Kettle Scorch

[Mills]

Hey all, I did my first batch on a new PBST brewhouse yesterday. Above the wort line, directly above the burner, there is a 12"x24" panel of stainless that has been blackened. Can anyone help me out on this?

[YSBrewer]

Just curious, what size kettle?

[Mills]

15bbl

extra words so it will post.

[yap]

I'll be firing up my 7 bbl in a couple days. I'll let you know if I have a similar problem....

Did you passivate before you brewed in it?

[Geoff Logan]

Were you recirculating during the boil?

[yap]

i said i would post when i fired mine up. i don't know if this info helps but here goes.

I just fired it up with about 200 gallons of water. I had a guy from the burner company here to get it fired up and dialed in using a combustion meter. (Note: I am not using the Chinese burner that came with the system. I had to replace it with a UL listed one due to a picky electrical inspector. It is of similar design as the original Chinese, but comes with a few more diagnostic tools as well as local service). After a bit of fiddling to get it started, we ran into issues getting the stack temperature down to an acceptable range. Right now its running about 550-600 F right at the outlet. I am told it should be 350-400 F max. There is still some work to be done to get this under control in the next few days. The area you are talking about inside the kettle is so hot that when you splash water against it it vaporizes and sizzles immediately. IF you have the same issue you could have some heavily scorched wort residue in that area....

IF you have not had a boiler technician run this analysis I recommend you do it right away to see if your burner is running properly... If you have already done all this then sorry if I am stating the obvious.

I still would like to know if you passivated the tank before use or not.....

[YSBrewer]

Scott, i'm watching this thread with bated breath!