good burner

[Minbari]

Standard exhaust vent should be fine right?

Does it exhaust outside or one of those that just blows it up in your face?

Can always use a steam condenser

 

[Nberry]

Propane, natural gas or electric?
Are you always and only doing 5 gallons?

At the moment I am doing 5 gallon batches and I am using propane. I would like to do larger batches in the future.

 

[Sandy Feet]

At the moment I am doing 5 gallon batches and I am using propane. I would like to do larger batches in the future.

Make sure you have the toys to do bigger batches. Full volume boil kettles are very heavy, even with 5-gallon batches.

 

[Donoroto]

Standard exhaust vent should be fine right?

Yes, but. If using propane it likely is insufficient. Electric, almost certainly.

Just be mindful of the location of the kettle relative to the vent, and that you'll need an equal amount of incoming air to make up for what's going out.

 

[Ward Chillington]

It leaves black soot and there is no way to adjust air

Get some liquid Ivory dish soap and soap up the bottom of your kettle, let it dry then flame on. The soot will build up on the layer of soap and wipe right off.

 

[Daniel Parshley]

The soot will come from having the wrong fuel air mixture, most burners have an adjustable vent so you can get a nice clean flame

Those cheap fish fryer burners are cast so poorly that even the adjustment for air is not sufficient. There was no setting that did not produce copious amounts of soot. Cakes of soot coming off the bottom of the pot, tracking it around, and otherwise a spectacular mess.

 

[west1m]

Those cheap fish fryer burners are cast so poorly that even the adjustment for air is not sufficient. There was no setting that did not produce copious amounts of soot. Cakes of soot coming off the bottom of the pot, tracking it around, and otherwise a spectacular mess.

Mine was like that until I dug the spiders out of it.

 

[BarbarianBrewer]

At the moment I am doing 5 gallon batches and I am using propane. I would like to do larger batches in the future.

I use a DarkStar burner from Norther Brewer (https://www.northernbrewer.com/products/dark-star-burner-2-0). It's a 65,000 BTU banjo style burner. It has an adjustment for the air/fuel mixture. I do 7 gallon batches in a 10 gallon brew kettle. It has no problem heating 9 gallons of wort to boiling in about 15 minutes (I've never timed it but seems about that long). You can get a burner with twice the BTUs but that will cost you twice as much money.

 

[Over The Cliff Brewing]

I use a DarkStar burner from Norther Brewer (https://www.northernbrewer.com/products/dark-star-burner-2-0). It's a 65,000 BTU banjo style burner. It has an adjustment for the air/fuel mixture. I do 7 gallon batches in a 10 gallon brew kettle. It has no problem heating 9 gallons of wort to boiling in about 15 minutes (I've never timed it but seems about that long). You can get a burner with twice the BTUs but that will cost you twice as much money.

I have the same one although I haven't used it since I got the brewzilla.

 

[Daniel Parshley]

Mine was like that until I dug the spiders out of it.

My thought and checked that, too. Even considered drilling it out but for ~$15-25 I could get the real deal and know I had the fix in hand.

 

[Vallka]

I bought a bargain propane deep fat fryer (86,000 BTU) thinking it would be great. Only great at producing the soot you described and making a mess. I purchased a "banjo burner" off of Amazon for ~$30 that fixed the problem and it bolted right into the unit.

I did the same and am happy with it

 

[Saunassa]

I use this one from NB for my 8 gal pot and 11 gal pot. Heats quickly and I can adjust the air mixture if brewing in -5f or +80f weather.
https://www.northernbrewer.com/products/dark-star-stainless-burner