My beer isn't boiling!

I have a thermometer in it, and the highest is putting out is 210.4º

No foaming, nothing... it looks like this:

Andrew R Fox.com

Should I be worried? it's rolling, but no bubbles and no foam.

for what its worth coming from a noob. It looks like your trying to boil and awful lot of liquid on the stovetop...also perhaps try to keep a lid on it to keep the temps in?? You may have to cut down your boil amount or switch to a better heat supply

this may help stovetop

I had the same problem last week. My gas stove could not get a rolling boil on 3.5 gallons. I am hesitant to cover the pot because of boil-overs. It can take hours of scrubbing to get that stuff off the stove.

If you can try and position the pot over 2 burners. That will help to get more heat.

I recently ordered an outdoor propane burner for my next batch. It is 185,000BTU's, which is opposed to 7,000 BTU's on my stove burner.

i think the surface area of the pot bottom was too big. we lifted half of it up and it boiled like crazy. I think the next batch may be 2-2.5 gallons instead of 3... I think we'll be fine, the temp is good and the wort smells hoppy. I am concerned, but I won't freak out.

Use the lid. I did a sanity check on the new stove with 3 gal and it would only come to a low boil after 35min. Put the lid on and I got a controlled rolling boil less than 2min later. I took the lid off and it went back down to a low boil. I'm not brewing inside anymore, but that told me all I needed to know. Tells me it is possible to do a shrimp/crawfish boil on rainy days...mmmmmmm

Turbo Dog and spicy shrimp/crawfish! That's about as good as it gets in my book!

all i need to know is that the beer is fine

Taste the wort. If it tastes good to you, then there's nothing to worry about. Of course it won't have the final product flavor, but it will be enough to tell if you have something undesirable going on. Other people may not agree, but I can usually tell if I'm going to be close to what I want by tasting the wort.

I had this problem a few nights ago. I made my first P.M. and my boil ended up at 4 gal in a 5 gal pot. After a bit I decided to split it into 2 pots. Once it started to boil I added them together again. My boil started back up in no time.

????? my gas stove boils a 4 gallon pot no trouble. use the lid ! or at least use a tin foil "lid".

Do not use a lid. The vapors are carrying away lots of stuff you do not want in the beer.

Use 2 smaller pots if you have too and combine. Just make sure the hops and everything else are approximately split in half.

Fox - THIS batch will be fine - I would look into an alternative for next time though.

I have been known to use the "propane torch booster method".....

Grinder12000 said:

Do not use a lid. The vapors are carrying away lots of stuff you do not want in the beer.

Use 2 smaller pots if you have too and combine. Just make sure the hops and everything else are approximately split in half.

Fox - THIS batch will be fine - I would look into an alternative for next time though.

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The vapors are nothing more than distilled water. I see no issue with the using the lid since it still keeps most of that moisture in the pot. As long as you are very careful to try and keep the trapped moisture collected on the inside of the lid back into your pot you shouldn't be losing anything. Even if you don't keep it in there, you're not losing anything more that wouldn't be lost from evaporation.

Just my $.02

yeah, I think next time I'm going to use less water in the boil so I can get a better boil, until we can get a burner or something.

Might be doing it again next wednesday

Do not use a lid.

One of the primary purposes of a boil is to remove DMS (Dimethyl Sulfide) from your beer. It is a byproduct of the mashing process and will be present whether you are all grain or extract. It can impart a certain rotten cabbage, vegetably aroma and flavor. There are many other chemicals that boil off as well. True, it will boil with the lid on, but take Grinder12000's advice and find a different solution for your next brew. Propane burners are cheap.

I never had a problem when I used a lid with off-flavors, but I'm using a propane burner these days that I got for free from someone I knew who had a turkey frier and never used it.

[Edit: spage beat me to it, but +1 on his response]

Do NOT use a lid for any longer than it takes to come to a boil. Once you've got the boil going, make sure you're NOT USING A LID.

Simple reason: Ditmethyl Sulfide.

Dimethyl Sulfide
Description: Tastes and smells of cooked vegetables/corn/cabbage or shellfish/seafood. Is acceptable in light lagers to a degree.

