Question on Boiling

I've read a lot about people worrying about boil over when brewing.. but I have a problem of a different sort.

I can't tell if my stove just kinda sucks, but it takes damn near forever for my wort to get to a boil and even when it finally does it's pretty weak. So it never really gets to a good rolling boil - It hasn't been much of a problem so far other than really testing my patience when it takes an hour (or more) to get it to a boil before adding hops. Does anyone else have any experience with this or any advice on a good trick to speed up the boil?

If this is normal though then that's good to know - Just more time to enjoy another homebrew I suppose.

Yup, it's a problem many of us experienced - which encouraged us to go pick up a "turkey fryer" on the cheap at the wally world or some other mega-mart.

Small expense, but watch it - you're on a slippery slope! Next, it will be dedicated refrigerators for fermenting, kegerators, mash tuns, ....

And while the turkey fryer pots will probably work, you get what you pay for - so it's the burner and stand you're getting. The pot will probably be of poor quality. Save up, get a nice 10gal or better. Oh, and you'll need a propane tank if you don't have one.

then sit back on your porch, balcony, garage, outside, and boil away!

Yep turkey fryer and then you too can worry about boil overs, until you get a keggle and well then you are just done for turn your wallet over and pour out all the folding money you have.

So far I'm doing ok on controlling my *ahem* hobby spending. I've leeched an outdoor burner from my brother and *ahem* borrowed a friend's crawfish boil stockpot (takes me to 2 5 gal pots). Only thing I've spent money on is the initial cost of my gear, ingredients, and commercial beer for the bottles.

I spotted a nice Igloo cooler in my neighbor's garage this morning that looks like it needs "liberating".

Yeah - I'm quickly learning that I could be dropping some major cash on this new hobby. So far it's been limited to the basics but every time I go online or to the shop I see new toys that would look great at my place.

Thanks for your help all - I might look into the turkey fryer soon.

Can you boil smaller quantities of water in other pots, get them to a boil then combine in your brew pot and hopefully maintain the boil?

Oh and +1 for the fryer and keggle. I bought my burner at a yard sale for 5 bucks with a full propane tank, and snagged a keggle for $40 from a brewery!

IXVolt said:

Can you boil smaller quantities of water in other pots, get them to a boil then combine in your brew pot and hopefully maintain the boil?

Click to expand...

Well - the main problem is getting the wort to boil after adding the malt extract... the density of the syrup I'm guessing takes it longer to boil.

This worked for me: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/improved-boiling-stovetop-53683/

I've had the turkey fryer for a while and invested in a big 7.5 gallon stainless steel pot, but once I hit boiling, I quickly back off the flame until I get a nice slow boil. I've read about hot break, but I don't know if I've ever seen that and my 1st batch of beer was cloudy (Irish Red) and until I added some gelatin the other day, my 2nd, 3rd, and 4th batches were also cloudy (yes, I jumped in without even tasting my 1st brew...)

Any tips on how you can tell a boil is going to create hot break and is that a good thing?