OVHA Chat

During the last two brews, the burner for my boil kettle has left heavy black soot on the kettle. I tried adjusting the air shutter, but that didn't seem to make any difference. Would this be a problem with the burner?

The soot is unburned fuel - almost certainly an air mixture issue [shutter]. You should not see any yellow flame?

Does it need more or less air?

More air till the flame is blue and not yellow.

This could also be caused by some obstruction in the burner like a spider or dirt. I read that if you have an aircompressor you could blow out the burner to make sure there isnt any crud in there.

I'm reading some stuff on this issue on the homebrewtalk forum.

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/propane ... oot-45728/

+1 on Sky's spider web theory. I had this issue a few years back. Luckily it was bad enough that the damn thing would barely light so I knew right off there was an issue. Pull the hose off the burner and then pull the jet. If the jet is a straight fitting use a needle and see if you can get anything out. If its a 90 you will most likely have to use compressed air as you can't blow hard enough to clear it. The other thing I have had happen is the regulator valve on one of my adjustable regulators got all wacky and would not open all the way and it did the same thing.

Thanks so much for your advice. I'll see if I can fix it tomorrow as I will be brewing Sunday. I'll let you know how it went.

I've got torch tip cleaner/reamer to clean out the burner flame ports if you want to borrow them. It'll work also to bore out the orifice a bit oir more gas flow.

Thanks John. I'll let you know if I need it.