Brew Kettle Upgrade?

[brodie113]

Hi -

I currently have a 15 gal brew kettle that is on the economy end of the scale. It is similar to the first link below, (just smaller). The driver is to heat more efficiently from my square high pressure propane burner (second link). It is 55K BTUs so doing 10 gal batches can take some time to heat to a boil. I have thought about upgrading my burner but wondered if the weaker link was the brew kettle or the burner.

http://northernbrewer.com/pics/fullsize/italian-kettle-28-gal.jpg
http://www.bayouclassicdepot.com/sq14_propane_burner.htm

I am thinking of upgrading to a better kettle, namely one that has a thicker bottom. The Blichmann BoilerMakers look bad ass but are about $100 more expensive than the morebeer or northerbrewer house kettles.

My question is whether the kettles with a thicker, layered bottom significantly better at conducting heat than the lesser quality kettles?

Thanks

[Charlie]

I currently have a 15 gal brew kettle that is on the economy end of the scale. It is similar to the first link below, (just smaller). The driver is to heat more efficiently from my square high pressure propane burner (second link). It is 55K BTUs so doing 10 gal batches can take some time to heat to a boil. I have thought about upgrading my burner but wondered if the weaker link was the brew kettle or the burner.

Mmmm. I bought a Blichmann 10 gal for my BK. It has the step bottom, sight glass and the thermometer. These are not features that are much needed in a BK.

All of the pots I've seen (Tremonti, Polarware, Vollrath, Blichmann) are 18 ga. The Tremonti pots have an aluminum clad bottom (mine is a 24 qt mash tun, so I dunno what that's good for), but if you go with the Blichmann you're not going to get a thicker bottom.

I subbed a 7" banjo burner into the $110 Academy Sports 2 burner stand I got for $35 at a garage sale (replaced one of the cheap Chinese burners) and dropped my HLT warmup from 1 hr to 30 minutes. I'm still using one of the Chinese burners to fire the BK, but it will go away any day now (the sooner the better).

I'd say switch to a better burner. You don't need the sight gauge, step bottom and thermometer on a BK (water boils at 100C at STP, so who cares), and you can probably sub the new burner into your current brew rig (if you have a brew rig, and not a couple of single burner units). There are sources on-line that offer many types of burners. I don't have the URL handy, so help us out TBN guys...

Charlie

[Mylo]

My question is whether the kettles with a thicker, layered bottom significantly better at conducting heat than the lesser quality kettles?

Go B3 dude. Their stainless clad aluminum bottoms are the reason alone. Aluminum spreads the heat more. Just like that expensive cookware for your kitchen. Those kettles have been on my wish list for some time. One day they will be mine.

Blichmann's are really nice, and I have seen them recently in person - but they are a chunk of change - and they don't have the nice bottom.


Mylo

[brodie113]

Go B3 dude. Their stainless clad aluminum bottoms are the reason alone. Aluminum spreads the heat more.

I'd say switch to a better burner.

And, therein is my confusion... The burner is the cheaper upgrade. In actuality I will end up upgrading both so I will just have to figure out which one I want to get first.

Thanks for the responses.

[Bugeater]

The burner you are looking at has the same BTU output as the one you already have. What you want is the KAB4 Banjo Burner. http://www.webstaurantstore.com/bayou-c ... 4KAB4.html

This one runs 210 K BTU vs the 55 K BTU for the one you are considering. I recently purchased one of these and it considerably shortened the length of time to bring my wort to a boil. The downside is that it uses quite a bit more gas. The trade off is shorter brew day vs paying less for gas.

Wayne