New to brewing, Problem with stove or brew pot

[BugAC]

Well, i was all ready to start my brewing, when i hit a snag.

I cleaned and sanitized everything the night before. Then came brew day. I used a 20 qt. aluminum pot to brew. Filled the pot with 3 gallons of water, and the water will not boil.

I've tried twice and it gets hot enough to lightly steam, but no boil. I am brewing on a glass top electric stove.

I was wondering if anyone could help me out. Is my problem with my stove? or with the aluminum pot? Should i move to getting a propane burner, or should i get a stainless steel pot? My thinking with the pot is that the aluminum is losing heat too fast to boil the water. As far as the stove is concerned, has anyone enountered this in trying to use a glass top stove?

Any suggestions would be helpful. Thanks.

 

[o4_srt]

Either split the batch into 2 kettles, or but a propane burner. Your stove is not powerful enough to boil the volume you want.

I can't heat 3 gallons on our glass top stove unless I leave the lid on (undesirable). Even then, it takes almost 2 hours to get to that point.

 

[kgg_033]

I have an elecric Range, but not a glass top. Experience with Glasstop at my inlaws (when making pasta) tells me the is common problem with them. Boiling large amounts of water can be tough.
Even a 'regular' electric stove is difficult, but many large pots are slightly concave or raised, and a glass top simply wont have the contact to the heated surface, and therefore the pot is mostly reying on convection to heat up.
I doubt the aluminum is the problem....I would get a propane burner for brewing.

 

[HoppyMaltPoet]

I use a gas stove in winters and do not have this problem. My father uses a glass top stove purely for extract brewing. I believe he boils about 2 - 2.5 gallons at a time.

3 gallons should be able to boil on a glass stove top. How long did you give it? When I do stove top (and again this is on a gas stove), I split about 7 - 8 gallons in 2 pots. You may be able to do this. Maybe 1.5 gallons in 2 pots? I don't believe that the pot would prevent the boil. Plenty of people use aluminum. I have only used SS so no real world experience there. I believe Aluminum has a bit better heat conductivity though. So it shouldn't affect the boil.

 

[heferly]

it's your cook top...had a glass top at one point in my life, and it took forever to cook pasta

you could supplement with a heat stick...many people have used this guys DIY to build one. there's other post from members with their builds, too.

 

[350_Malibu]

I boil 2.5 gallons in an enamel coated pot on a non-glass electric stove. It takes nearly 45 minutes to get it to a rolling boil, but it gets there eventually. Using aluminum, it may never boil...

My next plan is a propane with a stainless pot.

 

[BugAC]

I let it heat for about 2 hours and no boil. I may try boiling with the lid on.

My only question with that, is that in the books i've been reading, they say that boiling with the lid on (when boiling your wort) could lead to off flavors, due to the condensation produced on the lid, dripping back in the pot.

 

[HoppyMaltPoet]

Yeah, due to DMS being boiled off during the wort boil you want to keep the lid off. You can get a cabage like flavor to your if you lieave a lid on. However, I leave the lid on my pots until I get my boil. Then I leave them off for the remainder.

 

[BugAC]

So if i get my boil up, add my extract (i'm making an extract brew as my first - Cincinnati Pale Ale from the How To Brew book), will i have trouble getting my extract mixture back up to a boil?

I'm worried about being able to get a boil with the lid on, then removing the lid and not being able to get the water/extract mixture back up boiling again...same goes with my hops additions, etc...

 

[Yooper]

So if i get my boil up, add my extract (i'm making an extract brew as my first - Cincinnati Pale Ale from the How To Brew book), will i have trouble getting my extract mixture back up to a boil?

I'm worried about being able to get a boil with the lid on, then removing the lid and not being able to get the water/extract mixture back up boiling again...same goes with my hops additions, etc...

Yes, you may never be able to get and keep a boil. You could try reducing the volume until you can get a boil (water and hops only) and then add your extract at the very end of the boil.

 

[BugAC]

Yes, you may never be able to get and keep a boil. You could try reducing the volume until you can get a boil (water and hops only) and then add your extract at the very end of the boil.

