forced air vs jet burners, fire boxes etc...

[morrillt]

Hey guys I am planning a 10bbl 4 vessel brewery, with a 20bbl hlt for double batching.

I see some burners are forced air https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGETLw-Gmf4

and some burners are more like jets https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAtZwcMij4k

Seemingly the forced air are 10x hotter, more expensive, and require different heat shields / fireboxes.....

So my questions are

1.) With forced air on the bk would scorching be a serious issue? Does anyone have a 10bbl forced air setup?

2.) Is getting 10bbls with the jets going to take ages to boil?

3.) Any good recomendations for a 20bbl HLT equip provider that can do the right firebox for the forced air, and give me a good price?

Thoughts?
Todd

[jebzter]

Forced air is more efficient, and easier to install. They come with their own control systems, and some also have electronic turndown control. I run a 10bbl kettle and 20bbl HLT off of economite burners with the electric turndown. The tanks are from PBST and the fire box is integral to both of them.

[morrillt]

is forced air always indreict fire?

i notice that indirect fire setups always have forced air. are they synonymous?

[Whitewall]

We had a direct fire Wok type jet burner on our first sytem. Very inefficient no to mention dangerous and hot as hell. You couldnt stand within 2 ft of that thing. Plus it is firing directly onto the bottom of the kettle so the heat dispersion is very poor. We had to recirc during the boil to avoid scorching. Took a long time to reach boil and in the event off a boil over yout only option is to turn off the gas.
We now use a forced air kettle built for us by Pioneer Tanks with a 300 BTU economite burner. It is boiling before we finish running off. Very efficient and doesnt put out the heat. My only regret is not buying the one with flow control. So ours is either on or off. We had to watch very closely for boil overs until we started using fermcap now its great.