Accelerating stovetop full boil?

To make this brief: I like the idea of doing full boils, and I have a decently powerful GE Profile stove (gas) with a large burner. I know bringing 6.5 gallons to a rolling boil will take a while (1 hr+). I do have a nice 7.5 gallon pot.

My question: is there any possible value in bringing, say, 2-3 gallons of water to a boil in a separate vessel while simultaneously boiling my main 3-4 gallons of wort, then simply dumping the 2-3 gallons into the larger wort boil? Any downsides? Not worth it? Again, just an idea.

I have done that but put in the extract to do a bigger boil. It seemed to work nicely the beer is still in primary so I don't know if it changed the taste of the beer. I would say go for it

Sure you can boil in as many pots as you wish, sounds like a hassle to me to maybe save 20-30 minutes. Best way to expedite stovetop boils IMO is to assist with a 2000w heatstick on a 20 amp gfci.

Thanks guys, I appreciate the feedback. I did something like what I was describing on the last 2 batches, only I'd call it an 80% boil - had to add about 1 gal top-up to each. Both are in primaries still. I'm glad to hear there is no harm in it. Just a followup or two:

Thegreatestgray - do you mean you put the extract in the second smaller pot?

wilserbrewer, I had no idea such a thing even existed!

I have a 4 g pot and a 1.5 g pot what I did was basically made the wort in both pots then after the hot break added it all to the 4 g pot. I did it this way so I could do a bigger boil and not have to worry about a boil over. I don't know if it saved any time though

I use a 1500W heatstick with my gas stove; works great.

No clue a heatstick even existed either!! I'm gonna grab one for sure for my glass top stove.

I made a couple; lots of build instructions on the forums.

I do multi-pot full boils - utilizing more burners to heat less wort each - I also manage to do AG with Full boils on an ELECTRIC range, I used to do it on a gas range which worked better, but that was my apartment and this is my house.
I'm planning to build a heat stick this year thanks to this forum.

I do multi pot boils AG to get to a boil, then I combine into main pot (10 gal) for the duration of boil unless I need to increase boil off rate. One burner is plenty to keep 7 gal or so at a steady rolling boil. I then use one of my extra pots to pre heat my immersion chiller so when I put it into boiling kettle last 10 min to sanitize I don't drop my wort out of boil for more than a minutes or two.

If you do what you described in your 1st post, you should wait till you combine the boiling water and wort before you start your hop additions. Otherwise you will be adding your hops to a higher gravity wort and getting worse utilization.

I do 5 gallon (sometimes starting with 7gal) boils on my electric stove, but my pot is so big that I can actually put it on two burners at once.

Heavy duty aluminum foil under the burner can also bump up a gas stove's heating potential since it reflects heat upward (plus, it helps with cleanup). And I have found that leaving an IC in the pot will get a large quantity of wort to boiling when the burner by itself will not.

Saxomophone said:

If you do what you described in your 1st post, you should wait till you combine the boiling water and wort before you start your hop additions. Otherwise you will be adding your hops to a higher gravity wort and getting worse utilization.

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I hear you Saxomophone, fortunately I did not start any hop additions until the full rolling boil. I do need to get a better grasp of hop utilization with these full(er) boils, so that I can adjust downward when and where necessary.

Malty_Dog said:

To make this brief: I like the idea of doing full boils, and I have a decently powerful GE Profile stove (gas) with a large burner. I know bringing 6.5 gallons to a rolling boil will take a while (1 hr+). I do have a nice 7.5 gallon pot.

My question: is there any possible value in bringing, say, 2-3 gallons of water to a boil in a separate vessel while simultaneously boiling my main 3-4 gallons of wort, then simply dumping the 2-3 gallons into the larger wort boil? Any downsides? Not worth it? Again, just an idea.

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Worst I can think of is the unexpected "Oooooooooopppppssssssss!!!!!" where you may drop the pot or spill the water/wort....

Ouch.

Yeah, I don't relish the idea of big boiling-water pours on top of a running stove.

I use this 1000W heat stick/bucket warmer:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/MARSHALLTO/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

It's just the thing (along with using 2 of the range's "eyes" at once) for taking 5 gallons of room-temp water to mash-in temp in 15-20 min, and 8 gals from mash-out to boiling in 15-20 min. Even works well with my buddy's decades-old half-busted stove.

-Rich

I just finished my 2000W heat stick following 3d0gs instructions (with 1 slight modification to the grounding wire) and it is wonderful. Takes my tap water to boil time down from 51 minutes to 21 minutes.

Probably the lowest tech solution is just to insulate your kettle.

I take a bath towel and fold it such that it covers about 90% of the kettle - so that the bottom is exposed to mitigate the chance of an accidental fire - and then hold it in place with a bungee cord.

Works like a charm. Without the pot spewing heat into the room, I can heat everything faster and achieve a more vigorous boil.

jhall4 said:

Probably the lowest tech solution is just to insulate your kettle.

I take a bath towel and fold it such that it covers about 90% of the kettle - so that the bottom is exposed to mitigate the chance of an accidental fire - and then hold it in place with a bungee cord.

Works like a charm. Without the pot spewing heat into the room, I can heat everything faster and achieve a more vigorous boil.

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Any numbers on how much this improved your boil time?

Here is a link to my experiment with the multi-pot boil. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f14/full-boil-question-pot-size-382008/index3.html

TBH pouring 2-3 gallons of boiling water from one pot into by 10 gal pot just isn't any big deal. Maybe if I was it would be something to consider but it is not a "feat of strength" or dexterity any more than say draining pasta water into a colander...

eric19312 said:

TBH pouring 2-3 gallons of boiling water from one pot into by 10 gal pot just isn't any big deal. Maybe if I was it would be something to consider but it is not a "feat of strength" or dexterity any more than say draining pasta water into a colander...

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Good to hear, but when you get to the range of 4 to 6 gallons of transfer it can get lots trickier. It also doesn't take much of a spill at these temperatures to scald yourself (or someone else) and cast a pall over an otherwise great brew day. This is why the big keggles and pots usually wind up with drain valves, to make a siphon or pump do the work and alleviate the risk.

I know I routinely pour big (4+ gal) strike water additions into my mash tun, and every so often I'll goof the pour and slop some 170+ degree water around. I haven't been (badly) burned yet, but I know better than to think I've been anything other than lucky. I try never to pour water any hotter than sparge temps, always use pot holders or welding gloves, and never pour any more frequently than I have to.

-Rich

klindeman said:

Any numbers on how much this improved your boil time?

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Sorry I've been away from my computer for a while.

Heating water went from about a 45 min job to about a 30-35 min job.

It also reduced reheat time (after adding extract) by about 5-10 mins.

If I have time I'll do a 'dry' run with water this weekend and give you something more concrete.