Gas burner for 200 litre pot

[Aleman]

22 KW should be fine. As I said, I have no problem getting 130L to a boil with my 11KW heater, but I do have a heat shroud round the entire kettle

This is the naked kettle with the paella burner



I then fitted casters, and added the shroud which leave about a 1" gap between the side of the copper and the shroud . . Plus the burner doing it's stuff

.

At 37mBar . . . it took 40L of water from 25C to 78C in 25 minutes . . . which agrees very closely with what Andy's excellent calculator says it should. The theory behind the shroud is that the waste heat goes up the sides of the pot and traps a layer of very hot air this prevents heat being lost from the pot to the outside air. . . OK some is lost from the shroud, but it works really well. . .if I only boil say 80L I end up with a ring of caramelised wort just above the liquid wort caused by the liquid splashing onto the heated surface.

If I was to make it again I would have it come much further towards the ground, as when it's breezy it does blow the flame about . . . I'm getting a ring of steel to rivet onto it to prevent that. . . . but I don't want to foul the caters, they are just to convenient to not have working properly

[Horatio]

Wow! that looks awesome Alemans! Many thanks for the advice, I think I'll look at doing something similar. I'll get the 22kw burner. Am I right in thinking that propane would be better than butane?

[Aleman]

The only real difference between butane and propane is that propane still works at very low temps . . . butane stops working around 8C . . . if you brew indoors I guess its fine. . . .but given the air requirements that is not to be recommended.

The other thing is that Butane uses a fixed pressure regulator, with propane you have the options of using a variable pressure one, plus they can deliver different amounts of gas per hour. I have a 50 to 150mBar reg that will give up to 4Kg per hour . . . which is required for these higher powered burners.

[Horatio]

Great stuff, that helps a lot. I've just sourced a 47kg propane cylinder so will get a regulator and the burner next week. The outbuilding gets very cold in the winter so the propane will be most suitable then. It's a 6 x 4m building with large double doors and several opening windows so I'm guessing there will be adequate ventilation. Many thanks for all the help.

[Aaron]

I'm interested as to how this panned out Horatio. Could the 22kw paella burner cope with 180L wort?

[Horatio]

I'm interested as to how this panned out Horatio. Could the 22kw paella burner cope with 180L wort?

It's been put on hold at the moment. I've been offered a 2 BBL set up for a reasonable price so have not gone with the 200l set up. The brewery is doing well and I have some solid orders for regular beers so am seriously considering the 2BBL...

[Aaron]

Glad to hear it's going well.

Are you full-time brewing? I've only been homebrewing a couple of months and already I want to go pro.

[Horatio]

Glad to hear it's going well.

Are you full-time brewing? I've only been homebrewing a couple of months and already I want to go pro.

It's more of a paying hobby really. I am far from making a living but have six pubs taking beer on a regular basis. One of which want me to supply them with 8 firkins of IPA (to be their house ale) every week! Hence the upgrade to the 2BBL kit. Even then it may still fall short of a living? I'm fortunate in that I get a reasonable pension from the fire service so only need to supplement that income. I also have a big enough outbuilding to accommodate the 2BBL kit. My local council are ok with it too. This lowers my overheads considerably.

[barry44]

Sorry to jump in lads and take this slightly off topic but i am wondering if any one could assist me?

I am considering making the jump to propane but am currently trying to crunch the numbers to see if it is more cost effective than the well insulated electric boiler that i currently have.

Is it possible to determine how many brews that i would get out of a standard 13kg propane tank with a boil volume of 35 litres or so?

Can anyone assist?

[daddies-beer-factory]

Hi Barry,
I have just checked - I brewed 450 pints with a 13 kg bottle

that is 5 and a half brews ( average 82 pints per brew) 82 + 82 + 82 + 82 + 82 + 44 (gas cut out half way thru last brew)

I tend to heat the HLT of 77 Litres the night before to about 60/70 degrees to save time in the morning

[barry44]

Thanks for that.

[daddies-beer-factory]

no worries.
my water profile is 77l in the HLT & I end up with 46 L of lovely beer in the fermenter (so a double brew size ?)

as said earlier i heat the HLT the night before to save time in the morn

[daddies-beer-factory]

I just had a check - the average price is 30 quid to refill a 13 kg propane bottle.

this works out at just under 7 pence per pint in gas.