High OG beers and electric element burn

[spittybug]

I had this happen on a big Scottish Wee Heavy and I learned my lesson. In that case I left the 5500W element on when adding sugar or molasses or whatever it was. MISTAKE. Hit the element and burned, ruining the batch. Ever since, element is turned off at end of boil and the supplemental sugars are then added. Yesterday we were going big... trying to make a Samiclaus clone - a smaller 5 gallon batch of a potential 14%+ beer. LOTS of Pilsen and a couple of other grains and 2 lbs. of candi sugar. Before even getting to the candi sugar addition, I sensed a burnt smell and killed the boil. Tasting the wort we couldn't detect any acrid or bitter, so we continued carefully. In order to adequately sparge the grains we had a good amount of wort to boil down. I decided I didn't have hours to spare so I made the decision to brew more gallons of a lower ABV beer and not risk the burning as the sugar concentration increased. For reference, once I reach close to boil my Raspberry Pi/Craftbeer Pi software switches to 70% PWM to keep a steady rolling boil. I don't have issues with less sugary wort. When we were done I saw that the element indeed had a coating of baked on black sugars. It's now soaking in Oxy to get it off.

Looking for anyone else that has experienced this and if you have a solution. <70% on the boil and it isn't very rigorous. I'm also trying to come up with a process to more efficiently sparge the large amount of grains without too much water. I am a Herms system so I'm continuously flowing temp controlled water through the grain bed. I'm considering a squeezing apparatus to get every drop out of the bed and then just batch sparge it once more. Also wondering if boiling under vacuum could work to make the boiling much faster..... ideas, ideas.....

 

[AkTom]

Would a steam slayer help? Seems like it could be a partial solution.

 

[spittybug]

I like the domed lid.... now to add vacuum to it..... I brew outside so I don't need the condensation control. I wonder if I can find a vacuum unit that wouldn't be harmed by the vapor temps.

 

[doug293cz]

If you boil under a partial vacuum, the boiling temp is reduced. This will cause your hop utilization to drop (less isomerization of alpha acids), and also reduce the conversion of SMM into DMS (which is boiled off), potentially causing DMS issues later on.

Brew on

 

[spittybug]

If you boil under a partial vacuum, the boiling temp is reduced. This will cause your hop utilization to drop (less isomerization of alpha acids), and also reduce the conversion of SMM into DMS (which is boiled off), potentially causing DMS issues later on.

Brew on

Excellent point.......at sea level ~14.7 psi, water boils at 212*F. At 50,000 ~1.6 psi (nearer vacuum conditions....) the boiling point drops to 103*F. Clearly has implications on the reaction of SMM to DMS and on the isomerization of AAs, but would help with DMS reduction. Perhaps a situation where standard boil to achieve those reactions, followed by a vacuum boil for the sole purpose of reducing volume?