Indoor boiling alternatives?

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So I just moved into a new apartment and I tried a batch on my new (to me) stove. I was able to get it up to a boil, but it wasn't a rolling boil and it wasn't very strong. On old stoves I've been able to put the kettle on two burners, but the burners are too far apart on this one. The burner I used is even labeled as a high-output burner, but obviously not high enough.

The big problem here is that I can't just get a propane burner and do it outside because my back porch is made of wood and it's illegal to have open flames on a wooden porch in Chicago. I'm also three flights up... so doing it on the ground is not an option.

Are there any indoor alternatives I could try that wouldn't kill me with carbon monoxide? And how important is having a strong boil? The batch I made last night is fermenting fine (I even had to put in a blow off)...
 
Hiya. I'm in the same boat. From what I understand, the main importance of the vigorous boil is to get the hop oils to dissolve.

Were you trying to do a full 5 gallon boil? My electric stove will happily boil 3 gallons, but not much more. I had one batch a while back that I couldn't get to a rolling boil - too much water. But the beer came out perfectly fine.

So you can either do smaller volume boils, or split it into two seperate pots.
 
Gee, certainly liiks like your stuck in all directions. You might see a range repairman and ask if it would be possible to install yet a larger burner.
 
How much are you trying to boil at one time? Most 5 gallon recipes call for boiling 2 gallons of wort and adding it to three gallons in the fermenter. Most stovetop burners should do that easily. You may want to experiment with getting a different stockpot. Some of them have copper (an excellent conductor of heat) in the bottoms.

If that doesn't work, you probably need to look at why your stove isn't hot enough.

Oh-- one more suggestion. It may be cumbersome, but if it is the only way, why not get two stockpots and make duplicate one-gallon or 1.5 gallon batches of identical wort at the same time. Simply divide all of your ingredients in half. If you watch it carefully you should be able to stir both of them enough to avoid boilovers.
 
I did a full boil on my gas stove Sat. for the first time. My polarware covered two burners and was able to bring it to a boil in a reasonable amount of time with the lid on but unable to keep a strong boil once I took it off. My preboil volume was 7 gallons and usually boils down to just under 6 gallons on the propane burner. This time it was a little over 6 gallons but I still had a decent gravity since I based the recipe on a lower than normal grain extraction rate to compensate for any unseen short comings such as this. If I was forced to rely on the stove I could probably scale back my batch size to a 5 gallon preboil volume to get a more vigorous boil.
 
I was only boiling about 3.5 gallons. In retrospect I probably could have just done 2.5 gallons and it would have been fine. The pot I have is all stainless and has a very thick bottom. It's also a little wider than most pots (but still doesn't fit on two burners!). That might have something to do with it. I'm pretty sure I got all the hop oil out of my hops though. Very aromatic wort and the stuff pushing up through the blow-off tube smells great!

I've read on other boards about heat sticks, but I'm worried about safety issues with that one. I'm also worried about scorching, even though nobody else seemed to be that concerned. Anybody tried one of these?
 
I was wondering if those burners would work. Not talking about the propane ones... the ones with the heating elements that plug in....
 
The people that I know around here that have tried to use electric elements in the wort, be it in the kettle or as part of a RIMS, have consistant problems with scorching, even when they've used 240 volt elements at 120.
 
How big is your pot for brewing? The one I've got is 36cm diameter (that's about one foot two inches or thereabouts), and happily straddles all four rings of my standard electric cooker. Indeed, it's the only way to fit it on there!

That boils 7 gallons fine if you whack all the rings on full. Takes a while if you start from cold water granted, which is why I fill it from the hot tap, but it's fine once it's going.
 
I have a fridgeidare coil-electric stovetop. I put my 34-quart SS kettle on the burner and did a test boil of 4 gallons of water. It took about 35 minutes to get it up to boil.

I decided to remove the kettle because I was hearing a crackling sound. The white porcelain coated stovetop was all black in a 2'' circumference where the kettle overlapped the burner. My stovetop was clean before I started. But I get some light traces of oil or grease was baking into the porcelain. Also the round tray underneath the coil got so hot the porcelain was chipping and crackling off of it like popcorn. That was the sound I heared.

I was cleaning and scrubbing the stovetop with oven cleaner and a scouring pad for an hour and a half and still couldn’t get the black stuff off of it. To top it all off this stove/oven is only a year old.

I'll just go out in the garage from now on and use the turkey fryer burner from now on.

So is the canning element raised to prevent this sort of thing from happening?
 
Yes the a145a 2600 watt canning element is raised with a "heat ring". It was developed for those large dia. canning pots to prevent just what you experienced. The owners manual for my fridgeidare cooktop cautions to never use a pot that overhangs the element by more than 1". This element cures that problem.
 
Stan Gibson said:
Yes the a145a 2600 watt canning element is raised with a "heat ring". It was developed for those large dia. canning pots to prevent just what you experienced. The owners manual for my fridgeidare cooktop cautions to never use a pot that overhangs the element by more than 1". This element cures that problem.

Sheesh I wish I would have read the owners manual! I didn't even know those sorts of elements existed. I might have to invest in one of those. Some times it seems like it would be sooo much easier to do a batch on the oven. Instead of having to haul everything out to the garage on brew day. I still love my two turkey fryers though.
 
Ed_Savage said:
I might have to invest in one of those. Some times it seems like it would be sooo much easier to do a batch on the oven. Instead of having to haul everything out to the garage on brew day.

I bought a cooktop, put it in the unfinished part of my basement,and installed 2 of the canning elements. Big screen TV, stereo, bathroom, and Bar w/serving fridge all just around the corner. That's how I spend my winter.
 
I personally avoid having any heating element in direct contact with the wort. Scorched beer is a unpleasent flavor. The residue that collects on a hot water tank element is enough evidence that that is happening at some level even in the best of cases. Besides the difficulty cleaning/sanitizing. I had such a setup and have retooled to a HERMS with outside elements.
 
The burner I was referring to is a natural gas burner. It fits perfect under my 12 gallon kettle. I believe the electric burners are are rated in watts, not btu's. I guess I didnt include enough info in my previous post.
 
Read right past the "btu" I would have known you were talking natural gas if I had read closer. That's an approach I considered and it is very good. The house I was in when I devloped my present system was all-electric so using natural gas was out. The permenent plumbing involved is the only downside.
 
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