Cause: Bacterial infection can cause DMS, as well as covering up your brewpot during the boil. DMS is removed from the wort during the boil, so covering it up is obviously going to cause the DMS-laced condensation to fall back into your brewpot.

Remedy: Keep good sanitation procedures, and make sure to keep a rolling, uncovered boil when brewing. Do not cover your brewpot during the boil!

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You can (and should) use the lid again when you're cooling the wort, however, to keep the nasties out!

Maybe I had the lid slightly off the pot enough to let out the vapors and keep it hot enough to boil. Hell, I don't remember. I just remember using a lid and it all worked out in the end.

Simplest solution...BANJO BURNER!:rockin:

blancothebronco said:

Simplest solution...BANJO BURNER!:rockin:

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Does it squeal like a pig when it comes to temp?? Made in West Virginia maybe?

SmugMug said:

The vapors are nothing more than distilled water. I see no issue with the using the lid since it still keeps most of that moisture in the pot. As long as you are very careful to try and keep the trapped moisture collected on the inside of the lid back into your pot you shouldn't be losing anything. Even if you don't keep it in there, you're not losing anything more that wouldn't be lost from evaporation.

Just my $.02

Click to expand...

spage said:

Do not use a lid.

One of the primary purposes of a boil is to remove DMS (Dimethyl Sulfide) from your beer. It is a byproduct of the mashing process and will be present whether you are all grain or extract. It can impart a certain rotten cabbage, vegetably aroma and flavor. There are many other chemicals that boil off as well. True, it will boil with the lid on, but take Grinder12000's advice and find a different solution for your next brew. Propane burners are cheap.

Click to expand...

I see that this has been covered, but sometimes it helps to reiterate. You can cover the pot while bring to a boil, but after that, no lid. You want the DMS to boil off, as well as other volatile compounds. I'm not sure it's a big concern in extract brews (since the extract has been processed already) but in brews that use grain, this would be an issue.

Think of the taste of cooked corn, or even cabbage as mentioned. I think a "corny" taste may be present in some beers with DMS issues.

I agree with not using a lid otherwise you get dimethyl sulfide and potentially bad boilovers. Most kitchen stoves don't have the horsepower and BTU's to boil that much volume. Either do a smaller boil, split it in half like someone said, or go outdoors. Using a fish fry type burner you will get to a boil so fast you won't believe it. Cuts down on total brew time in a big way.

Dennis

YooperBrew said:

I see that this has been covered, but sometimes it helps to reiterate. You can cover the pot while bring to a boil, but after that, no lid. You want the DMS to boil off, as well as other volatile compounds. I'm not sure it's a big concern in extract brews (since the extract has been processed already) but in brews that use grain, this would be an issue.

Think of the taste of cooked corn, or even cabbage as mentioned. I think a "corny" taste may be present in some beers with DMS issues.

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I've never gotten a straight answer about this:

Wouldn't a half-covered pot allow the DMS to boil off also? If water condenses on the inside lid and drips back in with DMS, won't that DMS just boil off again and this time hopefully escape through the opening?

I can do a good boil on my stove, 5 gallons uncovered. I can also do a strong rolling boil about 1/2 covered. I tend to mix it up, about 45 minutes uncovered, about 15 minutes really rolling. I can't imagine that I'm leaving DMS behind....I mean, even 2/3rd's covered, easily 75+% of the steam rolls out the top before condensing, but there's a lot more of it since there's so much more energy contained in the wort.

I dunno, I would just think that a partially covered, strong rolling boil that produces as much or more steam than an uncovered general boil would be just as good at removing DMS.

I've just never read anything that said if DMS is in the condensed water, and it drips back into the pot that you'll never be able to get rid of it.

Doesn't deathbrewer do use a partially covered pot?

Quick follow up:

We figured out the problem during cleanup: the bottom of the pot we bought is slightly concave, meaning it doesn't sit flat on our glass-top electric stove. What a PITA. Looking like buying a burner is becoming more and more likely.

