first time being nervous with brewing

[OHIOSTEVE]

I have brewed for a little over 2 years now. I have brewed a BUNCH of beer and have never gotten " nervous" about anything. I am getting ready to make a starter and have done it a dozen times in the past. HOWEVER this time I am going to boil the starter IN MY FLASK ON MY STOVE. I don't know why but that is giving me the heebie jeebies for some reason. It may be that we had a glass corning ware pan explode on the stove once, but I am leery as heck about this.

 

[Wolfhound180]

That's the way I always do it. Just be standing by wearing oven mitts. You will have some warning when it starts to foam up, pull it off and over the sink. Once it starts to foam up, it doesn't stop easily. Nothing to worry about though. I'm hoping that you have a gas or ceramic top stove also.

 

[PantherCity]

If it is a gas range you are good to go. If it is electric, don't do it. I tried it and it broke. I now use and old pan on the electric burner (that doesn't sound right) and put my flask in that. It helps disperse the heat.

 

[SenorPepe]

Just the flask right on top of a pan? I scared myself away from my electric range but I should do this instead.

 

[Seven]

Your concern is valid. Who wants 1L or more of sugar water all over a hot stove and down the sides of the stove/cabinets?

I've been making starters on my glass-top electric stove without any problems but I'm always a bit nervous whenever I do. I should probably get a camping type burner and use that outdoors instead.

 

[OHIOSTEVE]

electric coil burner stove...maybe I will just continue to do as I always have...boil it in a stainless pan and transfer to a sanitized flask.

 

[Homercidal]

If gas, start with small flame. It doesn't take much to get a small flask boiling.

And Fermcap, or unflavored gas drops, will help keep it from boiling over.

Before I used to can my wort ahead of time, I tried boiling in the flask and it worked pretty good, all things considered.

 

[gmcastil]

I use commercial grade Erlenmeyer flasks like you would find in a chemistry lab directly on the stove top. I have an electric flat top, but even if I had flame, I would do the same thing. I sanitize my flask, dry off the outside, and then place it directly on the stove.

If you had a similar flask crack, it's either a fluke or you had a wild temperature change or something like that. These things are rated for something north of 400 degrees.

 

[bottlebomber]

You want to up the ante? Take the boiling flask and plunge it directly into a sink of ice water. Now that's good for a rush!

 

[airving]

Not sure if I mis-read the suggestions, but given that I have an electric coil-type stovetop, I decided to use a pot with some water in it and add the flask into that.

Don't do this - although it eventually 'worked' in that the contents of the flask boiled, it was anything but straightforward. Once the water in the pot started boiling, the flask started jumping around. I ended up suspending the flask in the water by hand (enclosed in an oven mitt) for the last few minutes.

Although the starter was great in the end, I'll definitely be sanitizing the flask and a funnel next time, and boiling the dme in a pot by itself.