Am I going to have problems with my boil?

[Summerland]

I have been brewing for years, but never thought much about the boiling as it always just worked. However, I have changed equipment and I am getting a weird boil so I wanted to see what you guys thought.

I put a 1650 watt element in a 10 gallon pot, so I decided to test it and even with 4 gallons I could not get it to boil. I got 0.75 gallons of boiloff in an hour, but the water never visually boiled, it just steamed a lot. Is that good enough?

I have always read that the boil is to push out DMS and other compounds as well as sanitize the wort, so if I'm getting 0.75 gallons boiloff is it doing what needs to be done?

 

[PADave]

Boiling also gets the alpha acids out of the hops, which gives you your bitterness. Did you happen to take a temp of your "boil?"

 

[Summerland]

I had the temp probe in the whole time, and it was always about 210.5-212.5.

I’m right at sea level, so I assume it SHOULD be 212.

That’s good to know about the hops, I never really thought about that.

 

[filthyastronaut]

The goal of boiling is microbiological stabilization, isomerization of alpha acids (bitterness), formation of trub, extracting flavor and aroma from hops, formation of Maillard products (flavor from malt), and I'd argue that driving off DMS is a secondary goal as SMM is converted to DMS when you bring your beer to a boil and is subsequently driven off. So the other reasons are the reason to boil, but you don't have DMS to drive off until you start boiling. Some people do make raw beers, but they tend to be less shelf stable and they have a different character than boiled beer. I've never tried it though, so that's an assumption.

 

[ancientmariner52]

Please note that boiling temp is determined by atmospheric pressure, not altitude. The average boiling temp at sea level is 212°F, but it will vary from day to day as barometric pressure changes. So there is no need for concern if you see something other than 212°F.

 

[Calder]

I think you need to have an active boil to fully isomerize the alpha acids. If you don't get a full boil, you will fall short f your bittering.

 

[aprichman]

I would try insulating the kettle if you're not getting a visible boil with only 4 gallons of water.

 

[deepbluegroove]

You don't need a boil to isomerize the hops. That happens anything north of 180F. There are other systems that don't boil the wort. I think the pico brew. It's okay. It's not necessary. Are you getting a good hop break? the formation of foam and proteins on the surface? You want that. If not insulate.

 

[Summerland]

I will likely insulate, but I’m still baffled as I brew 20 gallon batches out in the cold with 5500 watts and get a good boil at 85%. I thought this element would handle 4 gallons like it was nothing.

I haven’t actually brewed wort with the new element, only tested with water, so I don’t know about the break or foam just yet.

 

[cegan09]

Insulate the kettle. I'm a 110V brewer as well. I have two 1500W elements in the kettle and my first test barely got the thing up to a simmer or low boil. That was with 3000W in an 8.5 gallon pot and roughly 6 gallons of water. I wrapped my kettle with about 3 layers of reflectix insulation (sides and bottom), and now I can get to a decent boil in a reasonable time. In the summer I can turn the power down some once a boil is achieved. In winter I'm still letting it ride at 100% since i'm outside. I've seen people claim they have no issues with 1650W single elements, but I know it would make fore a very long brew day on my setup.