First batch, saying hello while I wait FOREVER to get my water boiling!

Hi,

I'm new here and figured I'd say hello and thank you for all the wonderful advice on this site. I've been lurking for a while now reading and reading some more.

Today, I started my first batch of beer (black IPA extract brew) and have been waiting over 2 hours for the 3 gallons of water to boil on my crappy GE glass stovetop. This is horrible, and has subsequently made me read this forum some more while I wait. So, I guess I'll be making a "heat stick" for my next batch because this is ridiculous.

Heck, it took 70 minutes before I could remove my steeping grains alone. I just hope this amount of time doesn't ruin my future beer.

I expected to be do e already, and this is seriously cutting into my day. It's ok, I guess, but I was planning on doing something other than watching my pot for three hours...

is it an induction?
My old glasstop (non-induction) can have 4.5 gallons rolling at 80%

some stock pots don't have flat bottoms and fool an induction cooktop. place a piece of flat sheetmetal on the stove and put your pot on that.

amandabab said:

is it an induction?
My old glasstop (non-induction) can have 4.5 gallons rolling at 80%

some stock pots don't have flat bottoms and fool an induction cooktop. place a piece of flat sheetmetal on the stove and put your pot on that.

Click to expand...

I have no clue. The worst part is I'm renting a condo. Otherwise I'd just replace the stove with something more powerful. My pots bottom is completely flat

Well, I finally got the water boiling and added the extract which brought it back to 180 degrees. So...probably another hour or two to get it to boil again. I feel at this point I'm stuck and need to see it through. I have my lid mostly covering the pot leaving it cracked a bit to help out. I knew this stove was bad, but not this bad.

Sorry about your luck today. Just throwing this out there as food for thought but I found a Bayou Classic propane turkey fryer on Craig's List with a 30qt heavy duty pot for $50 and it brings 5gals to boil in a heartbeat. There are always great deals to be had like that. Might be something you want to look into. Cheaper than a new stove.

JB

Yeah I'll probably just have to get a propane burner. This is painful. Haha. On top of that my kegerator is empty. I was supposed to pick up a keg of Balast point Sculpin IPA, but figured it was too early earlier. Now I wish I had.

unionrdr said:

Oh hey,don't forget that LME has to be stirred in really well of the heat,since it goes straight to the bottom when poured in. stir it in completely,then back on the heat. Crap,I forgot to mention that. Keep it stirred enough where it keeps swirling on it's own. That helps keep it from burning on the bottom of the BK.

Click to expand...

No worries. I'm on top of it.

Same wth me on the handful of batches i've brewed so far. Takes forever for my stove to boil the wort.

Nonetheless, so far they've all came out fine. Plus it makes the house smell alot better!

I use the spare time to read on here and have a brew of course!

good luck!

So glad I got Gas.... Natural gas that is

So, what I learned...

1. I was wrong. My pot is not flat on the bottom, so I guess that's why I wasn't getting enough heat in the pot?

Would a piece of stainless steel over the burner help?

2. Put all of the extra cold water in the carboy first. I put only about a gallon of fresh water in the carboy first, and then topped off with another gallon or so afterward, and it didn't mix well. I didn't realize this, and pitched the yeast with the wort having 2 thermal areas to go through. The bottom of the fermenter was significantly warmer than the top.

3. Dry the bung, and carboy before installing it. It was just slipping out because it was soaked in sanitizer.

4. Drink beer while brewing. I did not, and will regret it for the rest of my existence.



I only hope that I didn't kill the yeast when pitching, and hopefully I'll get activity in the fermenter within a day or so. Because here isn't any yet.

You did cool the wort down before putting it in the water and pitching the yeast right?

Just sit back and relax, the yeast know what to do if you didn't pitch it too hot.

Oh, and ALWAYS, ALWAYS have a beer when you brew. Just not too many. I'm sure everyone here has done that before... You'll make mistakes and sometimes the beer is really good though!

