Keggle taking forever to heat... ideas?

[badmajon]

Hello everyone, I have a keggle and it is taking a very long time to heat up. It takes about 45 minutes to heat to mash temp, and over one hour to heat to sparge or boil. I have a banjo burner and a standard 15.5 gal keggle. I also adjust the air intake to the smallest opening, which seems to get rid of the yellow flame as much as possible. I set it to a level where the hiss is barely audible.

One thing I do not do is use a lid, should I?

Also, I am not turning the propane flow high enough? I used to have it roaring, but I would only get 2.5-3 (5 gallon) batches per propane tank that way. Now I can usually get 4-5, but brewing takes about 6 hours on a good day due to the excessive heating times.

I've also attached pictures of my setup, maybe there is some glaring problem. As you can see I welded brackets onto my burner to stabilize the keggle.

 

[Stauffbier]

I have a mediocre burner that I modified in the same way as yours. It also had issues with my keggle, so I use my smaller 11 gallon Bayou kettle. I might be wrong, but that doesn't look like a banjo burner. I believe banjo's have a larger burner with more BTU's.

Anyway, what I did was make an insulation jacket for my keggle out of Reflectix . It only went about 2/3 of the way down the side of the kettle from the top down, since the lower section is too hot and will melt the insulation. It seemed to help retain heat, but it was only a Band-Aid fix.

You can use the lid for heating water and bringing wort up to a boil, but you'll want to remove it when the boil begins.

In the end we both need better burners.

 

[splattsmier]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but more fuel --> bigger fire --> more heat --> less boil time.

 

[Stauffbier]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but more fuel --> bigger fire --> more heat --> less boil time.

He mentioned that he tried that, but it wastes too much propane.

In my case, my burner has a safety switch that will shut the burner off if it gets too hot. Every time I try to boil in my keggle I have to crank up the heat, but it always trips the safety switch. My smaller kettle doesn't require as much heat, so it doesn't trip it. When I did get the keggle to actually boil it was only a gentle boil, so I gave up on it. A new burner is on my wish list for this year...

 

[splattsmier]

Well as you said, you either stick a band-aid on it, bite the fuel bullet, or upgrade. Personally I'd fork over the extra propane costs to cut 2 hours off my brewday, but to each their own.

Good luck bud!

 

[northcal]

How many btu's is your banjo?

I can heat my keggle up to mash temps in about 10'-15' if I open the burner up. I think it's 150K btu.

 

[amandabab]

the SP-10 is air starved with a keggle. the add-on tabs make it fit, but there is only 6 1" tall exhaust vents, and it has to vent DOWN. it just can't breath.
its not the burner or the BTU's its the frame/vessel combo.
just wasting propane.


its a cup burner, not a banjo

 

[day_trippr]

Do they really call that wee little thing a "banjo burner"? It looks like an infant compared to one of these 10" beasts...

Now that's a banjo burner!

Cheers!

 

[badmajon]

Oh... You are right, it's a sp10 bayou burner, not a banjo burner. Thanks for the input guys. Amandabab, what if I just raised the spot where the keggle sits up an inch? Would that improve things?

Here is another pic... You can see it does seem to have a gap there.

 

[Stauffbier]

I actually considered raising the burner on mine to get it closer to the bottom of the kettle, since the keg bottom sits higher up.

 

[amandabab]

with a welder, I might just make a bigger base (like a sq-14).

you don't want to go too high above burner.
There are 2 types of sp-10, the older model has the burner higher and has a cut-out on the wind screen that the burner tucks up into. with this one you have more room to raise things.
the newer model has the burner lower and its under the wind screen with no cutout.
the older model also came with a 20psi regulator and put out 175,000 btu with the same burner.

it wouldn't take much to make a cutout and raise the burner

 

[Stauffbier]

Not sure what the model of mine is. The burner is under the wind shield, but there's a good 1.5" of space between it and the shield. It would be super easy to raise it without much modification. I actually planned out how I would do it a long time ago, but I haven't needed my large kettle. I imagine someday I'll get around to doing it.

 

[badmajon]

So, bring up the burner a bit? What is the best distance from burner to keggle bottom (the actual steel bottom, not the bottom rim)?

 

[Stauffbier]

I can't give you a definitive answer, and I should mention making modifications can be dangerous if not done correctly/safely.

With that said I'm probably going to raise mine about 1.5 inches, because that's how much higher the bottom of the keggle is as compared to my flat bottomed kettle.

 

[purplehaze]

Badmajon, I have had similar issues with the amount of time and propane used to bring wort to a boil. Maintaining a decent rolling boil during winter months was impossible. That is until I did some research and made some adjustments.

1) Definitely use a lid on your keggle that will help bring the wort to a boil fastest.

2) The burner looks too far away from the bottom of the pot. I don't really know what the best distance is for your setup as I have 10" burner. Also I only have a 3/8" gap for exhaust gases to escape so yours looks adequate.

3) Insulation would definitely help retain heat instead of losing it to the environment. You can also surround the keggle with a cheap aluminum skirt. This skirt will direct the hot gases up the sides of the keggle instead of losing them to the wind. This additional heat will lower your time and propane usage.

See the "pot skirt" thread in my signature or click here: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/saving-propane-time-while-winter-brewing-393425/

 

[CBMbrewer]

May have been said already but I when I add water to the MLT/HLT I get as hot water as I can from the sink. My water can come out of the faucet at over a hundred degrees. Helps a lot. Definitely keep a lid on it. Heat likes to expand.

 

[splattsmier]

I would think this goes without saying, but if you put a lid on it make sure you remove it once the boil starts; DMS is a nasty thing.

 

[badmajon]

Hey everyone big success here on cutting down brew time, I raised the burner to being 2 inches from the top and drilled some holes around the wind guard for increased oxygen flow. Now I am getting to mash in temp in about 20-25 mins and sparge (190 deg) in about half hour or so.

 

[Stauffbier]

Hey everyone big success here on cutting down brew time, I raised the burner to being 2 inches from the top and drilled some holes around the wind guard for increased oxygen flow. Now I am getting to mash in temp in about 20-25 mins and sparge (190 deg) in about half hour or so.

Nice!

I didn't end up raising mine yet, but I did dis-engage the safety cut-off switch. Thanks to that I can crank up the heat more without overheating. Last weekend I brought my normal kettle to a boil in about half the time as usual. I didn't notice a large loss of propane, as the tank is still pretty heavy.

I still plan on raising the burner eventually, so I can use my larger kettle...