I was talking to our local Hank Hill (propane and propane accessories) while getting three 20# bottles filled up and asked if there was a different kind of burner with which I might boil 13 gallons of liquid and use less propane. It's getting where I spend as much on propane and ice as I do on ingredients!

He pointed me at a $300 ceramic infrared burner. It looks like a flat plate with lots of little holes in it and a wire grating over the top. He said it should be plenty hot enough at 1800F and might even melt my pot if I'm not careful. The grills have a warning sticker on the dial that if you leave the lid down with it turned up that high the stainless steel lid will warp or melt!

He said it is very quiet and although it only uses like 15k BTU of fuel it is hotter than my current 175k BTU 2 piece turkey fryer burner. Boilovers should be no big deal - just turn up the heat and it will all burn off. That's what they do with hamburger drippings, anyway.

I googled around a bit and haven't found anyone using such a burner for heating a kettle; only for heating the brew shed in winter, or grilling brats while tailgating. Are any of you quietly using one of these for heating your brew kettles?

I don't know anything about these, but it sounds like a cool idea - possibly.

Do some research and don't get fooled by the temperature. The fact that it gets to 1800 degrees is meaningless when deciding whether it will supply enough heat to boil wort effectively. It's all about the BTU's. If it burns 15 kBTU's of fuel, I'm betting it provides 15 kBTU's of heat. Where it most likely does have an advantage over a turkey-fryer setup is in the efficiency of getting heat into the wort.

Turkey fryers are terrible at this so you need to burn 165 kBTU's of fuel to effectively heat a brew. OTOH, my electric element sticking into the wort gets almost all of its energy into the wort. IF the ceramic element is decently efficient and gets 80% of it's energy into the water, it should be similar to a 3500W element. That would be adequate for 5 gallons, but not really enough for 10 gallons.

Nothing is going to remove the fact of the equation: 15 kBtu == 15 kBtus. It's all about efficiency. Temp has nothing to do with it. After all, the tip of my propane torch gets to nearly 2000 degrees, but I wouldn't try to boil water with it.

If you are having efficiency problems with your current setup, try making a wind shield for the sides of the pot. If you brew outside where it is windy, that is crucial. It should extend from at least 8 inches below the burner to at least 4 inches up from the bottom of the pot. Leave at most 3/4 gap on the sides of the pot. I have made them from aluminum roof flashing and sheet metal screws. If nothing else, put your boiler somewhere out of the wind or block the wind with a sheet of plywood or something. And turn the burner down. Above a certain point, all you are doing is wasting fuel. It might take 5 minutes longer to get your boil, but if you use 1/2 the fuel, that is fine.

I began using a wind screen last fall when the winter winds started coming in. I cut the bottom out of a metal wash tub. Also a couple of smaller holes in the sides for the propane hose and combustion air. This made a dramatic difference. Now the heat is forced straight up to the pot. Cut a good 10-15 minutes off the time to get to a full boil when the wind is blowing. This time reduction was even with cutting back the gas flow quite a bit. Now I'm boiling quicker and using less gas. I highly recommend the screen, even with no wind.

Wayne
Bugeater Brewing Company