Yeah I cooled it to 120 in an ice bath and then added water I had ready in my fridge. It just didn't mix well enough. I think I'll he fine, but I'm a newb

I just need to figure out how I'm going to boil the second batch when the time comes. I'm upstairs in a small condo I'm renting and done want to get a burner. Plus I'm thinking that a heat stick would just be a PITA

Here are a couple easy tricks I use that really help: Go to Costco (or anywhere that has it) and get a big 'ol roll of heavy-duty aluminum foil. Take the coil(s) off and wrap the burner pans w/ foil to reflect all the heat up. When the pot is on, wrap the excess up around the pot. Now, take a couple big 'ol pieces and wrap the pot in foil to insulate.

I have boiled over 6.5 gals. on my electric stove this way. I usually stop 1 gal short of a full boil on my 5 gal. batches so I can use a gal of cold water to help cool, I don't have a wort chiller.

Yikes... 120*??

Even adding cold water, I'd suspect your wort was hot as heck when you pitched your yeast. You will have some off flavors from doing that.. Hopefully it was cool enough that some yeast survived.

I don't know why no one has mentioned this so far, but until you get a better stove or turkey fryer or whatever, you should make smaller batches. It's not like you have to get a voltage converter or drink your beer out of dixie cups, you just get to have twice as many types of beer to choose from.

strambo said:

Here are a couple easy tricks I use that really help: Go to Costco (or anywhere that has it) and get a big 'ol roll of heavy-duty aluminum foil. Take the coil(s) off and wrap the burner pans w/ foil to reflect all the heat up. When the pot is on, wrap the excess up around the pot. Now, take a couple big 'ol pieces and wrap the pot in foil to insulate.

I have boiled over 6.5 gals. on my electric stove this way. I usually stop 1 gal short of a full boil on my 5 gal. batches so I can use a gal of cold water to help cool, I don't have a wort chiller.

Click to expand...

My stove is a glass top...

FATC1TY said:

Yikes... 120*??

Even adding cold water, I'd suspect your wort was hot as heck when you pitched your yeast. You will have some off flavors from doing that.. Hopefully it was cool enough that some yeast survived.

Click to expand...

Hmm. My recipient from more beer said to get it down to 130 and add cold water to get it to 70. I'd bet the water was no more than 80-90 MAX. In the warm areas.

kingwood-kid said:

I don't know why no one has mentioned this so far, but until you get a better stove or turkey fryer or whatever, you should make smaller batches. It's not like you have to get a voltage converter or drink your beer out of dixie cups, you just get to have twice as many types of beer to choose from.

Click to expand...

I'm thinking about the turkey fryer, but I have no clue what your second sentence even means.

My glass stove top CRACKED on my third batch. I had that nice big aluminum pot sitting on the burner cranked all the way up for 60 minutes. When I moved the pot to the sink to begin cooling, the temperature change was too quick and the glass stove top cracked. Be careful!

unionrdr said:

You should chill it down more than 120F. I chill down to 70F or so. Then strain all into the Fv.

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I'll do that next time for sure. That will take a long time, but I guess you gotta give some to get some.

jsledd said:

My glass stove top CRACKED on my third batch. I had that nice big aluminum pot sitting on the burner cranked all the way up for 60 minutes. When I moved the pot to the sink to begin cooling, the temperature change was too quick and the glass stove top cracked. Be careful!

Click to expand...

Crazy! My burner was on for like 4 hours.

We have fermentation!

rostato said:

Hi,

I'm new here and figured I'd say hello and thank you for all the wonderful advice on this site. I've been lurking for a while now reading and reading some more.

Today, I started my first batch of beer (black IPA extract brew) and have been waiting over 2 hours for the 3 gallons of water to boil on my crappy GE glass stovetop. This is horrible, and has subsequently made me read this forum some more while I wait. So, I guess I'll be making a "heat stick" for my next batch because this is ridiculous.

Heck, it took 70 minutes before I could remove my steeping grains alone. I just hope this amount of time doesn't ruin my future beer.

I expected to be do e already, and this is seriously cutting into my day. It's ok, I guess, but I was planning on doing something other than watching my pot for three hours...

Click to expand...

