Anyone here have any experience with these burners?
I’m guessing it’s the same cast element from the blichmann and the new bling-bling model from Northern Brewer. Obviously the frame isn’t as aesthetically pleasing as those two, but i’m not really concerned with that.
Seems to be a decent price for those of us unable to fab their own frame. I’m more curious about the effectiveness of the wind shield, and the perception of burner height with respect to a flat bottom kettle.
The KAB4 and KAB6 both seem to require lowering the pot supports for max effectiveness.
I don’t have any experience with that one… But my burner does use the same frame (just has the smaller burner in the middle). I can tell you that frame is pretty much indestructible lol.
I have the more basic banjo burner–the one with a round frame and a single burner. It works well. I’m sure you can get a faster boil with that kind of burner.
Mine also has a wind screen and it helps if you’re brewing outdoors but if it’s windy outside the screen is not going to do a lot for you. Additionally, a lot of the heat comes up the sides of the kettle and helps keep the wort hot/boiling so if it’s windy you’re going to lose some of that heat regardless of the screen down by the flames.
I’d look at Banjo’s website, Amazon and local sporting goods stores for a better price. With turkey day coming up a lot of stores will put turkey fryers on sale. I’m not sure if that model goes on sale or how much cheaper you could get it but you might as well probe around and see what you can find.
Thanks for the responses guys! I’m still waffling about the bayou classic kab4 or kab6, you just hear too many complaints of wasted propane / heat from the burner distance to the kettle.
Oh actually I do have that burner just on a different frame (the banjo frame) it does suck hard. I never use it. It puts out a ridiculous amount of heat everywhere except into the kettle. I’ve melted brew buckets that were 4 feet away from it during a brew day. Though that frame from adventures doesn’t have alot of space between them… I dunno I’ve been meaning to modify my banjo to add a wind screen to prevent so much sideways heat loss.
EDIT: Oh looks like Adventures has a wind screen on that one.
I have a KAB4, but I use the 82quart Bayou Classic Kettle. I find that my 44 quart kettle is too narrow and a lot of heat goes up the outside. I still have my jet burner (SP-10) that I use with my 10 gallon kettle to heat sparge water if I need to. It was loud, but did a great job with the narrower kettle. You could go with the Blichmann for $139.00 all SS! That will be my next burner.
You need to build a heat skirt around your burner. Build it out of a galvanized wash tub. I got the idea from the Zymurgy Gadgets Issue a year or three ago. It works like a champeen!
Figured i’d post a reply after some hands on with the burner I ended up going with. With Northern Brewer offering 20% off (excluding Blichmann), I ended up getting the Edelmetall burner, steam punk aesthetics aside, I’ve used this to cook up 25 lbs of potatoes for the holidays a single batch of beer. This thing is whisper quiet and feels to be rock solid in construction.
Without using the Blichmann I can’t comment on any comparable traits, but the wind screen is more than effective and I think the inclusion of only a 10 psi requlator is perfect. Sure I could get a much larger flame with 30 psi, but this seem to stress the tank less, and realistically we do not need flames licking up the outside of our kettles for a quick and solid boil.
I think within a couple minutes of connecting it to my tank, I was able to dial in a good air/fuel mix to allow only blue flames with enough fuel adjustment left to really bring this burner up to a fast boil.