Gas stove boiling

[beaker11]

I'm about to move on to my second 5 gal PG batch. After seeing some of my troubles with the first batch, my amazing wife upgraded me to a 20 qt SS kettle (thanks babe!). I figured that with leaving head space to prevent a boil over the kettle could hold around 3.5-4 gal but I'm not sure if our gas stove could get the boil going. We are renting right now so I don't have any information on BTUs or anything for the stove. How much should I fill the kettle with before it becomes difficult to get a boil going? Any recommendations are much appreciated!

 

[dmashl]

On my gas stove, I boil Mini mash kits from austin home brew. with the original water(2 gallons, sparge water and per recipe, 1 gallon add), I do about a 4 gallon boil in a 5 gallon pot. takes a little while(20-30 min) to get to a rolling boil though from steep temp. brew days are about 3.5 hrs including cleanup.

 

[beaker11]

Thanks! I'll try it out.

 

[Cheapo]

Mine works well at 4 gal's as well

 

[mikescooling]

First off, way to go getting the SS 20gal pot!!! That is something you can use!! It's hard for me to get 7gal to a boil, with a lid on, with a 10,000btu burner. Think about getting a LP burner 210,000btu's.

 

[dmashl]

First off, way to go getting the SS 20gal pot!!! That is something you can use!! It's hard for me to get 7gal to a boil, with a lid on, with a 10,000btu burner. Think about getting a LP burner 210,000btu's.

I think he posted he got a 20 quart pot

 

[mikescooling]

oops. I need to learn to read, better.

 

[Kujo]

Depending on your stove top you might can do what i do. I set the pot across two burners both on high to get it up to temp faster. But once at a boil i move it onto one burner because the heat is at the edges on two burners.

 

[Cheapo]

Luckily we have the four burners, but down the middle there is a sort of cooking griddle plate, similar to one for pancakes etc. I take that off and it has an elliptical shaped burner underneath, works great for getting it going.

 

[freisste]

If you don't mind burning through a little gas for an experiment, fill the pot with 4-4.5 gal of water (exact numbers aren't critical, I often use my fermenter buckets as measuring cups because they have gallon marks on the sides) and put it on the stove to boil. If it takes an hour to get to 200*f, you may not want to try to boil that much. If it takes 15 minutes, that is probably pretty good for a gas stove (better than mine, anyway). Keep in mind, it would be risky from a boil over standpoint to try a 4.5 gal boil in a 5 gal pot.

And congrats on the new pot.