Glass top stove and a 5 gallon brew pot

I've been seeing post else where on line that a 5 gallon brew pot won't come to a boil on a glass top stove due to it not being powerful enough?? How true is this wanted to know before I did my first extract brew, also should I go for a stainless pot vs aluminum? Any advice is greatly appreciated thanks

salb29 said:

I've been seeing post else where on line that a 5 gallon brew pot won't come to a boil on a glass top stove due to it not being powerful enough?? How true is this wanted to know before I did my first extract brew, also should I go for a stainless pot vs aluminum? Any advice is greatly appreciated thanks

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I have a glass stovetop. I speak from my own experience with it when I say that a fairly full 5 gallon brew pot is unlikely to come to a boil on a glass stovetop. It's what prompted me to move my operation to a gas burner outside of my garage (much easier for me).

I don't know if the problem is the amount of heat put out (power as you say) or the amount of surface area actually in contact with the pot. Glass stovetops are very flat and many pots are not perfectly flat on the bottom. This results in portions of the pot not even coming in contact with the pot. My wife even encounters this sometimes when boiling water for cooking. If the pot is not perfectly flat and in contact with the glass stovetop, it takes forever to boil.

I didn't really have any problems boiling 3 gallons or less on the stove (though it still took a long time). I use a Blichmann floor burner now (outside) and I love it! :rockin:

EDIT: Stainless vs. Aluminum...Check out this thread which I think sums it up nicely:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/faq-aluminum-pots-boil-kettles-49449/

Either stainless or aluminum should be fine unless your cooktop is induction.

Size matters. A 10 gal aluminum pot would be better than a 5 gal stainless...

On a stove top you can use multiple pots to get to a boil, and then combine. The work is getting to a boil, once you are there doesn't take that much heat to keep it boiling.

For your first extract batch, maybe try the standard method of boiling 2.5-3 gallons and then top off with cold water in the fermenter. See how long that takes before you try 5 gallons. On our flat glass stove, it takes around an hour to bring the 2.5-3 gallons to a boil. Even if I had a pot for the full 5 gallons, and if I thought our stove could do it, it would take so long I wouldn't bother.

I cool the wort in an ice bath in the sink, which takes me around 30 minutes. It doesn't have to cool down to pitching temperature because I mix it with at least 2 gallons of very cold tap water in the fermenter. You would need much more ice, or a wort chiller, to cool a 5-gallon boil to pitching temps.

I think my wife has heard all of my hints about getting a gas burner for outside, so hopefully that will be a birthday gift in a few months.

Regarding the stainless vs. aluminum question, I think there's a comparison in the This vs. That thread, which I think is one of the best threads on HBT.

I've been able to get 4 gallons to boil on my glass stovetop, however it took a very long time, maybe 30 min or so. This is starting with 153 to 170F degree runnings mind you. I don't think i could have gotten much more to boil than the 4 gal.

If you're doing extract i'd just use a 3-3.5 gal boil for now and upgrade later if that's what you decide is right for you.

If you're going to use a glass top stove, I'd go aluminum because it's a much better conductor. I did stove top brewing for a few years and an aluminum pot helped me a lot.

My girlfriend's house has a glass top stove and I tried brewing on it several times and it was extremely difficult.

I just did my first bre last week and tried to brew a 5 gallon pot on glass top stove. It took me 2 hours together to my steeping temp on high with only 2 gallons in my pot. I happened to have a propane burner in my shed so I switched after my steep and this progressed much quicker. Hope this helps

Hello, I am brand new to the forum, and brewing (first batch this upcoming weekend) but I have a glass top stove, and an 8 gal. stainless pot. I tried to straddle two burners, thinking more heat. I was wrong! However, I put the pot with 6 gal. on the biggest burner, and it boiled the pot no problem (with the top on).
I would say, just give yours a try. I am sure burners are different for every stove.

I have been thinking of an insulating "belt" for the pot, to allow quicker boils. Perhaps out of a welding blanket, or some such.

Looking forward to learning a bunch here, wish me luck this weekend!

Houseoffubar said:

Hello, I am brand new to the forum, and brewing (first batch this upcoming weekend) but I have a glass top stove, and an 8 gal. stainless pot. I tried to straddle two burners, thinking more heat. I was wrong! However, I put the pot with 6 gal. on the biggest burner, and it boiled the pot no problem (with the top on).
I would say, just give yours a try. I am sure burners are different for every stove.

I have been thinking of an insulating "belt" for the pot, to allow quicker boils. Perhaps out of a welding blanket, or some such.

