Well that didnt go as planned...

[BadMrFrosty]

Having 4 kit brews under my belt and after taking delivery of my 50 litre stock pot today I thought it was about time I tried to make something a bit random and more exciting. My plan was to make a extract ale that has the same hop character as a pilsner lager but instead of lager yeast use ale yeast. The reason for this is mainly because there is no way I could get it cold enough to ferment lager.

Anyway, a series of errors ensued:

1. My electric stove cannot cope with boiling 26 litres of water. It got up to maybe 70-75 and no further even with the pot over 2 burners

2. My scales were not delivered in time so had to resort to measuring the hops in tablespoons

3. This was my first time using real hops, man do they smell during the boil (or in my case simmer). I love the smell, not sure about the neighbours though.

4. The kettle is so big it wont fit into my sink and we dont have a bath. Guess I am also exploring no chill today

Guess I will have beer at the end of it, who knows how drinkable it will be...

 

[HadesX]

Get yourself a propane burner/turkey fryer and brew outdoors. Mine gets my water boiling in about 10 minutes and i don't even turn it up full blast. That being said, i don't know your living situation and if you can brew outdoors.

For an ice bath, grab a cheap large round plastic bin from walmart and chill in that.

 

[wSelwyn]

I agree with HadesX. My propane burner has been the best brewing investment thus far. When I did partial boils for extract in college, I had a good electric range in my old apartment, but my new place has glass/ceramic electric burners. Even with partial boils, this took forever to bring everything to temp.
An immersion chiller, or any other kind of chiller, can help with cooling. Takes less time to set up and brings the temp down much quicker.

So: move outside, use gas to boil, enjoy great homebrew.

 

[Shooter]

Get yourself a propane burner/turkey fryer and brew outdoors.

Assuming such things are easily found in Prague of course!

 

[aubiecat]

Do they have a Walmart in the Czech Republic?

BadMrFrosty, you can use your bathtub to chill you wort.

 

[Shooter]

BadMrFrosty, you can use your bathtub to chill you wort.

Which bathtub would that be?!?! The one he already said he didn't have?

 

[Shooter]

If you have more than one pot, you can boil smaller amount in two pots. Of course, that may prove even more problematic to chill.

 

[bovineblitz]

You could try insulating the pot. That's how I get a nice boil over two burners.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/stovetop-problems-ag-224438/#post2637327

 

[BadMrFrosty]

Yes, no bath for chilling but I have heard good things about letting the wort chill overnight in the kettle. Not sure how that will turn out as its now 4 hours since it was removed from the heat and the outside is still very hot to the touch.

I live in a 3rd floor apartment with no outside space so big ol gas burners are a no-no. My girlfriends family have a small place in the moutains with a nice outdoor space, I may consider that for the future. For now I will scale back the boils until I can figure out the stove limits.

Want to move to all grain soon, BIAB to start. Anyone ever done something as crazy as mash and sparge to leave 35L of wort. Boil half and throw it in the fermenter to cool then boil the other half and throw it on top?

Even with the problems its all great, glad to have a hobby that results in beer

 

[thetragichero]

until i get the propane burner to go with the 32 quart pot i bought (which i cannot get past 205*F even on two burners of my electric stove), i have been doing 3 gallon all grain batches and just boiling with 3 pots on my stove
once some of it boils off, i consolidate into one pot and chill in bathtub with ice
if you use multiple pots, just be sure to distribute the hops evenly

 

[david_42]

Many commercial brewers put multiple batches of wort in each fermenter. Widmer Brothers have 3000L and 4000L fermenters and 'only' a 1000L kettle, so a batch is three or four runs.

By the way, if you are doing extract, boiling with the cover on isn't a problem. The DMS has been boiled out already. Once you go to all-grain, you have to leave the lid off.

 

[Greenbasterd]

these turkey fryers are a very American thing. i'm in Canada and i had never heard of such a thing untill coming here.. Americans like there turkey i guess.. we only eat it on christmas and thanks giving.

 

[BadMrFrosty]

Many commercial brewers put multiple batches of wort in each fermenter. Widmer Brothers have 3000L and 4000L fermenters and 'only' a 1000L kettle, so a batch is three or four runs.

By the way, if you are doing extract, boiling with the cover on isn't a problem. The DMS has been boiled out already. Once you go to all-grain, you have to leave the lid off.

Thanks for this, my future may contain multiple batch brewing I realize a full uncoved boil is overkill for extract, today was really to see IF my stove could do the job for a all grain batch. I have a bunch more extract left so it will be a few more brews before I switch, I'm just testing things out at the mo.

 

[BadMrFrosty]

You could try insulating the pot. That's how I get a nice boil over two burners.

[/quote] This may be worth a try...till see it helping keep some heat in though.

 

[phoenixs4r]

If you have available power you may consider using a heat stick to aid the stove.

2 cents

 

[Frankiesurf]

If you have available power you may consider using a heat stick to aid the stove.

2 cents

+1
Have you thought about going with an electric kettle?

 

[BadMrFrosty]

+1
Have you thought about going with an electric kettle?

I have and they are available for quite reasonable prices here. Its on my to-buy list but will most likely invest in a grain mill first.

 

[thetragichero]

if you have a big pot that you can't use on the stove, what if you put ice water in there and use it to cool your boil pot?
make sure you have a towel under it

 

[BadMrFrosty]

So I just discovered that even more went wrong than I first thought.

I was aiming for this batch to be 20L giving me a OG of 1.045. I found that hardly any wort actually managed to evaporate during the boil leaving me with about 26L of 1.036. It wont be as boozy but still decent for a ale I suppose. Even worse, after tasting it I got a little caramel maltyness, a little sweetness from the sugar and then a bitter after-taste that made me pull a face like a bulldog chewing a wasp. Seems the prolonged heat from nochill extracts more from the hops. I only used Saaz, god forbid if I used areal bittering hop!

Not all bad, something went rightish: The wort chilled down to about 28C after being left at room temperature for 20 hours or so. So after adjusting the hop schedule, nochill will be used again, no hassle and I can split up the process as time allows.

I will try again today. I could only fit just over 20L of the wort into the fermenter so will start with 5L of yesterdays wort and I have added 10L of water. The water here is very cold out of the tap so I am letting it sit next to the heating in the kitchen to warm up a bit before getting it to the boil.

I also have to say that I am very impressed with beer smith. The predictions it made, even after adjusting for mess-ups, match my refractometer readings. Go beersmith!

 

[Shooter]

I wouldn't worry too much about the taste right now. That can all change dramatically during and after fermentation.

 

[ACbrewer]

Try a hop sock for your hops - then you can fish them out at the end of the boil.

 

[BadMrFrosty]

So I just threw my 2nd attempt into the fermenter. I used 5L of wort from the first batch, 10L of cold water that I let to sit at room temp for a while plus 2L of water I boiled in the kettle. Add to that 1.7KG of extract and 1KG of sugar brought my total wort volume to ~20L. My stove could not bring that to the boil either This time I added hops at 40 min, 20 min and 10 min to hopefully compensate for the overnight cooling. This morning it had cooled and I had 16L of wort at 1.064. Bit too high I thought so topped up to 18L at 1.057, thats about right I reckon.

So today I'm off to get some insulation for the kettle, my stove is just too crappy. May invest in a electric boiler later but dont want to spend too much at the moment. I will however have to think of a creative solution as I want the kettle to retain as much heat as possible to get to the boil but as I will also be cooling overnight in that same kettle I want it too loose heat quickly afterwards! Will have to bodge together some sort of quick release insulation, should be fun