Welcome and same here! When your trying to bring it to a full boil (before extracts etc) are you putting the lid on? I normally do that when its just water heating up.

jbsayers said:

Sorry about your luck today. Just throwing this out there as food for thought but I found a Bayou Classic propane turkey fryer on Craig's List with a 30qt heavy duty pot for $50 and it brings 5gals to boil in a heartbeat. There are always great deals to be had like that. Might be something you want to look into. Cheaper than a new stove.

JB

Click to expand...

Just saw one a Sam's Club for about the same price. Seriously considering it as well, but wasn't sure it would do the job. However at this point I'm just doing a bunch 1 gallon batch to learn the process. Now I just need to check if it will violate rental leases etc, which i'm sure it will... lame sauce

rostato said:

We have fermentation!

Click to expand...

woot!

rostato said:

I'm thinking about the turkey fryer, but I have no clue what your second sentence even means.

Click to expand...

A lot of homebrewers act like you're required to brew 5 gallons at a time. You're not. I almost never do. For the same amount of ingredients a 5-gallon batch, you can make two batches half that size and end up with two different beers.

kingwood-kid said:

A lot of homebrewers act like you're required to brew 5 gallons at a time. You're not. I almost never do. For the same amount of ingredients a 5-gallon batch, you can make two batches half that size and end up with two different beers.

Click to expand...

Yeah, my only thing is I plan to keg. I just think cleaning and sanitizing 20 something bottles would be a PITA.

crispy44 said:

Welcome and same here! When your trying to bring it to a full boil (before extracts etc) are you putting the lid on? I normally do that when its just water heating up.

Click to expand...

No, but I will now. I had to in order to get it to boil. After waiting 2 hours I gave in and put the London. But I was a basket case worrying about a boil over.

kingwood-kid said:

A lot of homebrewers act like you're required to brew 5 gallons at a time. You're not. I almost never do. For the same amount of ingredients a 5-gallon batch, you can make two batches half that size and end up with two different beers.

Click to expand...

No body acts like anything..

For the same amount of work, I can make 1 gallon, or 10 gallons. Thats what people are getting at.

If you are experimenting, or want to try something different, there's nothing wrong with it. If you are new and your beer sucks, then I'd rather have 1 gallon, rather than 5 gallons.

But the same amount of work goes into 1 gallon v. 5/10 gallons.

You do get the benefit for having two beers, the problem is when you hit the mar, you will have 2.5 gallons of something you MIGHT not be able to get back exact to what the recipe was!

rostato said:

No, but I will now. I had to in order to get it to boil. After waiting 2 hours I gave in and put the London. But I was a basket case worrying about a boil over.

Click to expand...

Put the lid on when it's ONLY water.. After you've added extract and hops.. Don't use a lid for the boil.

FATC1TY said:

Put the lid on when it's ONLY water.. After you've added extract and hops.. Don't use a lid for the boil.

Click to expand...

Yeah I had to in order to keep it boiling. It would not boil without the lid on.

FATC1TY said:

No body acts like anything..

For the same amount of work, I can make 1 gallon, or 10 gallons. Thats what people are getting at.

If you are experimenting, or want to try something different, there's nothing wrong with it. If you are new and your beer sucks, then I'd rather have 1 gallon, rather than 5 gallons.

But the same amount of work goes into 1 gallon v. 5/10 gallons.

You do get the benefit for having two beers, the problem is when you hit the mar, you will have 2.5 gallons of something you MIGHT not be able to get back exact to what the recipe was!

Click to expand...

It's not about you, it's about educating people who are starting out that they can make smaller batches as efficiently as the guys with the full-on hardware do 5+ gallons. Without waiting an hour for the boil.

Just dry hopped it in the primary. Sg went from 1.070 to 1.019, and was begging for it.


Tasted my sample and its pretty nice. A bit sweet, but I think the 2.5 oz of pellet hops will balance it out...hopefully. This has potential to be a great beer.

Figured I'd update. Kegged last Saturday and drank my first couple pints today. It turned out pretty good, but has room for improvement.

I think my fermentation temp was a bit too high for the first few days 73-78. I had to wrap the carboy in a wet towel and blow a fan on it to keep the outside temp at 64-67 degrees after that.

Almost tastes a bit like band aids, but I think the untrained pallet wouldn't pick that up. Again, probably from high fermentation temps the first 3 days