Any ideas for big batches on kitchen stove?

I was wondering if anyone had any ideas for doing big batches on a kitchen stove.

I am familiar with using an auxiliary heat stick. I don't want to run a new circuit so anything i could use would be limited to 110 volts and maybe 1000 Watts.

What would be cool would be an oblong (as opposed to round) pot that could span two burners. Anyone bought/built anything like that?

Another idea would be some kind of stove-top heat exchanger that could go on another burner and preferably convectively circulate the wort. Perhaps a stove-top flashboiler would also work.

 

I would definitely line aluminum foil around the eye of the stove to help protect the stove top. you can ask my stove when I tried to finish up a boil

 

One concern may be the weight of the liquid. How large of a batch are you looking to do?

 

To solve this issue, I mounted a 1500w 120v heating element in my kettle, which plugs directly into a GFCI outlet (no output control, it's always at 100%). This, combined with about 80% heat on my largest burner (which I replaced with a 2600w canning element to give extra power and support the weight of the kettle) lets me get 7.5 gallons or so to a rolling boil in under half an hour.

 

What's big? I've done 5 gallon batches on the stove. Takes some work but it gets there eventually. You looking to do bigger than that?

Personally I'd look into alternatives to the kitchen stove if it's bigger than 5 gallons. Just my 2 cents.

There are fish steamer/poacher pans out there that are oblong but I doubt they are anywhere near the volume needed.

Also the weight might be a concern. For a 10 gallon batch you're looking at 12+ gallons of wort. So close to a 100 pounds of wort on the burner that really isn't made to support that kind of weight. There is a canning element out there that will fit most electric ranges but that's still only made to handle the 20 quart canning pots. The canning elements are about the same as your regular element in terms of wattage but have a heavier base.

 

To clarify:

I have a really solid gas stove so I am not worried about the weight of the liquid.

I am looking to do two parallel 6 gallon boils.

I am typically starting with 6 gallon boil volumes on the stove's so called power burner which is about 50% larger than the other burners. This works pretty well and I am reasonably happy with it. I would like to do another 6 gallon boil next to this, to brew two separate batches at once however I am stuck with using the smaller burners. Ideally I would like to collect the heat from two burners at once but the pot is not really big enough to do this efficiently. Getting round pot that is large enough two cover both burners would be so large it would also sit on my counter.

Thanks for the feedback.

 

I've got an enamel canning pot that i picked up second hand. It holds seven gallons and sets across two burners. Unfortunately, i'm not sure where you could get one of these new; but, at least you know they're out there!

 

Ah ok. Well not sure in that case. Have you tried a boil on the smaller burner? Gas flames spread out the heat really well and there should be plenty of BTU's from it to do the job. Not sure what else to suggest. Sorry I'm not more helpful.

 

I use two burners in a SS pot. No issues from what I can tell.

 

I use three - five gallon pots for that amount. My wife and mother-in-law picked them up as Xmas gifts for me. They cost about $8.00 each.

We use them for chili and corn-on-he-cob too.

Never had a problem with our gas stove top yet,.