No Rolling Boil

Quick question...

I currently brew in doors and my stove can't seem to even bring 3 gallons to a full, rolling boil and I was wondering if this negatively affecting my end product. Really, my hops are just being steeped for the duration of the boil and most of my beers have had a weird hop twang; pretty bitter but no real hop flavor.

Here's the recipe for 3 gallons, AG:

6.50 lb Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM) Grain 86.67 %
0.50 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 6.67 %
0.50 lb Aromatic Malt (26.0 SRM) Grain 6.66 %
0.75 oz Fuggles [4.00 %] (60 min) Hops 18.2 IBU
0.25 oz Fuggles [4.00 %] (5 min) Hops 1.2 IBU
1.00 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 min) Misc
1 Pkgs SafAle English Ale (DCL Yeast #S-04) Yeast-Ale


I can taste some maltiness, this "hop twang" is really up front. Could the slow boil be a contributing factor? Any thoughts?

yes, you're missing out on both hop utilization, and you're not boiling off the dimethyl sulfide. If your finished beers have a cooked cabbage, or vegetable kind of off flavor, its the DMS that didn't get boiled off.

I'd suggest you split your boil to two smaller pots. I do 3 gal AG batches on my range with two 12qt pots when its too damn cold out to do 5gal on the propane burner.
My stove will only get 3 gallons to 170F after 85 minutes, because the ceramic cooktop has sensors stopping the heating element from 'damaging' the cooktop.

well other things aside, with the recipe you posted, you don't have flavor hop addition. flavor additions are typically in the 15-20 min range. this isn't to say that additions at 60 and 5 give no flavor, just that additions at 15-20 min maximize flavor.

you use the word twang as if it's negative. i cant really relate!! but, if i had to make a wildly uneducated guess, it could be that because you're not fully utilizing the hops for bitterness by isomerizing the alpha acids, it's very possible there are a lot of hop "chemicals" left in the wort that are creating your "twangy" flavors. hops boiled for 60ish minutes lose most of the flavor and aroma and leave behind bitterness. the question that needs answering is whether or not hops that are basically steeped for 60 minutes just become a big flavor hop?

I have that issue. Putting a lid on the pot to get it rolling basically took care of that. Once it's going, I remove it.

senorfartman said:

I have that issue. Putting a lid on the pot to get it rolling basically took care of that. Once it's going, I remove it.

Click to expand...

Exactly what I do fartman. I moved and the stove in my new place sucks. It'll slowly get to 210F and pause. I put the lid on and press the thing against the burner. Gets to 212F but still not rolling. Lid and press a little longer and it's good. Really sucks, but it does work. Don't keep the lid on once you start the boil.

Eb

I used to boil on the stove too. Until the main coil started leaning a bit to the inside of the stove and the wife said 'Enough'. I then went to propane outside and couldn't be happier with that. The stove took about 1 hour to bring about 3 gallons up to mash temp. With propane, goes to about 10 minutes. Anyways, enough of the commercial. I agree with malkore. You are suffering from hop utilization to some degree and, more importantly, you are not boiling off DMS. If a cover is left on during the boil to help it reach a boil faster, you will still retain more DMS. When I was brewing on the stove, I would also put a cover on to help it reach a boil faster. When I removed the cover, I could say goodbye to the boil for about 15 minutes. Go to propane/natural gas if you can.