Wort Boiling Techniques

I've been using my kitchen exclusively to homebrew. With the warm weather, I'm considering using my BBQ's side burner to boil the wort outside.

Is there anybody who does this or can speak to this? I'd hate to find out that, for whatever reason, it's not a good idea.

I used the bbq (side burner) for the first time a few weeks ago.
It was extract, with a wort of about 4 gallons.
I worked fine...not a hell of a lot BTUs -so expect a bit of a slow start - but then it gets going good.
Plus, all the neighbour's babies ended up smelling like homebrew...and I thought that was pretty funny.

I would recommend checking to make sure that the side burner can can support the weight...mine is an older bbq, with the weight being at the max. You could always support with a 2x4 if need be. I used a ceramic pot...and used that for regular elements, and natural gas stoves....made no difference.

Cheers.

A side burner unless you have a really high powered BBQ doesn't generate enough to get 2.5 gallons to a rolling boil unless you have all day to watch it. I tried once, after an hour of waiting (starting at steep temp) I went inside, and the next day bought a turkey fryer

I have a camp stove about the size of a side burner. I suspect it's around 10,000 BTU. I use for mashing, if I'm doing a step mash, but I heat the strike water on the turkey burner.

Your results may very. Test it with a pot of water. If it can reach & hold a rolling boil, use it. If it falls over, hopefully it will before the water is too hot.

oh ya...too speed it up (if extract), boil the water first with the lid on...then add
extract and remove the lid for the rest of the boil...apparently off flavours can arise if the steam (that carries other goodies) is allowed to drip back into the pot.

Cheers.