Burners for beginners

[emontag]

I've made four 5-gallon batches in my kitchen using a flat top electric stove. I'd like to continue brewing in my kitchen but I don't want to use the stove anymore. It's not really suited for big beer brewing kettles.

The beer catalog has propane burners but these seem like they should be used outdoors. The winters here are way too long and cold for that. And it seems inconvenient.

What other affordable options are there?

(Dumb thing I did: I bought the cheap kettle from NB. Because the bottom is so thin, the middle expands upwards when I heat the water and it loses contact with the heating area. So I couldn't get the water to boil. I found that if I put a quarter just under one edge of the kettle, the bottom would sag and keep contact. On a subsequent brew, I thought that I could arrange a bunch of coins on the stove top and put the kettle on them so that the heat could be distributed more evenly. I used pennies. After a half hour and no boiling water, I decided to go back to the quarter method. I lifted the pot to find molten and charred pennies al over the stove top. I got most of it off but my wife was not pleased.)

 

[MaxStout]

Don't run propane burners indoors! They need ventilation, due to the generation of carbon monoxide.

 

[jtratcliff]

A Heat stick will supplement your stove.... I can eventually get a gentle rolling boil with my stove alone, but with a 1000w heat stick, I get to a much more vigorous boil in much less time.

Higher wattage heat sticks require a 20amp circuit but the 1000w stick is fine on a regular 15amp circuit.

Here's the one I got... I've used it twice now and it's made quite a difference:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00FO8FY68/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

If you like more bling, Bobby_M (a vendor and forum member here) makes a nice stainless one, too.

 

[jtratcliff]

Also, is your kettle wide enough to fit over 2 burners? I have a 10G tamale pot that will just cover most of the front and back burners on one side.