Unable to boil wort?

I know this sounds stupid but I have an electric stove. 2 gallons of wort in a 5 gallon pot and I am unable to get the frecking thing to boil. I get a slow rolling in the water but no real boil.

Am I screwed with this batch (my first) or is there something I can do??

Will putting the lid on the pot help?

Should I split it into two 1 gallon pots??

I hate electric stoves!!!

You can put the lid on loosely so that it can evaporate off. It will help retain heat so boiling is easier.

In the past with my electric stove I have used tin foil to cover my pot and then you can roll some of the foil back where you have 2 or 3 inches open that helps.

I found out i had the same problem when i tried to boil 3 gallons to clean my wort chiller for the first time. I ended up buy one of these at home depot for $50. Worked incredibly well.

http://www.bayouclassicdepot.com/3066a_turkey_fryer_kit.htm

Using a lid will definitely help. But most electric stoves are marginal unless equiped with an extra high wattage element. When it comes to heating, gas is better and more economical, with few exceptions.

When I first started I only had a eletric stove as well, but a slow roiling boil is better then no boil at all so I wouldnt worry a whole bunch. If you can afford it look for a turkey fryer and use that the no more boil problems.

May be this one will help:
http://www.partstore.com/ProductDetail.aspx?ProductSKU=6059172&s=sspro

How many burners does your stove have? You might try using one that doesnt get used all that often, I know with my kitchen stove I use one burner more then the others, and the repeated use over the years made it weak and it eventually burned out, had to replace it with a new burner. Works fine now. Just my $.02

Okay I'll get slapped for this, but need must.

If you're tap water is good to drink then use it, if not buy a bottled water.
Add 4 gallons of the water to the fermenter.

I presume you can boil one gallon, add this to a pot and boil. If you are using a pre hopped malt then turn the heat of add to the water and mix. leave for 10 minutes.

or

If the malt is not pre hopped then you'll need to boil and follow the hop schedule.

Add to the fermenter and mix.
Check you're temp and pitch the yeast.

Well last night we got our first brew done and into primary...

This however took forever because we have a glass top electric stove... as the glass get's heated with stuff on it it wears on the glass and creates thick sections. It was really really hard for us to get a boil going, and when it was it was a low boil... Finally, I said THWI and places the lid most of the way on, using the brew spoon to keep the lid from closing all the way...

DeadYetiBrew said:

Well last night we got our first brew done and into primary...

This however took forever because we have a glass top electric stove... as the glass get's heated with stuff on it it wears on the glass and creates thick sections. It was really really hard for us to get a boil going, and when it was it was a low boil... Finally, I said THWI and places the lid most of the way on, using the brew spoon to keep the lid from closing all the way...

Click to expand...

Sounds like you had the same issue we had. Well we ended up putting the lid on and got the darn thing to boil. We at least had 30 min of good boil then followed the recipe, strained and moved wort to primary. When the temp was good we pitched our yeast.

Right now I have my primary downstairs and it's bubbling so I know that something is working.

Same thing happened with me, took forever to achieve a vigorous boil with 3 gallons of wort but it was extremely hot, easily in the high 90C. I have a large halogen hob on my electric stove that is never normally used so I though I would use it. I added my bittering hops ate this stage and managed to get a vigorous boil 20 minutes later by putting the lid on (taking it off after the boil had been achieved of course) I'm not sure whether the bittering hops left in for longer than they should will cause the beer to be more bitter or less bitter because the wort wasn't vigorously boiling when I put them in. Ah well I'll just have to wait.

Leaving the cover on your kettle for the boil COULD and I say COULD cause your brew to have certain undesireable flavors.

boo boo said:

Leaving the cover on your kettle for the boil COULD and I say COULD cause your brew to have certain undesireable flavors.

Click to expand...

Well, this is a rather controversial topic... where's that pic of an open can of worms?

The issue that some people are worried about is the buildup of DMS, which lends an off-flavor to beer (described as cooked vegetable or corn). DMS is formed whenever the wort is above 140 degrees, IIRC, but since it is very volatile, it is easily driven away by the boiling processs. So, leave the lid off, DMS is driven away, no problems.

However, I've heard interviews with the people from Breiss Malt Extract on Basic Brewing Radio, and what they have indicated is that most of the DMS has been already been driven off during the manufacturing process of the extract, so it's mostly a non-issue for extract brewers. Remember, they're basically making a huge, unhopped wort and then concentrating it, so a lot of these issues have already been taken care of.

So, no worries... but I still worry a little, can't help it

The compromise that I made when I was doing extract on a wimpy electric stove was to leave the lid partially on, to try and minimize any condensation being returned to the brewpot, but not to worry too much about it. I've never detected any DMS in my brews (not that I'm 100% sure I'd be able to pick it out). I wouldn't leave the lid on completely, but that's more because you are BEGGING for a boilover if you do. In any case, if you have the lid on at all, you can't leave the brewpot, it'll start boiling over like crazy if you aren't careful.

Follow orfy's instructions, best solution to your problem short of buying a turkey fryer or gas burner for outside brewing.

If you only boil one gallon, remember that your hops utilization will be cruddy, so adjust accordinly. I would imagine you'll end up with a darker wort that you would otherwise, so keep that in mind, and be extremely careful about scorching.

will that darker wort then create a darker final product?

Yeah. Not that big a deal, but don't get your hopes up on making anthing uber-light in color.

You could always do the Texas Two-step mentioned here. Instead of doing two batches at once, you could split your boiling wort in half and do it in two pots at once.