Boiling on the grill?

[Marchborne]

This might be better for the beginner's forum, but it's related to my pending switch to all grain, so...

I want to switch up to a few AG 5 gal batches, on a budget. My electric stove is fine for boiling 2-3 gallons, I just don't think it can handle all 5. I would like to save money (put towards a bigger kettle) and not buy an outdoor burner/turkey fryer. Anyone have experience with using a gas grill for 5-gallon boils? BTW: the grill is a 3-burner Weber Spirit).

I'm not too worried about getting up to temp (maybe wrong), but more worried about the weight of the steel kettle and 5 gallons or wort on the grates.

Any thoughts?

Thanks.

 

[Special Hops]

The weight would be a big concern.

 

[atom]

i don't see it being very convenient(or even working at all). spend $50 and get a burner...

 

[Revvy]

i don't see it being very convenient(or even working at all). spend $50 and get a burner...

Spend 30 and get a turkey fryer.

He just needs to do some looking around. All the big box stores were selling them for 30 bucks at the first of the year.

 

[Iceman6409]

Dude I have an electric stove too and I do my AG boils on my stovetop. The trick is if you have a flame to work with just position the kettle so that both flames get at it underneath. Now mind you if you are bringing the wort up to boil then COVER IT. Works like a charm. Once you get to a rolling boil simply remove the lid and it will staying in a rolling boil. I do it all the time now. In fact I just boiled 6.5 gallons of pre-boil wort on my stovetop last weekend. No problems man. Think about it. You are draining your mash which should be around 150 give or take. Have the flame working shortly after you start adding the wort and that cuts into your time as well. I typically drain my mash into a 1 gallon jug and then pour it into the kettle after the jug is filled. So for me after I pour in the first gallon is when I get both burners going. BTW I also use the jug method to measure exactly what I am putting in the kettle so I know exactly where I am. Just me though. Helps with tracking your notes. But position the kettle over both burners, front and back, and put a lid on to speed it up to whatever temperature you want. Just my stupid humble advice.

 

[ab12]

I use my electric stove too. Tried the two burner method. It worked ok for me. But what really did the trick was wrapping the kettle in reflective insulation. Like the stuff you use on heating ducts. Wrapped it up tight and used foil tape to seal it up. Now I use one burner and I get a much better boil.

 

[tre9er]

I can attest that insulating your pot will help tremendously with heating. I can boil 6.5g on my glass-top stove on a single burner with a narrow pot and it doesn't take too terribly long from sparge temps. YMMV.

Turkey fryer burners are generally cheap though, and you indicated you already have gas.

 

[Marchborne]

Thanks for the advice-- I'll look around for a turkey fryer, as you're right I do have the propane bottles lying around.

Think I'll try the 2 burners on the stove this weekend, and see how it goes. The insulated pot project might wait until it gets too cold to brew outside -- not for a while yet in Virginia.

Cheers.

 

[BrokenArmBrewing]

Spend 30 and get a turkey fryer.

He just needs to do some looking around. All the big box stores were selling them for 30 bucks at the first of the year.

Craigslist.org turkey fryer dime a dozen

 

[TopherM]

Dude I have an electric stove too and I do my AG boils on my stovetop. The trick is if you have a flame to work with just position the kettle so that both flames get at it underneath.

Your electric stove produces a flame? That can't be safe!

 

[tre9er]

Your electric stove produces a flame? That can't be safe!

Maybe it's a hybrid, you know, to save on "gas"...

 

[Spartan1979]

I tried boiling two flasks with about .75l each in them on the grill. Didn't work at all.

 

[david00001]

You will never be able to boil even a small quantity of water on a grill.

 

[emetcalf]

Wrapping your pot in aluminum foil helps a lot for stovetop brewing too. Real insulation probably works better, but foil is cheap and only takes ~1 minute to wrap around 10-12 times.

 

[H-ost]

My brew buddy boils 5 gallons on the range connected to the grill I don't know how strong or large yours is or if you even have one.

 

[mychalg9]

Live Revvy said above, I bought a turkey fryer for $30 about 2 months ago at Target. Just keep your eyes open. And yes, it makes a huge difference from boiling on the stove.

 

[Euphist]

I picked up this and it's working great. I don't remember what I paid, but I know that it was pretty cheap. As long as you don't need a kettle, it'll serve you just fine.

 

[JonK331]

Also keep in mind that you need to start with around 6.5 gallons to end up with ~5

 

[BrokenArmBrewing]

Maybe it's a hybrid, you know, to save on "gas"...

...I thought thats what was reading...but then chalked it up to the beer

 

[Irishwrench]

Bass Pro Shops had turkey fryers for 40 bucks not too long ago. In store clearance.

 

[starman]

Its certainly the concensus that putting a kettle right on top of a grill has piss poor results. If you use propane the inefficiency will make up the cost difference of a turkey fryer quick.

However with the pending addition of a keggle to go with a 44qt pot, I'm curious if a NG grill will work for strike temps. It would be nice to mash batch #2 while #1 is boiling on the NG Blichman. Speed isnt important and im not interested in hauling liquid propane and propane accessories around when i have two NG hookups on the patio.

The BTUs are adequate but the loss of heat out the side due to large burner footprint seems to be the problem. I might play with some sort of hood/ cap to refocus the heat to the center of the grill. As this is a short term solution, expect a UglyJunk Certified prototype.