Beer Forum

I asked this same question over at B3

Brewtime wrote:





Ok this for those who have built brew rigs. which burner do you prefer. I would like to hear your pros and cons for each and if you had to do it again would you chose a different one

EDIT: I am making a Brutus clone so it will be automated if that makes a difference in your decision.

Banjo burners ARE high pressure. The one in your pic is just the LARGE one. They also make the "other" style - that comes with many turkey fryers. It is adjustable - like the banjos - but not nearly as much.

I just finished my sculpture. I chose a LP jet (or wok) burner for the HLT - largely because I am using an automated valve that only operates at low pressure. I had heard that the LP burners aren't very adjustable - ie. either ON or OFF. I called Chris Graham from B3 to discuss this. He confirmed that it would probably not be good for the boil because if this limitation - and he mentioned that they put HP banjos as the boil burner on all their sculptures. I put a banjo on my boil (like I had originally). It is definitely more adjustable.


Mylo

Mylo wrote:
I just finished my sculpture. I chose a LP jet (or wok) burner for the HLT - largely because I am using an automated valve that only operates at low pressure. I had heard that the LP burners aren't very adjustable - ie. either ON or OFF. I called Chris Graham from B3 to discuss this. He confirmed that it would probably not be good for the boil because if this limitation - and he mentioned that they put HP banjos as the boil burner on all their sculptures. I put a banjo on my boil (like I had originally). It is definitely more adjustable.


Mylo

I will have asco valves on the HLT and MT so what you are sayinf to use the LP jet

No, asco valves are just ON/OFF. You can use anything with them. I have an intermittent pilot valve that kicks on the burner with the flip of a switch (or relay). Kinda like the B3s "digital SMART" but even better because there is no standing pilot. Same valve used on your gas fireplace. BTW, I found an AWESOME deal on one ($100). I have never seen them lower than $150.


Mylo

I bought all 3 of my burners from 2 different hardware stores here in town.
They are all the multi-jet kind, two 10 jet, and one 23 jet.
The problem is, the people at theses hardware shops didn't know what they were talking about.
They were all supposed to be LP, unfortunately only 1 was, I also had 1 HP and 1 natural gas.
I had to buy some jets from a friend and relace them and now they leak.
I tried teflon but it just burned away, hopefully this gasket maker stuff works.

Anyway, I love the way these look, and the one that works performs great. Hopefully I can get the other 2 in better shape.
Just wanted to let you know that it's true that the more parts the more likely chance for something to fail.
Although if you order from B3 I doubt you'll run into as much trouble if any.

Prost,
0006

I have two different styles of burners on my Brutus, all high pressure. One banjo burner like the one pictured and two standard jet style burners. The Banjo burner is under my HLT and the other two under the boil and mash tun. So far the combo of the three burners has worked great. I used the Banjo under the hlt so I can heat up my water quickly. The mash and boil really don't need massive burners - you don't want to burn your mash, and once you transfer to your boil kettle your wort should already be fairly hot.

I will be making one mod, and post the advice for everyone here... Do not remove the adjustable air damper on the burners. It is not dangerous, just makes for a crappy burn. Someone at my local LHBS told me they were not necessary, so I left them off when I put my system together. Now I'm taking things apart to put them on.

Lars wrote:I will be making one mod, and post the advice for everyone here... Do not remove the adjustable air damper on the burners. It is not dangerous, just makes for a crappy burn. Someone at my local LHBS told me they were not necessary, so I left them off when I put my system together. Now I'm taking things apart to put them on.

I also used to think that those air mix gates were useless on the banjos. I would always just adjust my gas until the flame was maximum - but not leaping off the burner. Then I figured out that you can crank the gas (which makes the flame start to leap off) - and then dial back the air for an outrageously large flame.


Mylo

I have a couple of the jet burners and a banjo burner with the 30 psi regulator. They each have their pros and cons. The jet burners are much louder than the banjo. The banjo gets my wort to a boil much faster than the jet burners. The banjo uses a hell of a lot more gas to get there.

If using the banjo burner with a normal 5 gallon propane you will have trouble with the tank valve shutting off the flow if you open the valve on the regulator too fast with the tank less than 1/2 full. This is supposedly a safety feature to shut off the uncontrolled flow of gas in case of a broken gas line. With the banjo burner I just barely have the regulator valve open to keep a full rolling boil going. If I had to do it over again I would go with the 20 psi regulator.

Wayne