Brew Kettle Skirt

[Munchkin]

Ive built a stainless brew kettle approx 10gal with a 0.125" bottom. Im trying to boil 27L in the Kettle but my gas stovetop dosent quite have the juice to keep it over 210F with the lid off. Ive tried wrapping the kettle with aluminum foil as some have suggested with no luck. My next idea is to add a 1.5" flatbar around the bottom to try and hold some of the heat spillage underneath the kettle. Anyone ran across this problem or had to modify a brew kettle to get it up to temp on a gas stove?

 

[sweetcell]

are you planning on adding the skirt to the kettle, or having it rest on the stove? either way, be careful not to completely trap the heat under the kettle. you need to allow for air to flow in and for the heat to flow somewhere - ideally that "somewhere" is closer to the kettle and less of it escaping out the sides far from the kettle, but it still needs to escape somewhere.

it is possible that your stove is not powerful enough to boil 27 liters. i know my gas-powered stove isn't, i had to move to an outdoor propane burner when i went to full-volume boils.

 

[sablesurfer]

I do not recommend this, but if you build a shield over the back burner that has slight slope toward the pot on the main burner, you can gain a few btu's.

Someone just happened to have a sheet of metal bent that way that was prototype for a motorcycle part. I hear the wimpy bubble turned into ok boil.

(Another thing to DEFINITELY check is that all the little nozzel out put things are clear. Some past spill restricted our burner once and after cleaning that I was back to clear blue flames.)

 

[Munchkin]

Ill check the nozzles to make sure they're clean. I plan on having a piece of steel flatbar rolled into a ring. I would then tighten it down using a stud and a wing nut sort of like a pipe clamp to the bottom of the kettle. There would still be a gap between the bottom of the skirt to the stovetop. Im hoping to pick up just enough heat to raise up 2*F. Man how frustrating... If that doesnt work ill prob wind up making a lid that cover 2/3rds of the pot so im still able to see/stir. Another option would be adding a piece of copper or aluminum to the bottom of the pot but im not sure how effective it would be since im not sandwiching it together as tightly as a commercial pot would be.

 

[purplehaze]

7 gallons is a lot to boil on a stove top. A pot skirt will help, how much I dont know. Here is one that maybe helpful, there may be more if you do a search.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/kettle-shroud-heat-retention-343355/

 

[sweetcell]

If that doesnt work ill prob wind up making a lid that cover 2/3rds of the pot so im still able to see/stir.

that would be OK if you're doing extract, but if you're brewing all-grain then you need to keep the lid off. you need DMS precursors to boil off. that's one of the main reasons we boil for 60+ minutes (along with hop isomerization).

 

[Munchkin]

that would be OK if you're doing extract, but if you're brewing all-grain then you need to keep the lid off. you need DMS precursors to boil off. that's one of the main reasons we boil for 60+ minutes (along with hop isomerization).

I figured as long as the steam can escape id be ok although im sure the more open the better..

purplehaze - Thanks for the link, perhaps i could do something similar, trapping the heat around the kettle instead of trying to concentrate the heat directly on the bottom. Looks like I have some experimenting to do.

 

[sweetcell]

a partial opening will allow some, but not all, steam to escape. you want it all to escape. lid covering the pot = condensation = precursors can fall back into the kettle, and some steam will condensate back into the liquid because it hangs around long enough in the cooler air without being carried away.

you should give it a try and see how the beer turns out. maybe there won't be any impact. if you get a canned corn taste, you'll know where it came from.