Boiling on an electric stove

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HughBrooks

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I recently read an article on techniques of bioling wort for a light colored beer. I use an electric stove and it said that an electric stove was harder to boil with because the eye would burn so hot that it would caramelize the sugar resulting in a darker color. This particular article recommended taking a metal coathanger and bendin it to a triangle to place flat on the eye under the pot. Sounds like a good thought right? Wrong. The stovetop got so hot the eye shorted out and melted the metal connection point right out of the eye! Now the stove is ruined basically! Has anyone ever heard of or tried doing this before with success or was my stove just a POS?
 
When I had an electric stove we used to use a piece of wire under glass coffee pots to protect them from shattering. However it was not coat hanger and I assume the composition of the metal is different.

You should be able to buy a new element at the hardware store and replace it pretty cheaply. Make sure you pull the breaker or fuse or unplugged the stove - do both to be really safe.
 
No really that eye cannot be fixed the connections are burned up. I was actually a little scared when it happened because it was kind od loud and smelled horrible I thought the whole stove was gonna catch on fire! Any way my stove was kind of old, I was intending on geting my landlord to replace it anyway.
 
I use foil under my burner; another thing a lot of stove top brewers will do is add a heat shroud and/or insulation to the outside of the pot (just be careful to leave a gap for the insulation from the burner, or get fire rated stuff).

I have seen/heard of people getting an aluminum plate to go between burner/kettle, but don't recall the results; I imagine it would work well.
 
I've made light-colored hefes on an electric stove with no issue.

+1 here. No problems at all - just make sure you add extract off the burner and stir well. You can also add your fermentables (extract) late in the boil.

Also, depending on your stove, you may not need to have the heat on high for the whole time. On my ceramic top, once I get to a boil I turn it down to about 80% power - I still get a nice rolling boil.
 
Light colored double IPA; As posted before just foil under element. Remove from heat, thoroughly stir in boil additions (do extract myself), and then I tend to stir it every so often until I reach a good boil.
 

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