Stovetop Boil With 30qt Brew Pot/Life of a Propane Tank

[beerdrinker]

Hey,

I have a 30qt brew pot and I'm looking to do some brewing, except I don't have a propane tank and need to wait to get a ride, cause they won't let me bring it on the bus. So I was wondering, is it worth even trying a full batch on the stovetop? How long do you think it'll take to reach a full boil?

2nd, once I do get a propane tank, how long does the tank last? Cause the gas station was charging 42 bucks for a tank (although I think that's including a hefty deposit) but I still don't want to bump the cost per brew up too high.

Thanks,

beerdrinker!

[BDawg]

You'll be waiting a really long time to get it to a boil on the stove. And it might not be enough to keep a vigarous enough rolling boil.

I pay about 15 bucks to refill mine. 42 sounds about right for a new one. Home Depot, etc, will sell you one for about 25-35 depending on where you are.

As far as how long it lasts, you should be able to get 3 or 4 batches out of one, but that will depend on a lot of factors, such as how hefty your burner is, and how big your batches are, how much sparge water you are using, etc.

I HIGHLY suggest you get and keep a full one as a spare (or rotate them). It really sucks to run out of propane with 20 mins left in the boil.

[beerdrinker]

well, I am a primarily extract brewer, and I'm looking to add a BIAB brew to my repertoire, but that saves the need for using the tank for mash time and sparging.

should the tank then last a little more?

[beerdrinker]

Anyone? I'm still looking to see if anyone has had success brewing stovetop with a 30 quart pot and how long a propane tank lasts with a turkey roaster burner doing extract brews?

THanks

[Kacey]

I can get a boil no problem with mine, but it is a aluminum pot, and my stove is electric. With the propane tank I get ALOT brews out of it, mostly this is because my pot is aluminum.

[PDub]

I can get probably close to 5 all grain batches out of my 20lbs propane tank and turkey fryer (also a 30qt aluminum pot). I would think with all the water we heat for all grain, you should probably get twice as many batches with extract. Once I get to a boil, I turn the flame WAY down and still have a vigorous boil. So the 1/2 hour I spend heating mash and sparge water with the gas on pretty high is probably easily as much as a 60 minute boil with the gas turned way down.

[LBrewski]

My first few extract and partial mash batches were brewed on our gas stove with a B3 7.5 Gal kettle. I found I could get 5.5 gallons to boil, more was difficult or required having the lid partially on. Not the optimum situation, but you do with what you have sometimes. I always ended up with less than 5 gallons because I did not want to top off - still made some good beer though.

Although now I brew all-grain outside with 10 gal kettle on a propane burner, I am thinking that I may do extract-in-the-kitchen batches if the weather dictates that I can't brew outside; I need to keep feeding the kegerator, right?