So the friendly neighborhood UPS guy just dropped off my new Bayou Classic SP-10. I was like a kid on Christmas morning when I opened the box. However after taking a look at the beast and reading through the manual I must admit I’m a little intimidated, having never used a stand-alone burner this big before.
The assembly was straight-forward: Screw the hose barb into the burner and tighten.
Any tips for using it to help me prevent myself from either frying my face off or blowing up/burning down my house and the surrounding countryside? My main concern after reading the manual was the use of it in my garage. The manual explicitly said not to do that. I’ll be using it outside in the open air when possible but was hoping to be able to use it in my garage when necessary (with both doors wide open of course).
Just check for gas leaks, using windex or some soapy mix in a spray bottle. If you see bubbles, tighten or use some teflon tape. I alway boil outside, better safe than sorry when it comes to carbon monoxide. (gotta save some brain cells ) Make sure you have it on low when you light it up, you can hear how much gas is flowing. Happy Brewing!!
So spray the windex along the length of the hose especially where it’s connected to the burner? I’m not as worried about the carbon monoxide (since my garage is pretty big and with both doors open it should be ventilated enough) as I am about lighting the ceiling on fire.
And yeah, if I can brew outside on the driveway I will. But my brew days will generally need to be planned kind of far in advance and if I have to rely on the weather being good then that’ll put a crimp in the plan.
I have that same burner, it’s powerful but nothing to be scared of. Just adjust the regulator to get a nice solid blue flame and you’re good to go. Oh, and make SURE you run it outside the first time. The paint will cook off near the top and CO or no, you don’t want those fumes in your garage.
Yeah, I read the reviews on amazon before I bought it and they made the point of saying to fire it up outdoors the first time to burn off the paint. As an aside I was amused that the majority of the reviews I read were from homebrewers. Generally you read product reviews and still have to make a guess if it was something you wanted to buy. With a bunch of homebrewers giving it high marks it made the purchase a lot easier.
Yes, mostly at the connections. I forgot about the burning off of the paint…it really stinks, glad you know about it. Don’t worry about burning your ceiling as your kettle will be covering the flame.
I got the KAB4 and love the extra power. The direction manual is the same and admittedly scary.
Here is somehting I have been meaning to post:
The KAB4 depends on high pressure propane to go into afterburner mode. I notices that after I heated my strike water, my tank was iced up pretty good. I couldn’t get the super high blast to boil. Granted, 10" of pretty good flame was better than the 45KBTU burner I did have.
So the question is- anyone else in the temperate zone have trouble with these burners icing up the Propane? From what I have read-the propane “boils” to change state from liquid to gas. This uses the available ambient heat to happen.
The other thing I didn’t try is to just swap a fresh tank. I have two and can get them topped up to the full 20# for pretty cheap vs worrying about wasting a few pounds to go trade in the tank.
You can switch tanks, hook up two tanks at once, or use a larger tank (refills are cheaper per lb with larger tanks).
The LP (liquid propane) does need to go from liquid to gas to go through the regulator. When you use the propane rapidly, it uses the heat that is in the propane to “boil”, hence dropping the temperature of the surrounding liquid and tank. A larger surface area to evaporate the liquid from is the best cure for slow evaporation due to cold temps.
One other question on this burner: What kind of propane usage am I looking at? Will one standard 15 lb tank get me threw a brew session? I have another tank attached to my grill that I could fall back on but it’s no where near full so I’d need to top it off before I brewed if it was likely I was going to need it.
I don’t know where you are, but here in the States a standard tank is 20 lb. That lasts me five or six brew sessions - heating ~8 gallons of mash and sparge water, and doing a 60 minute boil.
I’m in the US. Yeah, I was thinking the standard weight was 20 lbs, but just to make sure before I posted I went and looked at the tank and it said “Net Weight 15 lbs”. It’s a standard size propane tank you’d find anywhere. Maybe that weight is referring to the weight of the tank itself?
Either way, I think that you’ve provided the answer. I’ll be good to go with one tank. Thanks.
i blow through gas when working with about 18 gallons of strike water on big grain bills. I thought that you could get 20lbs of gas if you go to a refill spot and only 15 at a swap.
anyway, i had a warm backup tank and was able to get my boilover accomplished.
) Make sure you have it on low when you light it up, you can hear how much gas is flowing. Happy Brewing!!