Direct fire kettle users !!!!!

[endlessbrewing]

Hi All,
Would anyone be willing to take a couple pictures of their firebox (inside and out) on there kettle?
Working on converting a round dish bottom dairy tank to a 10 bbl kettle and thinking on designs for this . 400,000 btu ,
I thinking 6 or 8 inch flue, mineral wool insulation.

Thanks for the help !
Cheers
Jon
Endless Brewing
Montrose, Pa

[pubbrewer]

8 inch flue

I would double check on the Midco Economite website as to the proper flue diameter needed. 8 inch may be minimum might need larger. Remember to keep the flame from directly hitting the kettle if you are using the above type burner. Good luck!

[robrews]

Me too!

I am in the same process - same size, same burner, EC400.

I designed my firebox with an 8 inch flue and a firebox that is 20 x 20. I have a firing plate inside the firebox that has 3 inch hoes around the perimeter. The burner will fire below this plate, preventing flame from contacting the kettle.

The holes in the firing plate will allow all that lovely heat to heat my kettle.

It is not built out yet - so I will follow this thread, but if you get any more info or pics, and you don't mind send them along via PM or I can get you my email address.

Good luck.

Rob

[endlessbrewing]

Thanks

Great idea with the fire plate .

[froptus]

Hi there,

I've taken a few photos of our 7bbl direct fire kettle. The pics aren't great but hopefully they will help. The flames come into direct contact with the bottom of the kettle and we've never had any problems because of it. When the kettle is turned on a solenoid opens allowing electronic ignition of the pilot light. If that fails then everything shuts down. If the pilot light sensor determines that the pilot is lit then another solenoid opens allowing full gas flow to the main burner. There is an air blower that feeds air to the flame to help the burn. The kettle is hooked to a timer to allow us to set when the kettle will automatically fire up. It is also hooked to a thermostat which will turn off the kettle when the water reaches a certain temperature.

Good luck and happy brewing.

[endlessbrewing]

Thanks Much !!

Appreciate it !!
Cheers

[Gunrunner]

We run a 15BBL system with 400,000 btu. We have a 10 inch flue. The other important thing to think about is a damper. If you are running other vents like in a brewpub for the kithcen hood system you need to think about air movement and different air presuure caused by the other equipment.

[ColdFusion]

What kind of efficiency or temp rise are people getting in these scenarios? We are running a 440k BTU natural gas burner (2 ring, 44 jet) and can only achieve about 10% efficiency out of it. Roughly translates to about 1F/min rise on 100 gallons. Needless to say, the 300 gallon boil is a bit anaemic. We've tried most things that are part of the common suggestions (dampers, baffles) and we've played with the height of the burner itself but everything seems to point to the fact that this particular combination of parts isn't going to get us any better efficiency.

Our firebox, is just that, a box with a grate on the bottom and an 8" flue with a ~20ft rise to the exhaust point. We are starting to consider more drastic actions but before we do that, maybe the collective wisdom of probrewer could help