Weak boil?

I did my first brew (an extract kit) on Wednesday and all appears well so far. I have a question about the boil, though.

I didn't experiencing any foaming, and I had the heat all the way up. Any stir action at all seemed to make it drop below boil. Is this normal when using extract, or is it not getting hot enough? Putting the lid on briefly caused it to get a lot more excited (foamy, that subsided shortly after the lid is removed) , but I know I can't rely on using the lid due to the stuff boiling off that will get trapped and fall back in.

I did a 3 gallon partial boil using my gas stove + a 5 gallon SS pot from a LHBS.

sounds like its not getting hot enough. try boiling 1 1/2 to 2 gallons of water instead. i use a turkey fryer because my stove takes a long time to boil anything over 2 gallons and that works great.

I'd have to venture most gas stoves could handle that amount. The one I use is one of those mini apartment sized rigs and so far 3 gallons has gone fine, if a bit anemic. Thing is it takes nearly an hour just to get it up to that temperature. In theory though (assuming I'm remembering thermodynamics and how to boil water proper) wort should boil easier than water given the increased number of nucleation points. You might try just putting in 3 gallons of water and let it go for an hour sometime and see if it works for you.

As long as it is "ticking over" you are fine. A good roiling boil is not necessary. You could try putting the lid partially on but beware of boil overs. As far as stuff dripping back in that isn't a problem with extract beers as the DMS was already driven off for the most part when the extract was made.

GT

What sort of stove are you using? One thing that has helped me on an apartment gas stove is straddling my 3.5 gal pot between two burners, so that it just overlaps the outside of each of the burners on one side. Heats up pretty decent.

Thanks for the replies.

It's an older Magic Chef cooking range w/ uniburners. (4 burners total) They've seen better days (visually), so I'm sure I could improve it if I replaced the caps and/or part of the uniburner assembly.

I can get the pot so it is a little more than 1/2 on top of 2 burners, but I wasn't sure if I would hurt my pot if the flames are going up the side a bit.

If ticking over is sufficient without a vigorous foamy boil then I may just not worry for now.

I don't think it would be too hard on the pot, though I have an old thrift store special, so I'm not terribly worried about mine.