Eh, i think i'm just going to pick up a burner. So far, i've been buying things to make brewing easy and efficient, might as well spend a little more and get an outdoor burner. Thanks guys.

 

[Bear85]

My stove only boils water (3 gallons) with a lid on the pot, but once the extract is in it can boil it quite happily without a lid. I don't know the science behind it, but you might want to give it a try and see.

 

[ThePearsonFam]

Definitely worth buying a good burner... Guessing you don't have natural gas (else you'd prolly have a gas range), but if you do, consider one that burns natural gas vice propane.

I use one of these (just the burner on my brew stand): http://www.warehousedeals.com/Bayou...src=froogle&utm_medium=CSE&utm_source=froogle

I use an inline needle valve to fine tune my flame since it's a bit tough to regulate without one (but can be done).

 

[mcaple1]

You want to leave it off to prevent the evaporated DMS from condensing back into the wort.

 

[Bill_in_VA]

None of these answers are quite right. The problem is the combination of the stove and pot. Aluminum pots that are not stainless steel clad are a big no-no on an induction cooktop. The way the stove works is like a transformer where the pot is a lossy part of the core, the eddy currents in the pot are what make it get hot. An alumimum pot conducts too well and you could be damaging the stove.

 

[o4_srt]

None of these answers are quite right. The problem is the combination of the stove and pot. Aluminum pots that are not stainless steel clad are a big no-no on an induction cooktop. The way the stove works is like a transformer where the pot is a lossy part of the core, the eddy currents in the pot are what make it get hot. An alumimum pot conducts too well and you could be damaging the stove.

Wrong. Glass top is different than induction. He does not have an induction burner. Simply a standard electric under glass.

My glass top will not boil 3 gallons using a stainless pot.

 

[Bill_in_VA]

Oh ok, a radiant cooktop then. Huh, I donno. I do full 5.75 gallon boils on our standard electric range in my economy 7.5 gallon kettle. It takes a long time to come to boil but I keep the lid on until the boil is about to start (190-200 degrees)

 

[o4_srt]

Oh ok, a radiant cooktop then. Huh, I donno. I do full 5.75 gallon boils on our standard electric range in my economy 7.5 gallon kettle. It takes a long time to come to boil but I keep the lid on until the boil is about to start (190-200 degrees)

It is common for radiant cooktops to have more problems boiling than standard coil cooktops.

Op: just go with a propane burner if you have the space to do it. I did, and it greatly decreased my brew time.

 

[foxysocks]

Sorry to resurrect an old thread, but I thought it was better than posting new when this topic already existed. My very first batch is currently fermenting, but I had a similar problem. Using a 6 gal. aluminum pot on an electric coil stove, I could get 3 gal. water to boil, but couldn't get my wort to boil without the lid. I ended up using the lid just enough to keep the boil going and stirring in between, only remembering afterwards about DMS (I'd read howtobrew.com thoroughly before starting). I'm really hoping my beer isn't going to have off-flavors (but it probably will, but it could still be fine, wait and see, lol).

My best solution seems to be to split between 2 pots (I have a small apt and can't manage a propane burner at the moment), but based on the responses to this thread so far, I'm confused how to go about that. Could someone please help clarify?

By the way, hi! My name is Laura, I'm new here. Thanks!

 

[wowbeeryum]

i understand this is an old post, but thought this could serve as help for someone down the line. i have a a glass top electric stove. at first i had a very difficult time getting even 2-3 gallons to boil in my 5 gallon SS kettle. i would leave the stove on high for over an hour and the water just wouldn't get hot enough. my kettle is larger in diameter than the heating elements on the stove. this means, when the kettle is centered over the largest heating element, all sides of the kettle are off the heat. if i shift the kettle over a bit, so one edge of the kettle matches the edge of the heating element, it boils very easily (and sometimes instantly if the water was already pretty hot). this led me to try straddling the kettle between 2 heating elements, using 2 edges. even though the center of the kettle isn't on direct heat at all i can easily boil 4 gallons this way (I overshot my starting water somehow).

 

[foxysocks]

Interesting idea, I'll have to give that a try and see if that works out with my stove on my next batch. Thanks!