.

I have no doubt that the SP 10 will get you 15 gallons of preboil if you're patient. As for the KAB4, I've heard lots of small microbreweries using 2 of these to make 40 gal batches. I'm pretty sure one would cap out around 20 or 25 gallons. It will get your 10 gal batch up to a boil very quickly (15 min? from sparge temp). It's a mother to dial in for a consistent rolling boil on a batch that's too small. It's also a gas hog. If your time is worth more than mine, then the KAB4 is a beast for about $100.

 

Note on efficincies: I don't use propane for my strike or sparge water. The first half of my brewday is inside on the stove with stock pots.

 

I use the Blichmann and haven't had any complaints, I'm doing 10-12 gallon batches.
http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/blichmann-floor-burner.html

 

I built a stand around this burner and love it. But if you are looking at buying and burner/stand, I saw this.

http://m.ebay.com/itm/like/191254648516?lpid=82&chn=ps

 

For about $40 in parts from Home Depot, I built my own stand:
http://tinyurl.com/psfhklo

At $40 shipped, it's a bit pricier than it was a couple years ago, but still a damn good bang for the buck, IMO. Maybe you can find it cheaper (I searched, but came up empty). FWIW, mine is natural gas, so I don't worry about how many batches I can get from a single refill (millions!). And, since NG is so much cheaper than propane these days, I really couldn't care less about efficiency!

Here is this burner in action. This is the NG version, but I would expect propane to perform much the same. (This video never gets old!)

 

Very cool!

 

I use this Hurricane Stove (converted to LP gas). I use a 10 gal pot and sometimes a 15 gal pot.

http://www.williamsbrewing.com/HURRICANE-STOVE-P2213.aspx

 

I use this same burner. It works amazingly well.

 

Blichmann propane burners for me. I like them because they're clean-burning, put out plenty of BTU for boiling up to 20 gallons in relatively short order, and also because you can dial them way, way down for adding heat to the mash without either scorching or going out.

 

The Bayou Classic is what I use also for my 10 gallon batches. I can brew in frigid temps, as I have this winter already!