Looking forward to learning a bunch here, wish me luck this weekend!

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This is a great point try a boil only run with your stove and see if it can get your water boiling. The worst thing you could do is steep your grains and then find out you can't boil you mort. Even if you do the boil later would probably sterilize it again and you would be fine. I'm a new brewer as well and I can only speak from what I saw, my stove didn't cut it but yours might. Have fun and keep brewing bro!!!!!!!

Propane burners are really cheap, and boil waaaaay faster. Look for one one sale homebrewfinds.com

I brew full boils on my glass cooktop. Takes over a half hr to get 6.5gal boiling, but once it starts im fine. It totally depends on your stoves output and how old and efficient it is. I did some trial boils on mine. I opted for a 8gal alum kettle.

Alum is cheaper then ss to buy but bc its thinner it will heat up and cool down faster. Try and borrow a big pot from a friend of family member and see how much you can boil and go from there.

Burners are fairly cheap but when you add the cost of everything together it gets up there. I brew inside right now bc I live in NE and im not brewing outside in blizzards and minus deg temps. Once the spring time comes ill be going outisde.

Consider all your options before you start spending all your money on something you will want to upgrade soon.

I tried my first brew in a 7.5 gallon stainless kettle on our glass top stove. Needless to say, I could barely get it to 155 to steep the grains. I ended up steeping the grains while I ran to the hardware store and grabbed a turkey fryer, which came with a nice burner and a 7.5 gallon aluminum pot for $55!!

I have brewed all my beer on a glasstop kenmore. 53 batches of extract, partial mashes and all grain. No trouble at all, though I do use two 4 gallon stainless pots on the two large burners, with the lids on or partially on to get it started quicker. ----Mark F.----

salb29 said:

I've been seeing post else where on line that a 5 gallon brew pot won't come to a boil on a glass top stove due to it not being powerful enough?? How true is this wanted to know before I did my first extract brew, also should I go for a stainless pot vs aluminum? Any advice is greatly appreciated thanks

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I can tell you, for a fact, that it will not. You may get a good roll but you'll never reach a hot break. My last batch I hit 210-212 and peaked. It wouldn't go above that temperature no matter what I did. I have a video of my boil as high as it got here:

[ame]http://youtu.be/n5rMPnfwAzA[/ame]

I went to Home Depot and got a turkey fryer with a 7 gallon aluminum pot for $58 including tax. It works great once you get it setup.

Unless I am mistaken, you can't get over 212 degrees no matter what, without pressurizing water, or adding an antifreeze type coolant. 212 is boiling, and you just can't go any higher.

Here is where I get schooled, and learn wort boils at higher temps!

Houseoffubar said:

Unless I am mistaken, you can't get over 212 degrees no matter what, without pressurizing water, or adding an antifreeze type coolant. 212 is boiling, and you just can't go any higher.

Here is where I get schooled, and learn wort boils at higher temps!

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Well, my turkey fryer boil hit 260 before I got it turned down. I can't dispute your claim but it doesn't seem correct.

As mentioned before, the bottom of the pot needs to be completely flat. I use the largest burner on my glass top, and it took about 20-30 minutes to bring my four gallons to a boil. I don't think that straddling two burners will work well with the glass top, since they seem to need complete coverage or they cycle on and off too much.

Pickettj said:

Well, my turkey fryer boil hit 260 before I got it turned down. I can't dispute your claim but it doesn't seem correct.

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His claim is absolutely correct. Unless you raise the pressure of water (such as in a pressure cooker) and thus raise the temperature the water will boil at, you cannot raise the temperature past the boiling point.

Once you reach approximately 212 degree's at atmospheric pressure, latent heat of vaporization is added to the water causing it to flash to steam. This is why the volume of wort goes down during the boil. If the liquid in your turkey fryer was at 260 degrees, it would immediatly flash to steam...in it's entirety...gone. No more wort.

My glasstop range has a quick boil burner. I can easily boil 4 gallon when I brew via stovetop. I recently built a E-keggle which makes my wife very happy that I can move my brewing outside in the garage lol.

I've brought 5 gal to a boil on my glass stove top but yes it takes some time. Have done two 4 gal boils which took time but did it and had good beer in the end.

SharonaZamboni said:

As mentioned before, the bottom of the pot needs to be completely flat. I use the largest burner on my glass top, and it took about 20-30 minutes to bring my four gallons to a boil. I don't think that straddling two burners will work well with the glass top, since they seem to need complete coverage or they cycle on and off too much.

