I'm tired of scorching wort on my electric top, can I use my grill?

I've got a Charmglow gass grill that is 40,000 BTUs with a side burner; is that going to be powerful enough to do 3-4 gallon partial boils? Also, the grill says to not put more than 15 lbs of weight on the side, is that going to be a problem as well?

My first two stovetop batches scorched the wort and it is absolutely hellish to scrape off of the pot, even after soaking(any tips on that BTW?) so I'm getting pretty tired of it.

Thanks in advance, you guys rock! :rockin:

Auspice said:

I've got a Charmglow gass grill that is 40,000 BTUs with a side burner; is that going to be powerful enough to do 3-4 gallon partial boils? Also, the grill says to not put more than 15 lbs of weight on the side, is that going to be a problem as well?

My first two stovetop batches scorched the wort and it is absolutely hellish to scrape off of the pot, even after soaking(any tips on that BTW?) so I'm getting pretty tired of it.

Thanks in advance, you guys rock! :rockin:

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You are going to have 24-32lbs in liquid alone, plus the weight of the pot, so yea... with a 15lb limit, that's going to be a problem.

Can you go the turkey fryer route outdoors? That's really your best bet.

Remove the pot from the heat and then stir in extract slowly. Make sure that you're not adding more than what can disolve almost instantly.

Mike

blk94f150 said:

Remove the pot from the heat and then stir in extract slowly. Make sure that you're not adding more than what can disolve almost instantly.

Mike

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When I made my 2nd batch on my stove I removed the wort from the heat after steeping my specialty grains and stirred in the DME for a good 10-15 minutes and I still had nasty scorching.

Maybe I can rig a support for the side of the grill? I'm trying to avoid buying more equipment as of right now since I just bought a house. :/

While the grill has a 40k BTU output, the burner most likely will not. It is set up to cook a pot of beans, not boil 3 gallons of water.

Bleh, guess I'll keep trying on my stove then. Maybe a trivet(?) will help to keep from scorching the wort.

I do stovetop partial mash partial boils (2.5 - 3 gal) and don't have any scorching issues. I remove from heat to add the LME or DME and stir until it is all dissolved before putting it back on the heat and regaining boil. This is usually about a 15-20 minute process from the time I take it off heat until I regain the boil.

Auspice said:

Bleh, guess I'll keep trying on my stove then. Maybe a trivet(?) will help to keep from scorching the wort.

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How high are you keeping your stove at? I can't see how going to a gas burner is going to prevent scorching as they generate more direct heat then your stove. When I was doing extract, I would get the water to boil, cut down the heat, slowly stirr in my extract, then adjust the temp so that the boil was just rolling. Any extra heat, and you wind up with bigger evaporation and a hotter pot (which can scorch your wort).

Well, my first batch I had the stove at max which I realized halfway through the boil I didn't need. Last week when I was brewing my Irish Red it took an hour and a half to get the wort to a boil with my stove at 6(7 is max); that isn't including the 10-15 minutes I spent stirring after adding my DME.

Just to be sure, your pot is either stainless steel or aluminum right? You can set the stovetop to high when you're bringing the wort up to boil....but then, once your liquid reaches boiling point, you only need to add enough heat to keep it at boiling point. If you have the burner set to max throughout the boil, the pot continues to get hotter while the wort evaporates quicker.

The pot is stainless, yeah. I'll have to try lowering the heat once I get a boil going on my next batch

The wort isn't scorching, it is undissolved malt that falls to the bottom of the pot. As others have mentioned, you need to remove the heat source while you add the malt and make sure it is dissolved before you begin to add heat again. As long as there is no undissolved malt, you can crank up the heat as high as you want. Wort will not scorch.

I guess the only answer is to make some more beer and stir the wort for even longer after adding the DME and try again to see if I have anything on the bottom of the pot next time.

Auspice said:

I guess the only answer is to make some more beer and stir the wort for even longer after adding the DME and try again to see if I have anything on the bottom of the pot next time.

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It's not a matter of how long you stir.
If you dump all of your DME in at once it goes straight to the bottom of the pot. The DME can absorb more heat than the water above it so it will burn. Once the malt is in suspension you can turn the heat up as high as you like because the solution will never exceed 100 deg c. It will just boil of water faster.

So next time, when you are ready to add your DME follow these steps
1. Turn the burner off
2. SLOWLY poor in the DME while stirring. You should be pouring and stirring simultaneously for a few minutes.
3. Once all of the DME is dissolved turn the burner back on max.

Electric brewers have 4500W heating elements IN the wort and I haven't heard many complaints about scorching.

All good tips.. also, for getting the pot clean again, use some Bar Keepers Friend and elbow grease.

Virtuous said:

3. Once all of the DME is dissolved turn the burner back on max.

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Why take it all the way back to max: if once the wort is at a rolling boil, any extra heat just goes for evaporation? I've always just adjusted heat (whether on my stove top, or now with my propane burner) so that I hit a rolling boil. Saves me more gas and I have less boiloff to contend with.

Other points I agree with...the extract deposits that get stuck on the boil kettle are from not being totally in solution...the wort itself stays at its boiling point temperature, but the surface of the pot can get hotter.