Erlenmeyer Flask on Electric Stove

Hwk-I-St8 said:

If you're going to go to that trouble, you might as well do what I do, which is make my starter in a sauce pan and then just use a funnel to pour into the flask when done. I really did not want wort burned onto my glass top stove at my old house and it would be as big a mess or bigger on the gas cooktop at my new place. I figure the flask will fail eventually and it's most likely to happen when heating or chilling. My flask is always in the sink when it gets wort, so if it fails, it'll be an easy cleanup.

Click to expand...

Just to weigh in on this from my college chemistry years (I have a chemistry degree), you should never expose the flask to an open flame. If you are going to use an Erlenmeyer flask on a concentrated heat source (a flame, an electric stove with a coiled burner, etc.) you should consider purchasing a wire gauze. You can get them from any lab supply house, like Fisher Scientific. They are pretty inexpensive and are good insurance They spread out the heat and the center of the wire gauze contains inflammable material that keeps the heat source from directly touching the flask. I use one here when making my starters. I too then set the flask aside for a minute or two after the boil of the starter wort is done to do a slight cool down and spread t he heat out a bit more evenly across the surface of the glass before putting it in a cold water bath.

With a glass cook-top surface, you will probably be OK without the wire gauze since the glass spreads out the heat a bit more evenly than a coiled burner.

Chosenwon said:

I use a $20 dollar hot plate from walmart that has a cast heating element on top and it has worked fine so far. I have avoided using my glass cooktop stove and any bare element. For $20 you should be safe going this route.

Click to expand...

^^^^^^
This

That way you have "your" electric eye in your brew area, away from "her kitchen", I made a mess once and heard about it for a long time. Likely the best twenty bucks I ever spent. It's easy enough to empty the ice into a plastic pan or bucket and carry it to your brew area. I've had boilovers on my electric eye, but it was "my mess" and not in the kitchen. I've since put down a couple of ceramic tiles below, the little electric eye, and it is one of the types with the cart iron elements.

I'll take a ceramic tile and put it into the bottom of a five gallon bucket, put in the flask on the tile, and pour in ice and water.

BTW - I cracked a five liter flask about the second or third time I used it on an electric eye stove, while it was heating, no messes, just a big crack, across the bottom and up one side. F*ck, f*ck, f*ck.

Dr_Jeff said:

^^^^^^
This

That way you have "your" electric eye in your brew area, away from "her kitchen", I made a mess once and heard about it for a long time. Likely the best twenty bucks I ever spent. It's easy enough to empty the ice into a plastic pan or bucket and carry it to your brew area. I've had boilovers on my electric eye, but it was "my mess" and not in the kitchen. I've since put down a couple of ceramic tiles below, the little electric eye, and it is one of the types with the cart iron elements.

I'll take a ceramic tile and put it into the bottom of a five gallon bucket, put in the flask on the tile, and pour in ice and water.

BTW - I cracked a five liter flask about the second or third time I used it on an electric eye stove, while it was heating, no messes, just a big crack, across the bottom and up one side. F*ck, f*ck, f*ck.

Click to expand...

I've gone "small ball" on my heating element as well, but decided to go with a portable induction cook top instead. It gets me out of SWMBO's kitchen and into my brew space. It does involve using a conductive sauce pan, but, "So?"

One quart of water comes to a boil in less than 90 seconds and can be controlled to prevent boil-overs in a second (or less) after adding the DME. The stainless sauce pan goes directly from full boil into a laundry sink with 50F water for quick chilling, then wort goes into an Erlemeyer flask with yeast onto the stir plate. Quick and easy. No breakage.

Plus the portable induction does double duty in the RV when we travel.

Brooo Brother