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thats why i love my stove.. i have the bridge element and have done 10 gallons with a lesson. watch for the break

Pickettj said:

I can tell you, for a fact, that it will not. You may get a good roll but you'll never reach a hot break.

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i have to babysit mine with a spray bottle even at 6.5 gal in a 12 gal pot because my hot break will go over and i dont use fermcap or baby gas drops.. it does depend on the burners and how flat the bottom of the kettle is!!

Not all glass top stoves are created equal
I have a 50 amp Kenmore glass top and I have no problem getting 7 gallons of perboil volume up to a rolling boil at which point I dial back it down from 10 to 8. I'm sure that kettle and burner size has something to do with it as well. I have an 11w x18"h kettle and the burner is 10" I don't brew on the kitchen stove that often as I have small children and I have a designated room with my eHerms set up in that I do 10 gallon batches on. But if I want to quickly crank out a two vessel BIAB I use the kitchen stove to knockout a 3 hour 5 gallon batch. As was said the only to know is to do a test run. If you have a powerful stove and it still doesn't work see if you can find a kettle that is no more then one inch wider then the burner.

I have an 8 gallon 14" wide SS kettle (NB Megapot) with a thick heavy triple-layer sandwiched bottom and do 6-6.5 gals full boils.

First I used a Kenmore glasstop stove and could barely retain a rolling boil using 2 burners, although the pot didn't entirely cover both elements, and I had to keep the lid partially on.

When we moved, we bought a new stove, a Samsung which has a triple element. The element is large (11.5") and my 14" wide kettle with a perfectly flat heavy bottom just covers it. Looks very promising, but looks can be deceiving.

I can only retain a full wild rolling boil if I (partially) cover the pot with the lid. So I use the lid part time, on and off, to blow off as much of the dimethyl sulfide precursors as possible. I'm thinking about using an insulation wrap of some sort around the kettle next, which might enable me to omit the lid entirely, as we are supposed to.

Without the lid, there is a boil, yes, but I wouldn't call it rolling.

Also there is a lot of weight on that glass top with that 6.5 gallons of wort in the kettle. I make 100% sure there is no sand, grit or other things between the kettle and glass top, and I don't dare to move or slide it once set. No tipping either! I also watch like a hawk for boil overs.

In short, this whole setup scares me a bit. I think I'm approaching some physical limits there. I'm looking for alternatives <nods>.

So, it all depends on the power and heat output of the element(s) and how the thermostatic controller regulates things. I can hear the element(s) cycling on and off while set at full power. Wish they could be set slightly higher, but that may damage things in the long run, who knows.

So I'd say, if you can get the boil to work with your setup, using either 1 or 2 pots, that's great for the short term, but think about the other options presented here for the future.

My own experience, I have a 7.5gallon aluminum pot that I use for full boils. On my glass stove top, I can get it to come to a soft boil. Definitely no rolling boil. I have a 12 gallon aluminum pot that takes FOREVER to come to a boil. It too will only burp or so when boiling on the stove top. Propane strictly for that one now.

RuffRider said:

His claim is absolutely correct. Unless you raise the pressure of water (such as in a pressure cooker) and thus raise the temperature the water will boil at, you cannot raise the temperature past the boiling point.

Once you reach approximately 212 degree's at atmospheric pressure, latent heat of vaporization is added to the water causing it to flash to steam. This is why the volume of wort goes down during the boil. If the liquid in your turkey fryer was at 260 degrees, it would immediatly flash to steam...in it's entirety...gone. No more wort.

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I stand corrected. The artificially high reading must have come from heat radiating offof the sides of my pot. I did lose a LOT of volume during the brew so I was definitely hotter than my stove boil. The boil I get on my glass top is less than impressive, even with full contact.

And a prior post is true, not all are created equal. Some may do a better job but mine doesn't so worth a darn. I can not get to hot break on my glass top stove no matter what I try.

Agreed, I did my first extract on my kenmore flattop and with such a high gravity after I added 6+ lbs of DME, I had trouble getting my partial to boil.

I also read on several posts here and elsewhere to line your stove with foil to catch any boil overs. Do not do this on a flat top, I completely ruined my cook top. The foil burned into the stovetop, and when my wife used a cleaner (made for stove tips, it had a chemical reaction and actually ate into the glass!

Needless to say, it almost ended my brewing career...

If I knew all of the issues that involved using my stovetop I would have just went into my shed and pulled out my turkey fryer.

After doing a ton more reading and from experience I'll only be using propane.

My 2 cents