Heating 5 gallons on a stove top. Practical?

I am an extract Brewer. I am in the market for a boiling pot. Currently I just brew out of my kitchen and I was wondering if I could make a better beer by boiling the whole 5 gallons as oposed to boiling 1.5-2 gallons and then mixing with water. Would buying a 5 gallon pot and trying to heat that much on a kitchen stove top be impractical and would my beer be any beter for the trouble? Thanks in advance for the help.

 

Yes, full boils make a positive difference.

Generally speaking, NO, heating 6+ gallons of wort on a stovetop is not practical, unless you've got a seriously powerful stove. Outdoor propane burners (turkey fryers) are popular for a reason.

 

I tried to do a full 5 gallon boil on my stove top once.

it took something like 2 hours to get to boiling (seriously) and even then never got to a rolling boil. because there was never a good rolling boil, hop utilization was very low,and a lot of the sugars caramelized during all that time on the heat so the beer ended up much sweeter than i had wanted.

 

I boil 3-3.5 gallons of liquid in a 5 gallon pot routinely and that seems be close to the limit of what my stove can do. To do a full 5 gallon batch at once I would think you would need to boil at least 6 gallons and do it in a big enough kettle to prevent boil overs. I would shoot for a 10gal kettle personally.

A volume that big would be better served by a standalone propane burner.

 

Thanks for the input. I dont think my range top could handle it. So there would be an advantage to boiling as much as possible? Say half, 2.5 gallons, in a 12 qrt. pot? I guess the disadvantage would be longer cool down. For the interest of cool down time why should I not boil only one gallon?

Also, does anyone brew half recipes? I was thinking of brewing 2.5 gallons at a time. This way I can boil everything in a 12 qrt pot and ferment in the easier to obtain 5 gallon "Home Depot" buckets. Only Problem would be getting the right amount of ingredients for a half batch.

 

plenty of people do brews that are less than 5 gallons, no problem there.

but do NOT ferment in those HomeDepot buckets! they are not food quality!

 

smaller boil size = more concentrated boiled wort = lower hop utilization (need to use more hops) = more caramelization (darker wort, among other things)

I think it's pretty generally agreed upon that you should always boil as large a portion of your wort as you can.

 

I kinda like brewing in my kitchen, but I've got a ceramic top stove, so 2-3 gallons is about all I can do in one pot. Anyone use two pots over two burners for a full boil? I'm thinking of doing this for my next brew which since it's the first light colored beer I will do, an American wheat.

 

I did several all grain full boil batches on a tove top, but I centered the pot I have over two burners to get it going. I moved outside and it is much, much easier.

 

It is a challenge, but see this thread:
http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/improved-boiling-stovetop-53683/
It does depend on your stove, I'm able to get 7 gallons boiling with the reflectix insulation, and it can take an hour to heat up. I batch sparge, so as soon as I get my runnings, it goes into the boil pot, once I draw my 7 gallons I can usually have the whole batch boiling in 15 minutes or so. I don't get a vigorous full boil, but enough to keep it from scorching with a somewhat lazy roll and I get a good hot break enough to need a water spray bottle to prevent boil overs. In short it can be done.