I get burn-on on the bottom of my pot every time

I have an electric stove here. No matter how careful I am the wort always sticks and burns a bit to the bottom of my pot. Should I invest in another pot with a thicker bottom? It's kind of frustrating and I'm wondering how to avoid it.

on my last batch, that also happened to me. I fished out the pieces, and put it in the fermenter.

I used to brew on electric, I used the ghetto trivet described in "The Complete Joy of Homebrewing". Just lay a metal coathanger on the element to provide some separation between it and your pot. I don't think it completely eliminated scorching, but it did make a huge difference. Now I've moved outside to a turkey fryer and I'll never come back in the house to brew!

Are you using extract? If you are, kill the heat before you dump it in. The extract is heavy & sinks right to the bottom. Stir it in well before turning the heat back on.

I agree with the above. Only add half of you LME at first and the other half 15 min till the end of the boil. Remove from heat before adding in LME. One better step if this still happens is get a pot with a thicker bottom on it.

Kill the heat and move the pot off the burner. Dump the LME in then mix very very well. I mean VERY well. Beat that wort like you're 15 again. It will help reduce the scorching.

Yeah, I'll try these suggestions, sound like they should help. I feel a little pissed off because when I was at the store buying a pot before my first brew there were two pots almost identical, and not that different in price. The only difference was one had a thicker bottom. I figured I didn't need that since it'll be mostly water I'm boiling. I wish I had spent the extra 10 bucks or so (may have been less actually). Live & learn...

EvilTOJ said:

Kill the heat and move the pot off the burner. Dump the LME in then mix very very well. I mean VERY well. Beat that wort like you're 15 again. It will help reduce the scorching.

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I also have had the same problem with scorching. After each brew I can see the shape of my element on the bottom of the pot.

I'm new here... So forgive me if this is a dumb question. But, when I'm stirring in new ingredients, it's always in the back of my mind not to disturb the surface of the wort. I'm worried about air getting into the hot wort. I think I've read somewhere that that's a bad idea. Right or wrong?

Stirring isn't going to hurt the wort unless you're using a whisk and trying to incorporate as much air as possible. Every time anything with lots of sugar in it is added, like extract, the pan needs to be moved off of the burner until the extract is fully mixed in. I do this every time(except last, when I used DME, and got huge amounts of burning), and haven't had any problems. The bottom of my SS has burner shaped marks on the bottom, but those never come off and it appears to just be discoloration of the metal.

The good news is that you are not killing the beer - just adding a little extra taste that is not all bad in the first place.

kornbread said:

I also have had the same problem with scorching. After each brew I can see the shape of my element on the bottom of the pot.

I'm new here... So forgive me if this is a dumb question. But, when I'm stirring in new ingredients, it's always in the back of my mind not to disturb the surface of the wort. I'm worried about air getting into the hot wort. I think I've read somewhere that that's a bad idea. Right or wrong?

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Boiling water helps drive out some of the oxygen in the wort as you boil it. Not to mention, with a good rolling boil, you're disturbing the surface of the wort significantly and constantly for an hour.

A good mixing stir is better than keeping your wort glassy calm. Don't whisk it, but don't worry about a good stir. Be more concerned with a boil over.

Use one of these - they work like a charm for both boiling and defrosting meats.

http://bellacopper.stores.yahoo.net/9in229mmcoph.html

atarlecky said:

Use one of these - they work like a charm for both boiling and defrosting meats.

http://bellacopper.stores.yahoo.net/9in229mmcoph.html

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75 bucks for a copper plate?

I knew copper was expensive these days but holy hand grenades batman!

There's other options out there too. An aluminum plate would probably do a similar job and be cheaper.

+1 for removing it from the heat. I've done that on 4 brews now, and the bottom of my kettle is still as shiny and clean as the day I bought it. I never have to scrub stuff off of it.

TheFlatline said:

75 bucks for a copper plate?

I knew copper was expensive these days but holy hand grenades batman!

There's other options out there too. An aluminum plate would probably do a similar job and be cheaper.

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That's an average price for a copper plate of that size, thickness, and finish. Also - you use it for quickly defrosting foods like meats and fish (it works very very fast). I certainly would not want my fish defrosting on an unfinished aluminum plate.

However - your point is taken... I found an aluminum plate on mcmaster carr for $18. However - aluminum isn't nearly as efficient at transmitting heat as copper, so you get what you pay for.