OK, the FrankenBrewer is starting to take shape in my mind…
Lets assume I use 1/2 barrels as HLT and brew pot…AG, 5 g batches… how many BTU’s do the burners need to be to make things “move along”?
There’s a lot in the 30.000 range for not too much money, but then there are also 70K and more burners… “MORE POWER SCOTTY!!!” So… how much do I need… and:
These suckers are not cheap…does anyone know where the best drag down knock out burner deals are right now?
I don’t care about height/legs…Said burner will be de-legged and mounted under a welded rack that the barrels sit on…
In my very humble opinion, Its not all about Btu’s but how its applied to the kettle…the hurricane burners spread the heat very well and they work great for me! the only time I watch closely is from 150f and up, I make about 2 f higher per minute.
I recently upgraded my burners from the antique jet burners that came on the original sabco system to the regular cast iron burners that are usually rated at 55K or so. I got three of them shipped to me for about $65 from Bayou Classic. http://www.bayouclassicdepot.com/ I called and talked to a nice lady at this place who convinced me that these burners were all I really needed. I had to change the pressure regulator to one with at least 20psi.
As an aside, they stayed lit in the wind better than the banjo burners on another system the same day.
Just as a reference point it would take ~8000 BTU to bring 6.5 gal from room temperature to a boil, assuming no losses. So a burner that’s putting out 30,000 BTU/hr could do it in about 15 minutes if it was running at maximum power. Since I don’t think you want to run them wide open all the time, figure 45 minutes in real life. Like jeffy said, most basic turkey fryer type burners are in the 50k BTU/hr range. That’s what I use and for 5-10 gallon batches they’re plenty powerful.