Which boils easier?

Wort or water?

I ask because I do split boils (2.75 gallon batches) on my electric kitchen stove. We just moved and our new (still electric) stove seems to be a little more powerful. Heating time has been cut by almost half.

I did a test boil of plain old water in my 22 quart pot. While it wasn't a rolling boil, it was definitely more than a simmer. I'd like to try the one pot boil next time I brew - splitting has worked out great, but I'd like to try a wort chiller, and that's far easier with the one pot.

Can I expect a better boil with wort? In our old place, I did the same water boil test on my 10 quart pots, and found that I got a more vigorous boil with wort. Is this true to life or was that a fluke?

Anyone with any insight? Thanks so much.

Water alone boils faster. ( I seem remember this from science class) Boiling point elevation.
I'm guessing it takes more energy to boil a solvent than a homogenous liquid (water).

Wort is more dense than pure water so will take longer to come to a boil for a given volume at a given energy input rate.

The second question is does the addition of sugar raise the boiling point of the solution above the boiling point of pure water? I suspect it does but by a small enough amount it would be difficult to measure with normal kitchen instruments. At least I have not noticed it in my measurements. Both water and wort boil at between 202 and 203 at my altitude.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

Hmm. Not good news.

Well, supposing this is the case - if I do the split boil and then combine them into the larger pot for cooling, do I need to worry about HSA at those temperatures?

I don't think the extra time would be that much to worry about it. Minutes at the most.

There is a lot of debate as to if HSA is a problem or not. When doing a double batch I will dump my just boiled wort into a different container to cool so I can get the second batch in the kettle to boil and I have seen no ill effects.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew