saxman1036
Well-Known Member
I recently upgraded my brewkettle from a plain stainless steel 5 gal pot to an 8-gallon polarware. It makes brewing a lot easier, however my stove is having a tougher time getting 6 gallons to a boil than I expected. In fact, unless I leave the lid on for at least 5 minutes (bad idea), I can never reach nor maintain much more than a strong simmer. I didn't think much of this until I also noticed that my switch to a larger pot also correlated with consistently under-shooting my target OG... usually by 5-10 points (I've replaced my hydrometer, so that's not an issue). So my questions...
1) will the inability to maintain a strong boil for extended time reduce the amount of sugars that dissolve in the wort?
2) can extending my "boil" time to 70 or 80 minutes help to mitigate any negative side effects of not coming to a true boil for 60 minutes?
3) is it possible for sugars to coagulate with other solids during the cold break, such that if draining from a spigot they get left behind in the brewkettle?
I'm already taking steps to address these two of these (I just bought an outdoor propane burner for easier boiling, and I plan to strain the wort just to see if that gives me a little bit of an OG bump), but I'm interested if any of you out there have any thoughts on how not maintaining a boil can affect gravity readings.
Thanks!
1) will the inability to maintain a strong boil for extended time reduce the amount of sugars that dissolve in the wort?
2) can extending my "boil" time to 70 or 80 minutes help to mitigate any negative side effects of not coming to a true boil for 60 minutes?
3) is it possible for sugars to coagulate with other solids during the cold break, such that if draining from a spigot they get left behind in the brewkettle?
I'm already taking steps to address these two of these (I just bought an outdoor propane burner for easier boiling, and I plan to strain the wort just to see if that gives me a little bit of an OG bump), but I'm interested if any of you out there have any thoughts on how not maintaining a boil can affect gravity readings.
Thanks!