I'm in Big Trouble.........

SWMBO cleaned the stove top today while I was gone - it took her "two hours" (or so she said). I would have cleaned it better but it took too long - brewing beer is tiring, don'tcha know?

Although she says that I'm through brewing in the kitchen I think I can get away with it (at least for extracts) if I can figure out how to get this stuff off the stove - quickly and easily. So how do the experts here do it? There must be a magic formula - Oxyclean? I'm afraid to use the SS scrub pad; something tells me it would remove porcelain as fast as the burnt on wort.

Oxyclean should work fine. Just be sure to rinse well.

Maybe some mild abrasive like bar keepers friend.

For tough spots, you'd be amazed at what a Mr Clean Magic Eraser can do.

Any soap and warm water has always worked for me... I have a glass top, electric stove. Extract takes a few passes, but it usually works... Clorox anywhere cuts through some good grime... I use it when I take a huge chunk of meat and cut it down to steaks

The key is to let it stay wet for as long as possible to soften it up. I usually keep some barkeepers friend or comet around for cleaning the stove and if you loosen it up with letting it soak in water a bit and then use a slightly abrasive cleaning agent like that it comes up pretty easy.

A damp cloth to wipe up the mess right after it happens works the best !

I understand your situation, I was there once myself.

I waited for a turkey fryer to pop up on amazon ($30 shipped)

Clean as you go!
I have a glass top and if it gets too hard I use a metal turner and chisel it off, then soak.

McKBrew said:

For tough spots, you'd be amazed at what a Mr Clean Magic Eraser can do.

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+1 on the Magic Eraser. It's amazing the crusty gunk they can take off without doing any damage to the surface.

They also work great when the SWMBO of the day/week/month melts her shoe on the Harley exhaust.

Uncle Timmy said:

+1 on the Magic Eraser. It's amazing the crusty gunk they can take off without doing any damage to the surface.

They also work great when the SWMBO of the day/week/month melts her shoe on the Harley exhaust.

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Haha thats awesome

you could ask her to buy you a turkey fryer so you could brew outside I am pretty sure if you just explain it because it will make the inside of your place cleaner, she will understand :cross:

The easiest way is not to have a boil over. Get a bigger pot!

I figure as long as I make more money than my wife, she is just supplimental income and shall do as I say. If I say clean this up, she will clean damn it! Having said that, I also vote for getting yourself a turkey fryer so you can brew outside like me, where I dont get yelled at by my wife for making a mess, or me yelling "clean my mess woman!" aah...to dream! Actually I clean my own messes up, as does she. it makes for a happy coexistance.

azscoob said:

I figure as long as I make more money than my wife, she is just supplimental income and shall do as I say. If I say clean this up, she will clean damn it! Having said that, I also vote for getting yourself a turkey fryer so you can brew outside like me, where I dont get yelled at by my wife for making a mess, or me yelling "clean my mess woman!" aah...to dream! Actually I clean my own messes up, as does she. it makes for a happy coexistance.

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I hope that works, I have tried that for years.

Cheeto said:

I hope that works, I have tried that for years.

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That's because you are smarter than that AND Cheeto Chick would make you pay big time.

+1 for Bar keeper's Friend.

I used it for the first time on my electric glass stovetop and it looks better than it did when it was new.

Took about 5 minutes to clean it. This was after a boilover in my ehrlenmeyer flask making my starter.

Can't go wrong with that stuff and it's...C.H.E.A.P.

bigger pot and or fermcap ...

I have found baking soda is an amazing cleaner. A little vinegar and the stuff knocks away everything. I have a gas/porcelain stove and have never had a problem with that combo.

If it is a glass top, use a razor blade to get the bulk of it off.

+1 on magic eraser and getting a turkey burner and moving outside!

Look up the countertop 20 or check out the simple brewery. Electric, indoors, easy, and relatively cheap.

Here's another preventative solution that worked for me before I got the turkey fryer (which is still the recommended choice): before doing anything on the stove, cover the whole thing with aluminum foil. Not the burners, of course, but every other square inch. Anywhere you could imagine spilling wort.

Takes all of 2 minutes. Then when you're done brewing, toss the foil. Instant clean stove. Definitely helped keep SWMBO is a better mood about my brewing.

Quit brewing. Start buying sixer's of good beer, you know, the kind that cost $8 and up. Buy a lot of these, and drink them all. Leave the receipts laying all around, so she can see how much you are spending.

One of two things will happen. She will ask you to start brewing again, on her stove. Or she will go ballistic on you. But you won't care, because you will be drunk. Either way, you win.

I thought maybe she found the porn stash.

I am done for now, Merry Christmas everyone!

By far the best thing I've ever used to clean my glass cooktop. Scrapes as well as a steel blade, but I guarantee it won't gouge the surface.

Also used them to remove emblems off of cars and scrape glue off of my wood floors when I laid it last summer.

http://www.jegs.com/i/JEGS/555/80604/10002/-1

I have a coil-top electric stove, and had to resort to using oven cleaner on my last boil-over. Worked like a hot damn, and with a vinegar rinse, no freaky NaOH residue.

Well, I tried heating the boil kettle outside today. The temp was 30 degrees with very light snow. Lid on, it took 5 gallons from 130 to 185 degrees in an hour - but the last 5 or 10 minutes showed almost no increase in water temp. Gonna try the "Reflectix" solution. Also a problem with cooling. Hoses are all shut down for the winter and my chiller is set up for the sink connection. I need to try again to reason with her before I see a lawyer - gotta be cheaper..........

Tell me, how do you boil outside with the lid off and birds in the vicinity? When I leave the lid on the hop pellet stuff kinda "plates out" on the underside of the lid. Do you just ignore the birds and accept the extra "zing" in the wort?

+1 on just not getting wort on the stovetop in the first place. Fermcap is a wonderful thing.