jigidyjim
Well-Known Member
Did my first brew with my new larger kettle today... Unfortunately my stove could barely get it to a boil. It was bubbling, but not vigorously, and after the LME was added, couldn't get past 209 or so. First I had it on my one super burner, but I think the weight was too much and the flames didn't have enough room, as occasionally flames would shoot out the side. So i stradled two burners but that didn't do much good, and at that point I wasn't able to get the full flame of each burner anyway...
Combine that with the fact that carrying 5-6 gal of water in a pot is no fun, pouring it into the fermenter is tough, etc. I'm not sure that I'll be doing full boils that often. at least when I do partial boils now I won't worry about boiling over. Oh - for those of you about to suggest I get a turkey fryer, I don't have a space outdoors to do that.
I still ended up having to top off slightly under 1/2 gal, and I think that messed up my O.G. reading, which came out really light (1.042 vs expected of 1.048). I started with 6 gal water, after adding 6 2/3 lbs LME it read just under 7 gal, and at the end it looked to be close to 5 gal, but after leaving the solids behind, I still had to top off.
Oh, plus I think I put too much anise in (it's a belgian wit with a ton of spices in it). Hopefully that mellows out. I don't even really like anise, why did i put that in?
Good times.
Combine that with the fact that carrying 5-6 gal of water in a pot is no fun, pouring it into the fermenter is tough, etc. I'm not sure that I'll be doing full boils that often. at least when I do partial boils now I won't worry about boiling over. Oh - for those of you about to suggest I get a turkey fryer, I don't have a space outdoors to do that.
I still ended up having to top off slightly under 1/2 gal, and I think that messed up my O.G. reading, which came out really light (1.042 vs expected of 1.048). I started with 6 gal water, after adding 6 2/3 lbs LME it read just under 7 gal, and at the end it looked to be close to 5 gal, but after leaving the solids behind, I still had to top off.
Oh, plus I think I put too much anise in (it's a belgian wit with a ton of spices in it). Hopefully that mellows out. I don't even really like anise, why did i put that in?
Good times.