Heat shield for site glass

[muledogus]

Brewed my first batch in my new Boilermaker G2 yesterday and spent the entire boil trying to prevent the site glass from boiling over. It really put a damper on the brew day.

I plan on trying to reverse the way I put the heat shield on next time to see if that helps but was hoping someone here has some experience with this kind of thing. I put the shield on so most of it was over the burner and the smaller portion was hanging outside of it. Perhaps that let the shield itself get too hot. Like I said, I'll try having the smaller portion over the burner now and the larger end sticking out but the way I had trouble didn't make me feel like it would make that big of a difference. I didn't notice anything at first but then the site glass started blowing wort through the top hole back into the kettle and then I knew I had to watch it. Anytime after that, I got to a nice rolling boil the liquid in the glass would start bubbling and I knew I had to cool it down.

Also, anyone know how bad it really is to have the site glass boiling? I don't mind if I can't tell the level of wort during the boil. I just don't want the thing to burst or develop a permanent defect.

 

[muledogus]

of course I meant sight glass, haha.

 

[day_trippr]

The 20g G1 kettles came with an asymmetrically stamped piece of stainless sheet - the slot was off-center by an inch or so in both dimensions. If it was installed with the slot towards the outside (larger section of ss towards the center of the kettle) and with the larger slot-to-edge span to the left it would protect both the vinyl ball valve handle cover and the sight gauge. I've had zero issues with boiling sight gauges on my bk or hlt.

I don't know what the G2 kettles come with wrt heat shield design, but your description sounds like it's similar. If you have the longer slot-to-edge span towards the sight gauge and it's still boiling I can only fathom you run your burner hotter than I do...

Cheers!

 

[muledogus]

I had it set like the pics below. Pretty sure it's as you described. I only have the 10 gallon so the radius from center of burner to sight glass is going to be a couple inches shorter than your 20 gallon, I'd imagine. Thanks for the input. I'll keep playing and figure out what works.

 

[day_trippr]

Right, that's how I use mine, atop a Blichmann burner that uses the same element as your Edelmetall.

The one difference I see is the vertical metal tabs on your stand appear to be further away from your kettle sidewall than the adjustable pot holders on my stand (which I adjusted to almost touch the kettle on all four "sides"). That would put your shields a bit further out than mine, which reach beyond the step and contact the kettle bottom. It's possible you're getting high heat popping out between the shield and the kettle bottom because the shield doesn't extend beyond the step. Hard to tell exactly from the pic...

Cheers!