I am building my own brewing stand, but for the burner I am thinking of the bg12 or the bg14. The BG12 is a 6 inched orface and the a high regulator hose and the bg14 is a 10 inch orface. My question is will the bg12 have enough btus to boil 8.5 gallons of wort from the starting pre-boil or not? I am thinking since I will need three burners that the cost difference is about $75 for one. But if it cannot I will get one bg14 for the boil and the 12 for mash and hlt.
Thanks
Erik
For 5 gallon batches you’ll be fine… Why not use a cooler as a mash-tun instead of a kettle and a burner… I mean your only looking for 140-165*? originally did my stand as a gravity set up… worked fine… HLT had a low pressure banjo burner, strike water didn’t need to boil, right? The BK had the high pressure and would get a rolling boil fairly quick… Sneezles61
I am not starting homebrewing. I am upgrading. I already have 3 stainless steel kettles. One 8 gallon and 2 15 gallons
I recently spent some time sorting out the terminology and various parts of propane burners because I was upgrading mine… I am no expert but based on what I found:
Cookers are basically made up of a stand, a burner and a regulator. The max btu output is primarily a function of the regulator and the size of the small hole drilled through the center of the orifice fitting at the burner end of the hose. Those control the max rate at which the propane is delivered to the burner - more propane = more heat.
The actual burner, such as BG12 or BG14 (or BG10) seems to affect how wide the flame is distributed - the flame diameter for these burners. This seems to have little affect on max heat output. Typically, you want a burner face diameter somewhat smaller than your pot. Flames lapping up the side of the pot waste heat / propane and may damage equipment attached to the pot.
Banjo type burners like the BG 12 and 14 may be better at maintaining a low flame.
High vs low pressure is a function of the regulator, not the burner. “High” pressure means anything above about 1 psi, and is intended for outdoor use only. “Low” pressure is in the one-half psi range. High pressure regulators deliver more propane, so have higher max heat output.
Other things to think about are how well you can adjust the flame to get an efficient burn and how well it can maintain a low flame when turned down to maintain a boil after the water / wort is heated.
VND (very nicely done) Sneezles61
