Can I do full boil on a stove?

I just acquired a 9 gal. pot and was wondering if I could use a stove top or if I needed a separate boiler for a full 5 gal. boil.

Most stoves cannot do a full boil, just not enough BTU's. They might also have trouble with the weight of a kettle. If you can position the pot to cover two burners, that would probably work.

Do not pass go, do not collect $200, go directly to WalMart and purchase a propane-fired turkey fryer set for $37.

I had been trying to get nearly-full-boils going on my new kitchen range, using a 32-qt pot...it took a matter of probably 45 minutes to an hour just to get a minor boil. Longer than that to get anything resembling "rolling". And that was using 2 burners, and moving it around constantly to get the heat absorbed better. Ugh. Sucked. So I got a cheap turkey fryer over the weekend, and did a full boil last night for the first time on it. It rocks. Took me all of 4 minutes to get a boil.

So, CAN you do a full boil on a range? Probably. Will it take much longer than normal, waste energy and be a big PITA? No doubt. $37 is a small price to pay for the time and energy saved.

With my electric stove, it takes me 30 minutes to boil 3 gallons of water out of my hot water tap. Thankfully, I have enough elevation to get it to boil at 200F, or I'd be waiting 10 minutes longer.

I'm keeping my eyes open for a sale on turkey fryers so I can make the switch.

I managed a few full (6 gallon) boils on my gas stove top before switching to the turkey fryer method. Never looked back.

Yuri_Rage said:

I managed a few full (6 gallon) boils on my gas stove top before switching to the turkey fryer method. Never looked back.

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Out of curiosity, what are you using now that you're doing 15 gallon boils? Still turkey fryers?

the_bird said:

Out of curiosity, what are you using now that you're doing 15 gallon boils? Still turkey fryers?

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200,000 BTU natural gas burner...f*** yeah!

That's right, now I remember... that thing looks fricki' awesome. I'm looking at a burner that kicks out 210k, I really don't feel like screwing around....

Ditto to all,
The most frustrating experience with my first all Grain brew was trying to get it to boil on a gas top stove, Ho lee sit I tell you what! It must have took me three hours to do a one hour boil! The turkey fryer is the way to go.

feedthebear said:

With my electric stove, it takes me 30 minutes to boil 3 gallons of water out of my hot water tap. Thankfully, I have enough elevation to get it to boil at 200F, or I'd be waiting 10 minutes longer.

I'm keeping my eyes open for a sale on turkey fryers so I can make the switch.

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Wal Mart. $37. **** yeah.