Turkey Fryer Windscreen (Re)Build

In my second year of brewing, I moved to heating water and wort outside on a propane turkey fryer. Some time later, while perusing the book Brew Ware, I came across the idea of building a heat shroud or windscreen to keep the heat focused on the kettle and make lighting the burner easier (which can be a serious pain on a windy day). One roll of aluminum roof flashing and some pop rivets later, I had a heat shroud that looked a bit like a Cylon helmet but made my fryer much more efficient (and easier to light).

That is, until a few months ago, when we had a horrendous wind storm that was bringing down neighbourhood trees and blowing semis off the road. I’d left the windscreen sitting out the back door from the previous brewday; by the time I went looking for it, it was long gone. After much gnashing of teeth and donning of sackcloth, I set out to make a replacement.

I started to build the new windscreen just the way the old one had been: one straight sheet of aluminum with one pop-riveted seam that sat as an uneven tapered cylinder. After putting in one rivet, though, it seems I’d miscalculated my size and made it unusably small. I cut out the offending rivet, measured everything again, and redesigned the

windscreen to come together in five sheets, which would allow it to rest more evenly on the burner. Cutting down the single sheet also allowed me to leave out the spot where that first poorly-placed rivet had been. It took some adjusting before the final seam was riveted, but it came together great.

On its maiden voyage (a low-gravity beer fermented with Brett L alone, about which I’ll post on my homebrewing blog soon) I did learn one lesson worth passing along to anyone else interested in a project like this: five times the seams means five times less rigidity in the structure. The previous windscreen held its shape pretty well, and was never too difficult to navigate around to get the kettle on the flame. The new one bows so much around the square fryer frame that the narrow top opening, designed to only leave about a ½” to 1" gap between the kettle and windscreen, shapes itself into more of a square

when set over the burner, making it difficult at times to get the kettle into position.

To fix this, I’m considering making a rigid hoop for the top opening over which I can bend the rim to help it hold its shape. The extra seams also let out more heat, which you can see from the scorching along them on the windscreen; I’m not too worried about that, though, as it doesn’t seem to be melting. I may put some high-temp metal tape over them to better seal the structure, unless I come up with a better way to do that. In the meantime, though, I have a very usable replacement to keep down my propane expenditures.

- Br. Absalom

UPDATE: Last brewday a flaw in my slapdash propane-in opening (visible in this final shot) revealed itself: the contact with the propane line eventually led to the line melting, leaking propane, which ignited and sent out a very not-cool jet of flame.  I had to replace the line, and have since chopped down this windscreen to fit just on top of the fryer and inside the larger cylindrical windscreen I constructed to fit my larger brewpot.  Make sure your gas-in opening shields the line from as much heat as possible!