Move burner up/down or something else?

[riored4v]

Got the new brewstand put together and was doing a test run of it to make sure it all worked fine. All the burners seem to work right and I get a nice blue flame under the keggles.

One thing I noticed though is that on the outter edges of the stand, there seems to be some heat and/or flames escaping and its blackening the stand. Is this normal?

I'll try to get a pic up here soon, but having not used this before I just want to make sure everything is good to go for my first brew day on it.

I'm using BG-14 burners with a 30psi regulator and ball-valves.

 

[riored4v]

Quick pic:


IMAG2096 by riored4v, on Flickr

 

[de3isit]

If it is not black soot and your flame is still blue while the keg is on it you should be ok. It looks like it is just burning the paint. How far is your burner from the keg? I have mine at about 3.75". You may also be starving the flame of oxygen once the keg is on the stand.

 

[riored4v]

I believe from the keg to the burner it is right around 4". I would have to measure it again to give a more accurate answer. But yes, with the keg on, I can get a nice blue flame running it at a low pressure.

I do have to pretty much keep the oxygen adjustment on the burners wide open to keep the flame blue. From what I can tell, it looks pretty much just like heat related and not soot.

 

[day_trippr]

Hard to tell from the picture, but is there any open space (in the corners, for example) for the burner heat to escape from under the keggle?

Cheers!

[edit] I looked at the other pics on your Flickr page and it appears you've essentially sealed the keggle bottoms to the brew stand and burner shrouds. There's no other way for the burner heat to escape but to flow outside and around the frame members. You might want to consider adding some spacer bars on top of the frame to elevate the keggles to provide an exhaust path...

 

[outside92129]

day_trippr is right, there's no way for the hot exhaust gases to escape so they go downward and scorch your stand. It also noticeably reduces the efficiency of your system (increase in boil time and propane usage) because the exhaust gases are blocking the burning gas. For my setup i cut holes in the keg skirt, approx 1" tall x 4" wide, maybe 4 or 5 of them. I lost my notes but i did a comparison between cut keg and non-cut keg and it was a no brainer. And i don't heat up my frame anymore!

 

[riored4v]

Do you happen to have pics of the cut skirts on the kegs?

Thanks for the feedback guys. I had a feeling that might be the cause, but I wasn't sure since there were still some small holes in the corners on the top of the stand for the gases to escape. My guess is that they just aren't big enough.

If I don't end up cutting holes in the skirts of the kegs, how big of spacer bars should I lay down to lift the keg up?

 

[purplehaze]

Before you make any permanent alterations to your equipment that are hard to reverse, be sure to do your research and use that search button.

One thing I noticed on my single tier, is that as nice as these stands look when they are new they do not stay that way unless its made out of SS.

I think other posters are right, you are getting some back up of exhaust gasses. If it's difficult for the exhaust to escape, the gasses will be forced downward hindering burner performance.

I had a similar problem and solved it by installing SS bolts into the bottom of the skirt. This lifted the keggle about 3/8" which was enough to let the exhaust gases escape. I ended up doing further mods to the keggle itself and burner height that reduced my brew time and propane usage even more. Links to some of the things I have done are at the bottom of my sig.

 

[riored4v]

I was thinking i might try to place some metal rods on the stand to act as spacers and if it works, I'll have them welded in place. I'm just unsure on what a good height would be to start with. If that fails I'll look in to cutting holes, since like you mentioned, I'm not wanting to do anything that can't be un-done.

I did notice that when I was doing a test run that the propane usage seemed to be high and the rate of heating was fairly low.

 

[purplehaze]

I started with metal rods but that eventually became a pain. I thought I had some pics of the bolts in the pot skirt thread but I didnt so here is one.

 

[riored4v]

How come the bars became a pain? The bolts looks like a nice solution as well.

 

[purplehaze]

They became a pain because it was something else I needed to mess with on brew day. Sometimes I would misplace one or two or while shifting the keggle one would drop into the burner, grass, etc. Its a little more work installing them but worth it to me.

 

[riored4v]

Ah ok. That makes sense. I guess I was assuming you had the bars welded in place.

I might end up going the route of the bars since I might switch over to a normal kettle, but if they work, I'll likely have them welded in place.

Would it be beneficial to do both bars and drill holes on the skirt, or just start with the bars and see how it works?

 

[day_trippr]

I think I'd go with some solid bar that would give you an inch of elevation off the deck, and leave the keggles alone...

Cheers!

 

[purplehaze]

I dont want to say that it wont work but I do remember a thread where someone experimented with adding additional skirt holes. If I remember correctly his time to boil increased. I think he eventually scraped his keggle because it was too much time and money to reverse it.

Also there are more experimental threads on burner height. For keggles the burner needs to be closer than for a pot. Mine is around 2 3/8" from the keggle.

 

[riored4v]

Interesting about the height. I had kept finding posts saying right about 4" was ideal.

Also, do places like Home Depot/Lowe's carry solid bar that I can use for the spacers?

 

[purplehaze]

From what I have read 4" is for a flat bottomed pot. I will try and find the thread with the boil times quoted.

 

[outside92129]

Here's the link on the modifications to the burner height:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/modding-kab4-6-a-259864/

I do remember the post about keggle holes causing longer boil times. But he goes on to say that it was because of the wind getting in there blowing his flame around. So just don't make too many holes!

And here's a pic of my keggle, i have 4 of these and have never had a problem with wind. Be careful on the top cut as you can easily cut into the keggle bottom. Previously i experimented with bars on the top of the brew stand but like the posters above it was a pain on brew day. It also vented exhaust below the keggle which heated the stand up, though not as much as before, but enough to make the stainless red hot - that's enough for the chromium to leave and my stainless is starting to rust

 

[riored4v]

Thanks for the link. Interesting about the times difference between 2" and 4".

Wondering if it would be better now to just cut some holes instead of raising the keg

I ended up picking up some 3/4" tubing last night to raise the keg off the stand and was planning on trying that. If I do that, should I also raise the burner?

 

[OHIOSTEVE]

I had boxes built around my burners.. took a sawzall and whacked em off. the keg worked but not real efficient.. I put a big flat bottomed pot on em and the flame would basically die out.

 

[riored4v]

I ended up with 3/4" spacer bars and so far those seemed to work out really well. After measuring with the spacer bars in place, it was 4" from the burner to the bottom of the kettle so I'm going to move the burners up next.