kettle insulation

[speed]

What does everybody use to insulate their boil kettle? I found some insulation at menards that was aluminum foil wilth plastic air pockets sandwiched between, guess what the plastic melted.

[Bugeater]

Why would you insulate the boil kettle? I hope you mean a direct heated mash tun. I use an insulated cooler for single infusion batch sparging myself so I don't have a lot of direct experience with your question. A couple of systems I have seen use a cut down water heater insulating jacket. They cut this off so it doesn't reach the bottom of the mash tun and then either keep the flame low when intermittently heating, or remove it alltogether during heating.

Wayne
Bugeater Brewing Company

[speed]

I use a cooler for my hlt right now but wanted to change over to a stainless keg. The hot water i use for sparging has started to warp the interior of the cooler. I thought if you insulate the boil kettle you would get a faster boil and lose less heat and in turn use less propane.

[rich]

I thought if you insulate the boil kettle you would get a faster boil and lose less heat and in turn use less propane.

My tap water is good for brewing, so I let my hot water heater share in the labor. since I do extract/specialty steeping, I'm at about 125 degrees before I even hit the burner. Usually takes about 20 minutes at 70,000 btus to get 6.5 gallons boiling. Once at a boil I turn the gas all the way down and maintain a rolling boil.

[HalifaxNick]

I insulate my conved keg mashtun and HLT with sleeping bags. fold them in on themselves to make them twice as thick and half as long. I get like 2*f drop in 90 minutes.

[BeerPal]

[My tap water is good for brewing, so I let my hot water heater share in the labor. since I do extract/specialty steeping, I'm at about 125 degrees before I even hit the burner. Usually takes about 20 minutes at 70,000 btus to get 6.5 gallons boiling. Once at a boil I turn the gas all the way down and maintain a rolling boil.

My tap water is OK as well, but I wouldn't think of using it without filtering it first. And carbon filters do not work well with hot water. Hence, I do not use water from my heater for brewing.