bhaslip wrote:I am really want to buy the Blichmann 55 gallon Boilermaker kettle. Does anyone have experience with heating that amount of wort? Could it be done with propane? What would be the best way to heat it? Thanks.
I brew in 55 gal stainless steel drums (the Blichman items are much prettier). In my system heat is supplied by steam coils fitted into the vessels. These are hooked to a 299 KBTU steam boiler designed for the replacement market in steam heated buildings). This works well because the steam can be turned on and off by a controller but is obviously not suited to most installations because of the need for room in your house/garage for the boiler and associated plumbing (gas, flue, steam, condensate and feed water) and liberal, indifferent or "flexible" building inspectors in your jurisdiction.
The 175 KBTU wok burner should be able to raise 40 gal water from 60 to boiling in (212 - 60)*8.33*40/175000/efficiency = 17.4/efficiency minutes i.e. 34.8 minutes at 50% efficiency. You must think about 1) makeup air and 2) removal of combustion gasses using an item like that. I do have a friend who has one of these (in a wok stove) in his kitchen but it has a professional 12' hood (no makeup air supply though as I recall) - I have no idea how he got that setup past the inspectors either but he did.