Largest Pot for Kitchen Stove?

What is the largest size pot people typically recommend for a regular kitchen gas stove? Can most gas stoves handle a 30 qt pot? I assume electric stoves generally have a smaller capacity?

I'm talking more about damage to the stove, than variation in boil volume and time.

Thanks
Aaron

I used to use a huge 28 quart pot on my stove with no problem. It was slow to boil but it got the job done.

I use a 30 quart on my electric stove, usually only do a 3 gallon boil, works great!

I ask because our 14" diameter 40 quart aluminum kettle (used over 2 burners) damaged the enamel on the stove where we are renting.

I suspect it was a change in airflow by using 2 burners, or could have been a reaction due to aluminum or pure pot size? Looking at smaller pots, even 6 gallons is 12.5" wide so I'm undecided on weather 1.5" will make a difference.

Are your pots 'standard' diameters for those sizes (~13"+)?

Thanks

The pots will kick down a lot more heat than you realize.
I have a 20Qt pot that is ~12in. in diameter that will biol 3+ gallons with out a problem on my cheap electric apartment stove. The largest element on my stove is about 7in. in diameter. I also pull the burner out and lay sheets of aluminum foil under neath it to help reflect more heat into the pot. cut down on boil time by several minutes

gf--My pot is at least the size of yours & has worked on out propane gas for over a year w/ no consequences. The heat has presented no problem to the porcelin top.

Ive done a full boil in a 40qt aluminum pot on a bottom-of-the-line kenmore electric stove. With the weight of the pot you're pushing 70lbs, so the top kinda got bent, and the heat generated from having a burner on full blast for a couple hours is pretty worrisome. Needless to say, that was probably too much.

Wow I have a hard enough time with a 20 qt pot on an electric stove. I can't believe you guys use bigger ones too! I'll give the aluminum foil a try tomorrow.

Fantastical said:

Wow I have a hard enough time with a 20 qt pot on an electric stove. I can't believe you guys use bigger ones too! I'll give the aluminum foil a try tomorrow.

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My first boil kicked so much heat back down that it heat changed the burner insert. all sorts of pretty colors in it now....:fro:

I put the foil in shiny side up and kinda pull it up around the base of the pot. Its worked well for the last 3 batches.

for me, 22 qt Stainless is the largest that will fit on my induction electric under the microwave. I have good results without the issues caused by aluminum.

GE Profile propane gas stove.
10 gallon boil in a 50 quart aluminum pot.
No damage to stove.


Yet :cross:

Here's about 9 gallons boiling in a 10 gallon aluminum pot on the same stove.

Do people think some the problems are caused by aluminum? Like chemically? Or is it purely from excessive heat from any large pot?

Our porcelain was blackened (like sooty), but when scrubbed clean with a plastic dish scrubber, it easily scratched the surface as it cleaned it. The burners themselves were ask 'changed' and are duller and burn looking. Not as big a deal, as they were already black (not white like the stove top)

Thanks for all the feedback, it is helping me decide on a smaller kettle to purchase.

I set my stove on fire today trying to boil few gallons for steeping grains. I bought a lobster/crawfish/crab boiling kit. Its 40 qt aluminium pot and I love it Full boil (6 gal) in less than half hour. I will never use stove again, may be just to heat up sparging water or something.

Upper-end Westinghouse gas stove (on LP gas), with one burner pumping more BTU than the rest (POWERBURNER!)... I had been doing outdoor burns with my 40qt. aluminum, but had to go indoors for a half batch of brown ale for a test recipe (and too many damned box elder beetles in the garage!), so I used my lightweight 16qt. stainless kettle to do a 3 gallon partial boil. It took way too long to get up to boiling, and I had a hard time keeping it rolling even with a couple of pennies thrown in to act as boil initiators. Now I remember why I moved my brewing outdoors!

Pennies as boil initiators? Never heard of that one before.

I haven't had any problems with the white enamel discoloring with a SS pot and gas.

I boil 6.5 gallons in a 7 gallon pot on an electric stove and have never had any problems.

I have a 10 gallon aluminum pot that I do full boils with on my stove. I straddle it across two burners and it gets the job done.

I have noticed that it gets a large amount of soot on my stove, but a few minutes with bar keeper's friend and it's totally gone. The drip pans for the burners are all but destroyed though: The colors have changed and they are covered with black stuff that won't come off.

devilishprune said:

I have noticed that it gets a large amount of soot on my stove, but a few minutes with bar keeper's friend and it's totally gone. The drip pans for the burners are all but destroyed though: The colors have changed and they are covered with black stuff that won't come off.

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Yea, Bar Keeper's Friend is money - that stuff works wonders.

My drip pans are destroyed, too, but they're cheap. I'll gladly pay for new drip pans if I can brew inside in the winter.

I can fire 5 gallons in a 32qt pot on my stove. It takes forever to reach boil though. I usually start the boil separately and then put them together. I have made a mess of the stove but I'm pretty sure it will come off.

Soon I'll be adding heatsticks so I'll be able to cut down the boil time in the future.

Strangebird said:

Pennies as boil initiators? Never heard of that one before.

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I read that In Palmer's book too. You know, maybe just keeping a copper wort chiller in the boil is the way to go. The copper will cut down on the boil over and sanitize the chiller for cool down of the wort all at the same time. Is there something wrong with my logic? Want to say once again that this is a great site. Thank you everyone.

It takes about 30 minutes to get 6.5 gallons of cold tap water to boil on my GE electric cook top with regular burner coils.

I have a 32 qt pot I use on my stove. I straddled 2 burners yesterday and managed to get 8 gallons to a rolling boil just to build up the oxidized layer.

We got a smaller 30qt SS pot for our 2nd batch, and made it on the same stove/burners without further issue. It did further dirty the scratched burners, which we gently cleaned (not fully). We have since moved out of this sublet, and I just got an email from the owner that he was able to clean the stove fine with some abrasive+bleach cleaner. I'm not sure if he thought the scratches were pre-existing, or if they cleaned off, or what exactly. But we will be getting our full deposit back and don't need to feel awful for ruining their beautiful antique stove!

I use a 60-quart SS pot across two burners of a natural gas stove. The pot is 18 inches in diameter and totally covers both burners of a cheap Kenmore range that I installed in my basement just for making beer. It is not without problems, however:

1. I kept setting off the carbon monoxide detector when using this setup. The final solution was to raise the height of the brew pot. I have shims about 1/4 inch thick under the burner grates. My heating/ac guy suggested this solution. Until then I would open the basement door and turn a fan on, and still have CO buildup. Now, nary a peep out of the CO detector.

2. As you can guess, with burners rated at only 6,000 and 9,000 BTU, boiling comes slowly. So when I boil, I have about twenty feet of 18-inch wide, heavy duty aluminum foil wrapped around the pot for insulation. The foil wraps over the top lip of the brewpot and extends all the way down to the top of the stove. I cut holes in the foil to accommodate the handles on the pot.

Why a 60-quart monster, you may ask? I wanted a 40-quart, but the price of the 40-quart was below the threshold for free shipping. I got the 60 cheaper after the free shipping.