Help! Couldn't get wort to boil!

I attempted to brew my first beer last night and of course, even after all my research, a huge problem would occur that I could not fix.

The 20qt stainless steel kettle that I purchased with my start-up kit from the local brewing shop just so happens to be concaved on the bottom. Since I have one of those flat stoves, it doesn't appear that the bottom of the pot really touches the surface of the stove, hince, I was able to get the temp of my wort right up to 210 or 212 degrees, but I could not get a full out boil to save my life.

Since I had already put in all my malt extract and wasted so much time already, I continued with the recipe adding my hops, cooling the wort, and putting everying in the fermenter.

So, being that the wort was not fully boild, I am just wandering if this beer is going to turn out okay or if I am better off disgarding the whole thing and starting over once I get a new kettle that is actually flat on the bottom.

Thanks

Your beer will be fine. Since you are using extract, a good boil is not as important. Your hop utilization will decrease slightly, but not anything noticeable.

I dunno, maybe try getting the flat bottomed kettle, but when I started my first beer, I kept telling myself 212 degrees is 212 degrees, even if it is not a rolling boil. I was really careful adding LME as I didn't want it to scorch on the bottom, but everything turned out fine.

It's probably going to be OK. I have a ceramic-top stove that struggles to boil anything over 3 gallons, and I seem to do OK. You might try putting a lid on the pot during the initial warm-up, then leaving the lid "cocked" during the boil, that will help prevent some of the heat from leaving out the top of the pot. Also look into insulating wrap, like this: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/improved-boiling-stovetop-53683/

i too have boiling issues but mine will get three gallons at least to a roiling (my wife swears roiling isn't a word). takes almost and hour to do it. but i have since purchased a lid and it makes initial boil time much shorter.

And bring that kettle back for an exchange. That's just not right.

Boil outside on a propane burner.

Thanks for the replies so far. I feel a lot better that there's a chance my efforts weren't for naught. From reading about others having troubles with ceramic tops, maybe it's not just the kettle. It's only slightly concaved. It's not defected either, it is molded that way so that it has a slight lip around the edges and the concaved part is really only about 2-3 millmeters deep, but I know it would heat better if it made contact with the surface of the stove b/c during the boil I would press down on the bottom with my spoon and I could feel it bubble where the spoon was pressing, but it would just stop when I took the spoon away.
I also used a lid and that is the only way to keep the temp up to around 210, and it would drop when I took the lid off to stir.
I guess I'll see how this one turns out and be looking for myself a flat bottomed kettle and keep my wort amount to 2.5 to 3 gallons. I started with 3 but added 1 gallon of boiling water from another pot thinking it would help speed it up but it didn't. Maybe wrapping a towel around the top half of the kettle would insulate it enough to boil it.

WBC said:

Boil outside on a propane burner.

Click to expand...

What WBC said. After watching the lawn grow waiting for my stove to boil the kettle, I switched to one of those nuclear friggin' propane burner. 25 minutes to full boil.

Turkey fryers will indeed do the job, but I'm sure your beer will be fine. In fact, I'm enjoying a Porter right now that I couldn't get a real boil on when brewing couple of months ago. The hops turned out fine, too.

Still, it's an odd feeling not actually boiling anything.

It's the pot. I was in the same situation as you when I did my first batch. For the second I bought a 10 gallon pot and propane burner, and went to doing AG after that. I have since discovered that a better pot actually WILL boil 3-4 gallons on the stove top, the concave bottom screws you over with a flat top. Even with a good pot, it takes forever to get up to a boil since the BTU output isn't as high as a normal element electric stove. IMO you will be best served by going with a turkey fryer burner if you can manage that.

+10 on the burner!
turkey fryer will get a pot too, and this friday i bet you can pick one up cheap.
my stove struggles with 2 gallon biols, and my first MM brew was split between 2 pots @ 1.5 gallon each....what a pain!

anyway, my first extract brew that did not boil came out just fine! in fact, there is only one left