how hard of a rolling boil do I need?

I was testing my new kettle on my induction stovetop yesterday to see if I will be able to do full boils on the stovetop. I was able to get 6.5 gallons of tap water to a boil from 60F to 212F in 45 minutes. I know I'm not going to break any land speed records with that, but I guess it will get the job done.

The one thing I'm a bit worried about is that the induction system pulses every 5 seconds or so. I'll get 5 seconds of a good bubbling rolling boil, and then it seems to slow for 5 seconds or so, so that the water is no longer in a rolling boil. Then it will cycle on again, and I'll get 5 seconds of a rolling boil, etc. During the cycles, the water stays at the same temperature.

So do I need to maintain a hard rolling boil, or will an on/off rolling boil be ok?

As long as the temp is constant it shouldn't matter. I've never been able to maintain a rolling boil on my indoor stove but I always hit my numbers.

the need for some rolling action isn't necessarily to "hit the numbers" but to allow compounds to exit the wort with the steam and to get the wort cycling around in the kettle. for the OP, if you get some rolling that should be fine. Are you all grain/pm/or extract brewing?

cool, thx. I'll give it a try with my next brew.

I'm extract brewing right now, but would slowly like to get into partials and all grains. I really hope I can do all this on my stovetop.

with extract it shouldn't be much of an issue. now if it was all grain with mostly pilsner malt it might be another story. have fun.

I'll have to look into that.

btw, I work in Stamford, nice to chat with someone local.

Also, keep in mind that hops oils are isomerized only in boiling wort. That's really the main reason for a boil- to get bittering out of the hops.

Yeah...stay away from pilsner malt. It's prone to producing DMS if you can't get a hard boil for extended times. At least...that's what they say.

...and just in case you're wondering what a good rolling boil looks like?

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hYqVfPn6mA]YouTube - Keggle on the Boil[/ame]

Ken_CT said:

I'll have to look into that.

btw, I work in Stamford, nice to chat with someone local.

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There have been a lot of CT people on here lately, very nice to see

TelemarkBrew said:

with extract it shouldn't be much of an issue. now if it was all grain with mostly pilsner malt it might be another story. have fun.

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Just out of curiosity, I have an all grain batch with 5.5 pilsner malt. What is the story with pilsner malt. I am kind of wondering the same thing with all grain boils. How hard should I boil, and how does a harder/softer boil, affect the overall beer?