I’m looking to purchase an outdoor burner tomorrow. My local Lowes carries the Bayou Classic SP10. Ive done some research and it looks like a bunch of people use the SP 10 and SQ 14. Anyone have any input on either of the two. I think the SQ 14 doesn’t have a wind screen like the SP 10.
I use a “Camp Chef” Outdoor cooker that has two 14 burners rated at 60,000 BTU. It’s really handy to have a second burner available when brewing. Picked it up at a local farm and home supply store. It’s also on legs so I can drain the chilled wort directly into a Carboy sitting on the ground.
save your money and get a Blichmann. BTU’s are a useful measurement, but not everything, its also how the heat is delivered (in the case of Blichmann, the plumes go straight up from 30-40 or so ports). I can heat 6-7 gallons of wort from mash temps to boil in about 10 minutes.
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+1. The Blichmann is also built like a tank. I’ve used a bayou classic burner in the past, and the thing was prone to blowing out in the wind and left sooty residue on the bottom of the kettle. While a good strong gust of wind can blow out the Blichmann, it does heat up a kettle full of wort quickly and burns really cleanly. I usually get a couple of extra brew days out of a propane tank as a result.
I have the Edelmetall Bru Burner which is kinda the same thing as the Blichmann, but it has fancy copper trim. I think that those two are well worth the money, both are clean burning and can really get rocking with heat, plus they have some wind protection. A lot of people recommend the leg extensions for them, but with my current setup gravity flowing in my work truck, leg extensions are a non-issue for me.
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I have the Bayou Classic KAB4. Has the same burner as the Blichman but cheaper in price by about 50 bucks if I recall.
I have the sp10. Did a practice boil last night to see what my loss would be… Took about 30 minutes to bring seven gallons to a boil. May have been longer 30 was a little generous. I sould have waited and bought a better one… Wouldnt dream of doing a 10 gallon brew with it.
I agree you get what you pay for. However at the moment it would be like putting rims on a Geo Metro. I also need to upgrade my kettle. I also was looking at the darkstar burner but there were a few reviews where the user couldn’t get a clean burning flame. I ending up buying the SP 10 as well. Sturdy design. Doesn’t look or feel cheap. I haven’t really tested it out other than burning off some of the paint. It has a really nice blue flame on it. I should be heating water from around mash temp to boiling. Not sure what temp you started with @BeerBelly.
Tap temperature,
I went from a 200k jet style burner (SP1) to the SQ14 and love it. You are correct, there is no wind screen on SQ14. OK for me as I am in garage… It may not be the fastest but I think it is more efficient. SP10 looks better for the occasional 10G batch. The SP1 jet wins in the speed dept: 10G tap water to boil in 10m… No BS.
The key to dialing in speed AND efficiency is to get the runnings into the kettle asap. For some reason I used to wait until I was done sparging to start heating… When the planets align during a good brew session, the wort is boiling as the last of the runnings are added.
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When it comes time to upgrade your kettle, I’d recommend looking into the Spike Brewing kettles
Agreed. Do NOT go with Stout tanks/kettles. We have them for our 1/2bbl and they are decent enough design but they are a nightmare to deal with.
