Looking for a good burner

[brewcephus]

As the title states, I'm looking for a new burner to brew with. I'm currently using a burner that I "borrowed" from my mom. I use it for boiling crawfish, shrimp and brewing beer. However, it is very inefficient and noisy when it comes to, well, doing any of the above. I would love to buy the blichman burner but just really don't have those kinds of funds right now. I found this one on brewers hardware, but it looks like all you get with it is the burner itself and then have to buy all the other hardware and such to go with it.

I'm still doing extract currently and looking to move towards all grain in the near future, so whatever I get will make the move with me. Just looking for suggestions at this point as to something that will be worthwhile and affordable.

My cooking vessel is a keggle, btw. Don't know if that will help with the suggestions or not.

 

[govner1]

I started out w/ my stovetop then moved to a Blichmann w/ the leg extensions. It's the best investment in brewing equipment I've made. It is very good quality, efficient , and very quiet vs. most that sound like a jet taking off!
You won't be sorry if you get one.

 

[LBussy]

Before I answer let me say that I have been brewing a long time, way before anyone made any fancy purpose-built tools and equipment. Because of that I knew I was just plain smarter than everyone else going out and spending perfectly good money on fancy bling for brewing. I was however recently in the market for a burner, and had some spare cash in an account SWMBO didn't know about, and she would have known if I bought $150 worth of candy, so I bought this:

The Blichmann Floor Burner is honestly worth every penny. If you go out there and piece together what you need to make a DIY replacement for this, you are around $100 anyway. The rest is all in the stainless and for this particular piece, form meets function.

The picture above is from Northern Brewer's website, however $149.99 is what you will pay no matter where you buy it pretty much. Since it is drop-shipped from Blichmann I don't even think a free shipping sale will help.

I've cut my gas usage by 1/3. If that doesn't seem like much, make a mental note to ponder this next time you are paying for a refill. It is also very good at keeping the heat where you need it. I believe the burner you list there is the same general banjo, but the rest of the work Blichmann does is worth the investment IMHO.

Long story short it turns out I'm not smarter than everyone else - just stubborn and cranky.

 

[DoctorMemory]

SWBO upgraded me to a 10 gallon pot and [this burner] (http://www.keystonehomebrew.com/sho...ts-accessories/54000-btu-propane-burners.html). Definitely an improvement over my Craigslist turkey fryer.

 

[ThatGeekGuy]

+10 on the Blichmann. Save your money and keep what you've got for now until you can afford the Blichmann and the leg extensions. Quiet, sips fuel and works great. All stainless except for the burner casting, will last you a lifetime.

 

[brewcephus]

+10 on the Blichmann. Save your money and keep what you've got for now until you can afford the Blichmann and the leg extensions. Quiet, sips fuel and works great. All stainless except for the burner casting, will last you a lifetime.

thanks, I was kind of leaning towards that was just hoping that maybe there was something else out there that rivaled the blichmann, yet didn't cost so much . Not that the blichmann is expensive, but $150 for a burner would def be unreasonable as far as SWMBO is concerned. Budgets kind of tight these days as is, so I won't be getting any new equipment or brew ingredients for a bit, though I do have 4 extracts currently waiting to be cooked. Working on finishing up my ferm cooler before I cook them though as I don't want my ferm temps getting out of hand this summer. In south MS it's hard to maintain 60-65* temps without some sort of ferm chamber

Guess the blichmann will be my next purchase. Time to start wrapping change lol