Just a couple of qustions

Hello all... I'm new to all this and I have a couple qustions, so please bare with me....Just brewed last night I ran into just a few snags like my funnel fliter kept clogging. I used a auto siphion & a reverse flow chiller. The clip on the hose kept clogging also, so I took it off & used a friend to pinch the hose as needed. Is this common??? Also my kettle took forever heat up to a boil (about a hour) on an electric stove. I did keep the extract stired up so I didn't burn it to the pan. Is that to long for the extract to get to a boil or will it be OK??? Thanks for the advice eveyone.

sublimebrew said:

Hello all... I'm new to all this and I have a couple qustions, so please bare with me....Just brewed last night I ran into just a few snags like my funnel fliter kept clogging. I used a auto siphion & a reverse flow chiller. The clip on the hose kept clogging also, so I took it off & used a friend to pinch the hose as needed. Is this common??? Also my kettle took forever heat up to a boil (about a hour) on an electric stove. I did keep the extract stired up so I didn't burn it to the pan. Is that to long for the extract to get to a boil or will it be OK??? Thanks for the advice eveyone.

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First off, you can use a sanitized butter knife, etc., to continually scrape the funnel screen/stir the liquid, thus keeping the flow going.

Secondly, the only thing affected by your long to-boil time is how much time you spend brewing. The beer will be fine either way; personally, when I moved to partial mashing, I ended up with larger boils, and thus, it took longer to get up to boiling on my elec kitchen stove...so come thanksgiving, I bought myself a couple turkey fryer kits from WalMart for cheap. Not only did it cut my boil times by a whole lot, but it also got me out of the kitchen (and kept the smell out of the house), which made SWMBO very happy. I recommend getting a propane fired burner ASAP.

One thing you can do to help with boils is to keep the lid partially on. Dont keep it all the way on as there is some compounds that need to boil away. On my electric stove if I dont keep the lid somewhat on, I cant bring 3 gallons of water to a boil...or at least I have ran out of patience before it boiled. However, if I keep the lid even just halfway on, I get some really nice boils. However, as has been mentioned the best way to fix this problem is to get a propane burner which I plan to do eventually.

When you guys look at turkey fryers, try to get one with a stainless pot. It will cost a bit more, but youll go thru several aluminum pots while using just one stainless. As for the electric stove, Ive heard of making a "trivet". Ive never used one, but maybe somebody here knows how. I think you can make one out of a metal coat hanger