Is it possible to boil 5 gallon of wort on kitchen stove?

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

wolfboy

Active Member
Joined
Apr 5, 2008
Messages
37
Reaction score
2
Location
Ontario, Canada
Hi. I am new to making 5 gallons of all grain. I had only done partial mashes in the past, and had made a few batches of all grain using a 15qt pot. Now I just got a new 30qt aluminum pot and ready to start some 5-6 gallon full wort boils.

I don't have a propane burner, but i suppose I can try with the kitchen stove first.

Does anyone have experience of boiling 5 gallons on the kitchen stove and found this possible?

Thanks

J
 
You might get there with a standard stove, but it'll take forever and probably won't be a very strong boil. My regular old gas range doesn't boil 3 gallons terribly easily. I'm gonna get a turkey fryer soon so I can do full boils.
 
elkdog said:
You might get there with a standard stove, but it'll take forever and probably won't be a very strong boil.
elkdog -- have a look at the thread I referenced above. I used to think this too, but overcame the problem easily. I can now EASILY boil 6 gals of wort on the stovetop without even turning the burner to max.
 
I can do AG in my kitchen, and boil on my stove (pics in gallery). Most people can't, because they don't have a strong enough burner, but some can. And with that linked advice, maybe more can do it.
 
It took me forever to get 3.5 gal to a boil on my stove - I don't even want to try more. I am afraid that even 4 gal. would never come all the way. I will be spending a lot of time on the back porch when I get me propane burner.
 
Thanks for the tip Flyguy
Your earlier post says you can slip this reflective coat on and off the pot. Does that mean you didn't tape the wrapping onto the pot, but rather just taped the reflective coat to itself so I would fit snuggly around the pot?
This is a damn good idea. Got to try this with my boil pot and my mash pot.
Cheers
 
Correct -- I taped it to itself, and then used bulldog clips to hold it in place. Actually, for the first few batches it was tight enough that it didn't even need the clips, but it eventually expanded a bit (presumably from the heat of the pot).
 
FlyGuy said:
elkdog -- have a look at the thread I referenced above. I used to think this too, but overcame the problem easily. I can now EASILY boil 6 gals of wort on the stovetop without even turning the burner to max.

Now I wish I had an electric stove. Seems like the wisdom in that thread is that I'd be setting up a fire hazard. Really nice solution you put together, though. :mug:
 
elkdog said:
Now I wish I had an electric stove. Seems like the wisdom in that thread is that I'd be setting up a fire hazard. Really nice solution you put together, though. :mug:

I am sure you could rig something similar up for a gas stove using fire retardant materials. Then, if you did, you would actually be better off. I know my gasser has a power boil location that puts out somewhere over 17,000 BTU or so which I doubt you could get from electric.
 
Yes, absolutely. I think it was David_42 who suggested using automobile firewall insulation instead of plastic reflectix insulation. On a gas stovetop, that would probably knock 5 or 10 mins off the boil time, I would be willing to bet.

I would LOVE to have a gas stove.
 
Ahoy hoy,
Greetings from North Pole Alaska.
I dont usually get to give advice on my first post on a forum, but I can for this thread.
I can boil 6 gallons at a fairly stiff boil in my 30qt pot on my bottom end model electric range in the kitchen. In another month the weather will allow outside brewing, but 8 months of the year up here, your going to be doing it inside, so Ive had time to experiment.
It can be done. and done fairly well. Your mileage may vary, void where prohibited by law.
 
We have a really good kitchen stove and it boils five gallons or more very nicely. But as was already mentioned, it comes down to your particular stove.
 
I've successfully boiled just over 6 gallons on my bottom end 24" electric stove.. No insulation on my standard 30qt turkey fryer pot. My biggest problem was that with ~50lbs sitting on the burner, after it got hot the little tripod that supports the element (and thus, what sits on it) crumpled. The irony is that the pot sits much nicer now. It takes about 30 min to go from mash out to boil with the full 6-6.5 gallons in there.
 
My stove sucks, so I have a hard time getting 3.5-4 gallons up to a full boil. 5+ gallons would probably be impossible on my old stove, so I'm currently looking for a propane burner....
 
Thank you everyone for your responses

I performed a little experiment on my own. I will share with you my little experiment performed on this stove in this rented apartment dated from year 1972: (also considering the heat capacity of wort will be pretty close to water)

8:15pm: 15C water (60F), 23L in 30 kettle
Cranked to full heat
9:40pm: 70C (158F)
10:10pm: 92C (197.6F)
10:20pm: 97C (206.6F)
Here, I opened the lid to simulate a full boil with the intend of reducing liquid volume
10:40pm: 95C (203F)
10:45pm: Placed kettle in a bath tub full of cold tap water. (~60F)
*note: I wanted to test how fast a full kettle can cool by just the water bath method alone. The thing I did consistently was to shake the kettle time to time to mix the contents within the kettle so that temperature drop could be more even. This step proved to be essential.
11:20pm 48C (118.4F)
11:28pm 40C (104F)
11:43pm 30C (86F)

Thanks for the suggestions
 
I've struggled with this limitation and I've discoverd that if you can't invest in propane, you've got to invest somewhere else, and thus far my trials have shown that, if at all possible, you should look at your options for kettle dimensions more so than the limitations of your stove when you're stuck working in apartment conditions.

I'm in a 1 bed, 4th story apratment using a Premier 20 inch gas range, which I believe is one of the smallest stoves on the market. I have no issues getting 7-8 gallons to a rolling boil in under an hour from room temp if only because I've selected a 10 gallon kettle as wide as my stove so I can place it over all 4 burners.

I found that after insulating the pot with a shielded fiberglass blanket that I only need two burners to get a boil. I plan on using sheet-metal angle stock on the low-side of the pot to retard the flames so it's safe for me to use on the gas range.

As far as cooling goes, you can probably speed up the process by adding salt to your ice/water mix and agitating. My system is like a reverse immersion cooler. I run hot wort through copper tubing that is submerged in an ice/salt mix that I stir up as it runs through. The salt forces/expediates the chemical melting process, which speeds up heat absorbtion beyond it's normal rate, which in turn creates a very rapid drop in temperature that often surpasses the freezing point of water without actually without forming ice.

If you just want to keep it simple, throw 3-5 cups of salt in together with a bag or two of ice in your sink and a gallon or two of water. Stick your kettle pot in and stir the ice/water/salt mix for a few minutes. You should see a much more rapid drop in wort temp there.
 
I can easily boil 6 gallons on my crappy apartment gas stove on a single burner, but I usually put the pot on two burners to get it to a boil as fast as possible. Then I turn one of the burners off because it's not necessary to keep it at a boil.
 
homebrewer_99 said:
I have been doing 1.5 gal boils with the late addition method (long before I knew it was a "method").

You may want to read more on the subject. ;)

You may want to re-read his question. Or you may want to realize this is the AG forum. Either, or.
 
I use to do it on the stove all the time until one day the pot hung out to far over the counter top and left a burn mark.

The wife kicked me and my brew out into the garage, and wouldn't let me back in until I promised to replace the counter tops.
 
Back
Top