Economy Keg & Burner Conversion. Part 3 The Flame

Lighting the flame from the ball valve port of the keg (now the burner)

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• beer
• homebrew
• wort
• keg
• converting
• conversion
• burner
• brewing.

[REGreenTeam]

It is great to see the "Thinking outside the box" and the "Inventing" going on here. The only suguestion I would have is to add some kind of ceramic defuser over the flame to increase the flame area applied to the bottom of the keg. When the heat is concentrated in such a small area the wort can be scalded or even worst burt. As a hot liqure (hot water only) kettle it would be fine.

[nvmoose2]

I thought the same thing but after 120 gallons of brew to date, I have some of the best brew in my club (or so I'm told of course). Remember the pot is only this hot to achieve my initial boil and then the flame is much cooler. The wort may be picking up some nice roasted flavors in this "hot" area. Remmeber that I am boiling 14 gallons of wort so that is a lot of wort to circulate preventing scalding. Last batch, Dragons Milk, Next batch Fat Tire Clone, Happy Brewing!

[nvmoose2]

First the pump only operates to pump the boiling water into the mash tun, apx 5-8 gallons depending on the brew for (ten min?) Then once again after the mash to "sparge" for 10-15min. Then here is the best part. Once the wort is chilled, I pump the wort, and trudge, (everything) out of the pot with this setup and into my sieves, right into the fermenter. I know it sounds like I get alot of sediment this way, but I have the clearest beer (with less sediment) that the other members in my club.

[ScoobyBrew66]

Dude, this is really AWESOME. I am truly impressed. I just hope you have your door open and your CO2 detector working. Other then than - I loved it. 5 *s.

[nvmoose2]

With the wind here in NV two open doors are plenty for ventilation. I may even install heat shields around the burner at some point. Looking into an inline spark ignitor also. I tried a remote lighter but the gas flow was to fast. I should be posting another vid soon with results of the gas meter question posted earlier on one of these vids. This will be my 6th batch with this setup. That will be 60 gallons of brew .... where did it all go man ....

[koornbread]

That is very cool...

I curious about one thing: How much did you spend to build it?

[nvmoose2]

I have about $175 bucks rolled up in the hole thing. For the keg & burner alone is about $90 bucks. $50 for the keg, $10 for the bed frame, $10 for the dolly that is not really a neccesity (unless you want to roll some hot wort around in you garage, which by the way is really a lot of fun) and about $20 for the copper venturi (this kind of depends on how much "stuff" you have laying around to build crap with, I guess I've got a lot). If you build one, have fun and be carefull!

[spooledheat]

this is awesome!!!

[scuffieduffie]

Put the thing on its side, maybe it will fly away.

[tomroeder]

That is great....very inventive. My concern is, who would want to listen to that pump running for the duration of a brew? Does that annoy you? Have you looked into higher end pumps that are quieter?

[rakfink06]

I have heard stories where gas can settle in the rolled edge on the bottom of kegs and cause explosions. I hope yours has holes to vent any gas.

[maltman14]

Your as made as I am .

Read what the gas meter uses over a minute if a dial meter or 2 minutes if digital take the first reading from the second and calculate the Kw.

I would love to do a gas analysis see if your going ti die :)Get a CO detector :P