Electric Stovetop Brewing?

[masteroflobsters]

I am considering upgrading from my 1-gallon beer brewing kit to a 5-gallon kit. I may be unable to use an outdoor gas stove (I live in an apartment), so I might have to rely on an electric stove. Is it possible to bring 5 gallons of wort to a boil on an electric stove? I was told that it is difficult to do this with all-grain kits, but can I do it if I bought extract kits?

 

[dtgrdn]

Typically from what I've seen, most extract kits have you boiling only 2 gallons of wort. The remainder of the water gets add in the carboy/ bucket. I've been doing extracts and have had no issues with getting it to boil on my stovetop.

 

[moreb33rplz]

I've been doing 5 gallon AG for years in crap apartments with crap electric stoves.

It's super ghetto, but you can make delicious beer. Get a pot big enough to cover two burners.

My pot gets weird imprints on the inside from the burners. Scrub it a lot between brews, and rotate the pot on the burners every 10 min or so and it's not a problem.

 

[DaNewf]

I do 5.5 gallon all grain batches on my electric stovetop. This requires about 7 gallons pre-boil volume. I 'd never be able to do this in a single vessel on my stovetop so I split the wort up into two pots for the boil.

It adds a little time to the brew session and you have to pay a little extra attention but it works.

 

[unionrdr]

I got aftermarket heating coils for my electric stove. I use a 5 gallon SS kettle with about 3.5 gallons boiled in it. I can go from mash temp to boil in about 18 minutes.

 

[CUrchin]

Depends on your stove- If you have coil elements you may need to use a canning element. Some folks have success straddling two elements or supplementing with a heat stick. Some split a batch into two pots. I personally do 3.5 gallon BIAB with a preboil volume of about 4.25 gallons in a 5 gallon pot, being very careful about boil over at hot breaks. Be careful if you have a glass top. There have been reports of broken glass tops from overloading. Good luck.

 

[BrewFry22]

I do it on a single burner on my crap apartment electric stovetop. My 8 gallon aluminum kettle is wrapped in reflectix which helps it heat up and retain heat better. I can't get a vigorous boil but it does boil. I usually have the lid partially covering the kettle during the boil and wipe it off with paper towels every few minutes so it doesnt drip back into the kettle.

Another option: Build a heatstick.

 

[prpromin]

You can totally boil on an electric stove. I, too, have a crap apartment and do full-boil, all grain batches on my stove. My pot straddles two burners and I can pretty easily boil 7 or so gallons of wort. I pretty reliably lose about a gallon/hour to boil off, so I'm getting a good boil. Of course, the downside is all the condensation on the walls, but I just wipe everything down when I finish.

 

[Beernik]

A 10 gallon pot can span two burners and you should be be able to do full boils with an electric stove with out waiting hours for the wort to get hot.

Disclaimer: a couple years after I got a propane burner for brewing, my stove burst into flames while I was canning salsa. I don't know if it had anything to do with all the years of brewing I did on it or not.

 

[jekeane]

I just did a 6g boil yesterday on my electric stove for the first time. It went well. I normally do 3.5g and then top off in the carboy. It depends on the stove i'm sure. I do wonder about the weight and how unhappy it makes the stove...

 

[william_shakes_beer]

I did both extract and AG 5 gallon batches on the range before i got my propane burner. Works fine. As mentioned before, not a vigorous boil, but a boil nonhe the less. You will also likely have less boil off, so the evap loss is lower.

 

[petrolSpice]

My electric range tool 45min-1hr to get just 2.5 gal to a boil, and the boil wasn't very vigorous. I can't imagine trying to do a full boil (~7 gal) on it, so I got an outdoor propane stove, like one for a turkey fryer.

Try looking for a more powerful electric hot plate. Or you can supplement with immersion heating coil.

 

[unionrdr]

Or get aftermarket elements,like the canning ones. I can go from mash temp to boil with 3.5 gallons in about 18 minutes wide open. Then turn down to like 8.8 on the dial when it starts boiling. Check out amazon for them.

 

[boortzie]

I started brewing in a condo on an electric ceramic cooktop. It took forever to heat up the water, and I never got to a good rolling boil.

Then I found threads about heatsticks - changed the entire experience for the better. Heating times went from about an hour to under 20 minutes. I ended up building a heatstick myself from a hot water heater element (instructions can be found on the Forum), but there are plenty of aftermarket items that can be bought (as others on this thread have suggested).

If you end up using a heatstick (and I can't recommend one enough to make your brew day easier), MAKE SURE YOU USE A GFCI CIRCUIT. This is vitally important (you don't want to find out why).