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	FORUM ON BEER, HOMEBREWING, AND RELATED ISSUES
		Digest Janitor: pbabcock at hbd.org


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Contents:
  Re: natural gas regulator? (Ryan Kearn)
  Re: natural gas regulator? (bill keiser)
  re:natural gas regulaor ("oobyjooby")
  Life expectancy of a mini keg (Mike Schwartz)
  Re: Natural gas regulator (Chuck Petersen)
  Re: mini kegs (jrdunne)


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Date: Mon, 24 Jan 2011 16:53:32 +1000
From: Ryan Kearn <ryankearn at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: natural gas regulator?

Hi Paul,

I just put one of these in front of the burner...

http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1v/R-100537612/h_d2/ProductDisplay?langId=-1
&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053

or

http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1v/R-100345785/h_d2/ProductDisplay?langId=-1
&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053

It could also be that you don't have a large enough supply line to run both
burners at the same time.

HTH,
Ryan


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Date: Mon, 24 Jan 2011 06:54:26 -0500
From: bill keiser <sharpstik at verizon.net>
Subject: Re: natural gas regulator?

  Most burners have a rotating air entry plate at the venturi where the 
gas enters. That should be rotated to adjust the air that mixes in. Too 
much air makes yellow flame.
  What kind of burner ring is yours?
bill keiser

> I've got two of the 6 inch diameter natural gas burners with
> 10 jets on them. The one on the boil kettle is doing fine, nice
> blue flames. The one on the HLT though is burning yellow
> and leaving soot.



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Date: Mon, 24 Jan 2011 07:57:01 -0500
From: "oobyjooby" <oobyjooby at cs.com>
Subject: re:natural gas regulaor

I would want to know why 2 of the same burners are acting
differently. Pull a nozzle from each burner and see if the gas
orifices are the same and the air inlet holes are the same.
Perhaps 1 is in fact set up for propane use?? A too small
orifice would give a low velocity, poor air mixing and poor
burning characteristics.
The question that comes to mind would be; what happens to
the burner that is working OK after you add a regulator?
Is by chance the good one on a longer pipe with a few more
elbows and fittings? that would lead to lower delivery at that
one burner, or vice versa. A regulator may help but that
wouldn't be the first thing to try. Swap the burners around
if that's not difficult and see if the problem moves too.


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Date: Mon, 24 Jan 2011 07:49:11 -0600
From: Mike Schwartz <mjs at seadogboats.com>
Subject: Life expectancy of a mini keg

The inside is coated to prevent contact between beer and steel.  I've 
used mini kegs at least 5 or 6 times, sometime more than 10 before 
having issues with metallic taste and the first time for each keg it's 
always been minor.  Never had problems with contamination.   I have 
mostly used mini kegs for camping so they tend to get rough treatment.  
If you baby them you'll likely do better.

- -- 
Mike Schwartz
Beer Barons of Milwaukee
beerbarons.org
worldofbeerfestival.com



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Date: Mon, 24 Jan 2011 09:01:23 -0800
From: Chuck Petersen <chpete at opusnet.com>
Subject: Re: Natural gas regulator

Paul
     Before getting a new or additional regulator make sure the venturi 
to the burner is clean. My burners are kept outside and if a little 
creepy crawly gets into the air input for the burners I get the same 
reaction you speak of. I clean them out with a pipe cleaner and that 
usually takes care of the problem.


Chuck Petersen
Deer Island, Oregon


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Date: Mon, 24 Jan 2011 17:22:32 -0500 (EST)
From: <jrdunne at rcn.com>
Subject: Re: mini kegs

Trish:

Cleaning solution - not sure, but I assume you mean that you
have perhaps an old bottle of star san (or whatever solution 
you use).  As long as you haven't mixed it in with water it 
should be fine.  Also, I understand that solutions like star 
san will stay effective over time as long as they are in the 
proper ph range.

Mini-kegs should be good for at least a half dozen batches. 
More, perhaps, if you treat them well.  They have a liner on 
the inside that appears to be some sort of resin or liquid 
applied coating.  If that gets scratched up, the keg might 
start to rust, and the keg is done.  I've not been too 
concerned about the plastic parts of the tap in the bottom.  
I've alternated between opening them during cleaning and 
not.  My opinion is that as long as you use a good cleanser 
and sanitizer, you should be fine.  You're basically 
following a clean-in-place methodology and anything that beer 
can touch your cleanser and sanitizer will touch.  


In my opinion, it's important (and tricky) to get the kegs 
dry before storing them empty.  To do this, I stuff a rag 
partially into the top hole and shake the keg.  The rag 
absorbs the bulk of the water that is trapped in the keg and 
you're done.  I've never found air drying these to be 
effective without this approach.


Most of my mini-kegs are several years old.  I've only just 
started reusing them again after not having used them for a 
couple of years.  So far, no problems.

Good luck.

JOE 


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