Brewing All Grain on Electric Stove

[jrc64]

Would this work and are there any shortcomings to this?

Mash all the grains indoors as usual, drain first runnings (around 3 gallons or so), skip any sparge and boil the 3 gallons? I would then have 2 gallons after boil and would need to add 3 gallons cold water to fermenter. Trying to come up with an indoor method when I can't get outside to the propane as my electric stove can not handle a full boil.

 

[giraffe]

You will get terrible efficiency, and its better to do a full boil (for hop extraction, and malliard reactions, and other stuff thats google-able.) Have you looked into immersion heaters, or see if you can get a wider pot that will fit across multiple burners?

 

[fishnwhistle]

I'd just scale down to 2 or 3 gallon batches. Brew the experimental stuff when bigger batches outside aren't feasible.

 

[opusx11]

I've done the two pot method quite a bit in my time and it works great when it is too cold outdoors.

http://www.northernbrewer.com/connect/2012/02/stovetop-brewing-the-texas-two-step-and-split-boil/

 

[bobeer]

have you looked up brew in a bag? (BIAB)
I did that for over a year indoors doing 2.5-3.5 gallon batches with a 5.5 gallon pot I got from walmart. I made great beer this way.

 

[Epimetheus]

Electric stove is fine. That is all I have used. I make 2.5gal to 5gal batches in an 8 gallon pot and BIAB. With a 3 gallon batch I can easily get full boil.

Drawbacks:
It can be much, much slower to come to a boil. 6 gal does not boil unless I heavily insulate the pot and cover it almost fully. Fix: a homemade 1500W heatstick really speeds things up
BIAB usually has lower efficiency. Some BIABaggers say they get 80%. Mine hovers around 60%

I am getting to like 3 gallon batches. That is a whole case and some bombers. More variety. I drink much less now that I am seriously trying to lose weight and still consume what is brewed - what is the point if you can't have good beer?

 

[DaNewf]

I can get 3.5+ us gallons doing BIAB with sparge and squeeze in a five gallon pot. This is done on my electric stove top.

I could do a 6 US gallon batch with the same equipment using the maxi-BIAB method. The maxi-BIAB method has a couple of dunk sparges, involves topping up wort during the boil and post boil dilution (but not as severe as 3gallons of water on top on 2 gallons of super concentrated wort like you are considering).

 

[Beernik]

I've done extract full boils on my stove. The trick was a pot large enough to span multiple burners.

But I don't like doing 60 - 90 minute boils inside though, gets too steamy in the house.

Last year, I mashed inside and boiled outside on the really, really cold days.

 

[ncbrewer]

I started brewing all-grain using the split boil method just a few months ago. I possibly go to greater lengths than necessary to measure and distribute runnings, hops, etc. between the two kettles. With all the complication I've added, brew days are roughly 9 hours, not including crushing - a lot longer than what I anticipated. I suggest mentally walking through your procedure to get some idea of what to expect.

I'm careful to equalize first and second runnings, measure first runnings and split evenly, check SG of both pots and adjust and split the hops proportionally

 

[DaNewf]

I started brewing all-grain using the split boil method just a few months ago. I possibly go to greater lengths than necessary to measure and distribute runnings, hops, etc. between the two kettles. With all the complication I've added, brew days are roughly 9 hours, not including crushing - a lot longer than what I anticipated. I suggest mentally walking through your procedure to get some idea of what to expect.

I'm careful to equalize first and second runnings, measure first runnings and split evenly, check SG of both pots and adjust and split the hops proportionally

I've done a couple of split brews but, like you, I found that it added a great deal of time to the brew NIGHT. I generally start late enough in the evening that the kids are in bed before the mash is complete (I wouldn't be able to brew with them awake). Split boils meant next to no sleep on a brew night since my kids are early risers.

I decided to stick with the single kettle boil for 3.5 gallon batches and so far it's working out fine. However I'm not above banging out an a 5 Imperial gallon batch using a Cooper's pre-hopped extract kit if I need a quicker brew day to keep the pipeline flowing.