All Grain Rolling Boil on the Stove

Just moved into an apartment, and I want to continue to do all grain. I tested a 6 gallon boil of water on my gas stove to ensure that I could do a full boil indoors, now that the turkey fryer is not an option in the city where I am. It took a while, but the water hit 212 and bubbles were coming from the bottom of the pot, but there was not really a rolling boil. The surface of the water was at most at a simmer i'd say. It got better after the volume of the water lessened due to evaporation. I have a couple of questions:

1. If this is how my wort will boil, what effects will this have on my beer?
2. If I leave the cover partially on, the boil becomes a bit more violent, is this an acceptable solution?
3. Will an actual boil (with wort and not just water) boil more violently or more calmly? I was thinking the massive amount of sugar will increase the specific heat of the liquid and the boil will be more violent because the wort can retain more heat.

Can someone please ease my stress?

1) If your recipe has a lot of lightly kilned malt, like pilsner, a weak boil *could* result in DMS in the finished beer.

2) If your recipe has a lot of lightly kilned malt, like pilsner, a partially covered boil *could* result in DMS in the finished beer.

You could use a bucket heater, or a heatstick to help supplement your stove.

Also, is it an electric, or gas range? If it's electric, you could try insulating the sides of your pot, which may help.

gallagherman said:

...I tested a 6 gallon boil of water on my gas stove...

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Insulating is out unless he uses a non-flammable material.

ChemE said:

Insulating is out unless he uses a non-flammable material.

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D'oh! I missed that he said he had a gas range. Using an immersion heater is probably the best way to go then.

Here's a good read on the subject. The short of it is that you want a full rolling boil.

One of the most important reactions that occurs in the wort boil is the formation of "hot break". Hot break is the coagulation of proteins, formation of protein-polyphenol complexes, and reaction with hop compounds to create larger particles that will sediment out in the whirlpool at the end of the boil. These reactions occur at higher rates at higher temperatures and more agitation. This is why your wort boil must be full and rolling... the more vigorous and turbulent the boil, the more of these compounds form over time..

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The Beer Life of Brian: Importance of a Full Wort Boil

I brew on my stove in my apartment. Although the stove is a brand new larger style gas stove Its sometimes hard to keep a rolling boil. One thing you could try that worked for me was to make a keggle. This allows me to span both burners and use the larger "powerburner" for the bulk of the work but also supplement it with the "precise simmer" burner.

For a lot of years when I was in your position without the space or ability to move things outside and with an apartment sized kitchen I simply divided the wort into two large 4 gallon pots and boiled those, dividing my hops between them. It's not ideal, but it worked fine and I made some remarkably good beer this way. Now, I've got my turkey fryers outside. But two smaller sized boilpots can work just fine.

mkling said:

I simply divided the wort into two large 4 gallon pots and boiled those, dividing my hops between them. It's not ideal, but it worked fine and I made some remarkably good beer this way. Now, I've got my turkey fryers outside. But two smaller sized boilpots can work just fine.

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do you have to adjust your hop calculations? does hop utilization change when you are splitting the volumes in two?

also, it looks like the bucket heater is a very good option. However another caveat of my apt is that we are limited by 15 Amp circuits (its and old 1930s art deco place) can anyone please let me know the amperage of their bucket heaters or immersion heaters?

The commercial bucket heater that I linked to is 1000 W and should draw 8.3 amps at 120V, so you'd be fine.

If you wanted to build a heat stick, you could go up to 1500 W which will draw 12.5 amps.

gallagherman said:

do you have to adjust your hop calculations? does hop utilization change when you are splitting the volumes in two?

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Back when I was doing this I didn't adjust hop calculations mostly because I was brewing more by instinct that science. My honest experience, though, was that I don't think it mattered much. As long as the wort was divided evenly then it would be no different than making two 2.5 gallon batches where the recipe was split including hops. Then I'd recombine post boil.

+1 on the 2 pot boil. I still do this with no problems at all. At the end I transfer both to my 10 G pot with my IC.

To the OP: what kind of pot are you using? I found a big difference between my stainless steel pot and my aluminum turkey fryer pot. Aluminum really conducts heat far better than stainless steel, and for me that made boiling on the stovetop possible, especially after a few tweaks. See here:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/improved-boiling-stovetop-53683/

I'll be able to determine the distinctions between stove boil and power boil in about 6 weeks. The Edwort's Haus Ale I just bottled this weekend was boiled on the stove. We have a pretty good gas stove but the boil was not particularly terrifying. I boiled the Centennial I made on Sunday outside on a bayou classic propane powered burner. There was lots of stuff at the bottom of the brew kettle when I was done. I'll know after I taste both whether there is a difference.

I did another experiment tonight, and I got 6.5 gal to a rolling boil using the straddle method! The pot is on the front and back burner and it is working nicely! Ordering my grains as I type this...:rockin:

also I am using my aluminum turkey fryer pot

mkling said:

For a lot of years when I was in your position without the space or ability to move things outside and with an apartment sized kitchen I simply divided the wort into two large 4 gallon pots and boiled those, dividing my hops between them. It's not ideal, but it worked fine and I made some remarkably good beer this way. Now, I've got my turkey fryers outside. But two smaller sized boilpots can work just fine.

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I actually do the same, but I don't divide the wort evenly - I do about 4 gallons in a 5 gal. pot, and about 2.5 - 3 gallons in a 4gal. I then add all my hops to the larger volume pot. I know that the hop utilization is getting thrown off a little, but so far I've had very good luck doing this. Also as a note, I've noticed that I loose more to evaporation using two pots so that's why I try to collect close to 7 gallons.

Is the use of the burner illegal, or is the pot of hot oil that bursts into flame when spilled the illegal part?

there is ALWAYS a way

See this thread by flyguy.
Electric, gas, different insulation ideas, proven process.
It helped me go AG with a pretty crummy electric stove.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/improved-boiling-stovetop-53683/

As DeathBrewer pointed out. Where there is a strong enough will, there is ALWAYS a way.

Throw a few stainless steel washers or pennies in there to create nucleation points. This will dramatically increase the vigorousity of your boil.

I've tried that, noremorse1, and I can't say that I've ever seen a difference. It was a dozen SS nuts and the boil stayed the same.

Woo hoo! I just ordered my solution to this problem today. I got a 5 burner cooktop with a 18,500 BTU center Super Boiler and 2 14,500 BTU Extra Large burners.

Woot. I have enough gas to do my sparge and boil kettle at the same time.

Saturday delivery.

EvilTOJ said:

I've tried that, noremorse1, and I can't say that I've ever seen a difference. It was a dozen SS nuts and the boil stayed the same.

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Since my chest surgery in October, I have been brewing on the stove top as I cannot risk hurting myself by lugging my all-grain gear. I originally had issues with crappy boils on the stove top. I added nucleation points and used my aluminum 30qt pot and this made a huge difference. I guess I have never used stainless nuts, just recommended as it seemed to make sense to me. What I actually use is small, flat and smooth rocks I got from the Puget Sound near my house. I just bake them for 10 minutes at 350 first to drive anything off. They act as a weight in my hop bag and nucleation points to increase the boil. Aluminum conducts heat A LOT better than stainless.

I would recommend these two things to you if you are forced to brew inside.