Either way, it SEEMS like everything came out OK. The OG range was 1.042-1.046 and ours was 1.043. Tasted sweet when we drank it after the hydrometer reading (that's to be expected though, huh), and we didn't taste any off flavors, but what do we know...

Hoping everything turns out OK in the end. Either way it's in the basement hopefully going to town!

Just follow your nose/taste and common sense and you'll be good.

You can use a taller slimmer pot which helps. As for using a lid - I can understand that you might not see a difference in flavor but perhaps your beer is covering it up. The question is how long do you want to gamble.

I've done many things that are not recommended before I knew it was . . . not recommended, but, if something CAN go wrong, why test fate.

When I was stove top boiling on my glass top WHITE (arg!) stove I found that length was more important then girth when it comes to pots and boiling.

I then did full boils using two pots and two burners. Careful on the timing as you don't want two boil overs at once.

THAT my friend, is the true meaning of stress!!

Sidenote for foxual - I've found I can pretty much tell how a brew will be at bottling. If it taste boring it normally is. If it tastes good it will be REALLY good. If it's bad . . . . I just tell myself to give it extra time.

The lighter the beer the more flavor you get from carbonation so light colored brew are normally non-exciting at bottling and really perk up 3 weeks later.

foxual said:

Quick follow up:

We figured out the problem during cleanup: the bottom of the pot we bought is slightly concave, meaning it doesn't sit flat on our glass-top electric stove. What a PITA. Looking like buying a burner is becoming more and more likely.

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Hold a straight-edge to the bottom of all your pots to see how flat they are. When I moved to an apartment with a flattop stove, I had to put a few of my pots and pans aside.

I would have thought a new pot would be flat-bottomed though.

My stove is slightly underpowered, so I use a round perforated pizza pan for a lid. Still lets most of the steam out, while holding enough heat in to keep a boil going. Haven't detected any off flavors that I could attribute to DMS yet...

This is an electric stove??
Has anyone ever tried using a fireproof insulation around the pot to help hold in heat?

Hegh said:

My stove is slightly underpowered, so I use a round perforated pizza pan for a lid. Still lets most of the steam out, while holding enough heat in to keep a boil going. Haven't detected any off flavors that I could attribute to DMS yet...

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brilliant!

giligson said:

This is an electric stove??
Has anyone ever tried using a fireproof insulation around the pot to help hold in heat?

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https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/improved-boiling-stovetop-53683/

Quick update... my airlock is bubbling away! The gas coming out smells hoppy and delicious!

Good to hear the batch is doing well. After my 1st attempt at brewing on the stove and cleaning up the boil overs, I quickly purchased a turkey fryer from Home Depot for about $30 + large propane tank and have never looked back. It's perfect for brewing and you get an extra brewing kettle as a bonus, which can be useful for AG batches.

Makeyermark said:

Good to hear the batch is doing well. After my 1st attempt at brewing on the stove and cleaning up the boil overs, I quickly purchased a turkey fryer from Home Depot for about $30 + large propane tank and have never looked back. It's perfect for brewing and you get an extra brewing kettle as a bonus, which can be useful for AG batches.

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Cheapest I found was $66 online... I'll be looking around for sure now.

foxual said:

Cheapest I found was $66 online... I'll be looking around for sure now.

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That seems a bit pricey, but could vary depending on the time of year. If you have a home depot close by, I bet you can get the turkey fryer (in the outdoor grills section) and a large (full) propane tank for about $75 - $80 total. Once you have purchased the large tank, refills are only about $25 and will last a long time.

Makeyermark said:

That seems a bit pricey, but could vary depending on the time of year. If you have a home depot close by, I bet you can get the turkey fryer (in the outdoor grills section) and a large (full) propane tank for about $75 - $80 total. Once you have purchased the large tank, refills are only about $25 and will last a long time.

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Are they not the same ones used on a propane grill (the tanks)?

foxual said:

Are they not the same ones used on a propane grill (the tanks)?

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Yep, they are the same ones. Maybe you already have one. If that's the case, then you are half way there. The other bonus is being able to brew outside. Of course that may not be a bonus in Rochester if you're brewing in December.