Pisty_Pete

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Has anyone ever attempted to boil using a 20 gallon kettle on their stovetop? The 20gal megapot measures 21" in diameter and 17" tall so it would fit nicely over two burners, but I'm still wondering if that's going to be enough to get ~15gal of wort to a nice rolling boil. Another consideration would be the weight I suppose. A full kettle would weigh around 130lbs or so. Might be a concern on a standard stovetop... Would be nice to be able to do 10gal batches in my small nyc apartment if this is a possibility. Thoughts, anyone?

MalFet

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Weight is an issue, but burner strength is probably the bigger one. A bigger pot means faster heat loss, and thus higher BTU requirements to get a boil going. I've got a 10gal mega pot that I use on the stove for 5gal batches. I get a reasonable but light boil. I know I wouldn't get double that volume of water anywhere near boiling.

woodstone

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You = crazy.

I boil up MAYBE full 5 gallon batches on our Dacor 36" LPG semi-pro stove top.

Don't waste your time if your stove is not a semi-pro or pro gas model, in fact, don't even waste your time...since most have more BTU than even semi-pro stoves, spend the $50 on a propane burner and avoid some serious grief.

My humble $0.02.

cimirie

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Gas stovetop = remote painful possibility. Electric = no chance.

If you have a gas stove, you almost may be able to pull it off with two burners. BUT I tend to agree with the above two posters. Even if you were able to coax a small boil (emphasis is huge on IF), it wouldn't be close to efficient. AND the likelihood of 15 gallons worth of wort (8.3 lb/gal * 15 gal = 121lbs... BEFORE we add in the sugars and the weight of the pot itself) crushing your stovetop are pretty high.

Sorry to be a downer, but I think you may want to go in a different direction.

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HoyaSaxa

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Some modern electrics will do it. I have a GE ceramic top infrared electric with a 12" diameter element. It will boil 8 gallons of wort without too much trouble. Never tried 10, but since I've got the dial on 8 to maintain a boil, I'm betting it would work.

Gas is probably a "no way Jose" situation.

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rkiser

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I have issues with a full 6 gallon boil on my stovetop. It will do it, but my burners have bent, the top starts sagging and the clean up for any drips/boil overs is a lot of work.

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dap325

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I wanted to see how quick my stove could bring 10g to a boil, so I filled my 15g pot up with ~10g and threw it on my cheap stove top over 2 of the burners. Within 15 minutes the top was sagging and was scorched with black soot from the heat reflecting off the bottom of the pan. The burners sounded like they were in pain as they heated up. I'm going to say that if you don't have a heavy duty range, than I'd steer clear of putting that much weight on it.

StMarcos

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I have a small, old (50s?) 4 burner gas range. I put my 25G hlt on it last brew (long story). The sheet metal sagged a bit. Heated water to 175 faster than I needed it to. One burner on low was enough to keep it at temp.

BeastMaster

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Using 2 burners on high I can get my gas stove to boil 7-8 gallons... but it takes forever.

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Pisty_Pete

Recipes 

Seems the general consensus is this isn't going to work for me and not worth investing in a spendy kettle to even try. Dammit. Thanks for all of the input!