How long do you take to reach boil?

[tonyolympia]

A question primarily for my fellow stovetop BIAB'ers and partial mashers: how long do you take to reach a boil, and what's your volume?

Me, I'm taking 50-60 minutes to bring appx. 4.75 gallons to a boil. I'm curious if that's great, average, or poor.

 

[Slurm]

I just recently purchased a new kettle for BIAB-a 36 quart Bayou Classic with steamer basket and spigot. I filled it up to mark my water levels, and tried a test boil at the 8 gallon mark.

It took just over an hour and a half to bring it to a full boil on my electric stove. :rockin:

 

[hops2it]

Oops, didn't see the stovetop request. Nevermind.

 

[tonyolympia]

Oops, didn't see the stovetop request. Nevermind.

You know, whatever your setup is, I'm still interested. If I learned that people were bringing 10 gallons to a boil in 10 minutes over a propane burner, I can assure you I'd leave the comforts of my kitchen and start brewing outdoors.

 

[hops2it]

You know, whatever your setup is, I'm still interested. If I learned that people were bringing 10 gallons to a boil in 10 minutes over a propane burner, I can assure you I'd leave the comforts of my kitchen and start brewing outdoors.

Yeah, that was what i had posted. Can't say I've timed it but I'm guessing about 25 mins or so for a typical 7(ish) gallon boil volume with propane burner.

 

[icenine]

Tonyolympia, what temp are you starting at? With a 3200 watt glasstop stove I am bringing about 6.5 gallons from 60 to 160 in about 45 minutes or so. I do my mash biab style and then it takes about another 20 min or so to bring it to a boil.

 

[america]

I brew on an electric stove at my house and a gas stove at a buddy's house. For ~6-7 gallon boils we get to a boil in about 45 minutes. The gas stove seems to keep the full boil going a bit better than my electric, but it still works if you dont care about time.

 

[tonyolympia]

Tonyolympia, what temp are you starting at? With a 3200 watt glasstop stove I am bringing about 6.5 gallons from 60 to 160 in about 45 minutes or so. I do my mash biab style and then it takes about another 20 min or so to bring it to a boil.

I don't know what my wattage is, so that could be a factor. My beginning temp is probably similar to yours, but I'm sure I lose at least a few degrees in both my mash kettle and my sparge kettle while I hoist and drain the bag. Next time maybe I'll leave the burners on for both kettles while I drain, and then combine the runnings.

My aluminum kettle is only very slightly larger than the larger burners on my glasstop, so that seems optimal, but the slowness might be partly accounted for by the height of the kettle--I'm guessing 14 inches.

 

[RMitch]

Bout 45 minutes I'd say...5gal pot.

 

[skyzo]

For my stove to bring 4 gallons of water to a boil(2.5 gallon BIAB batches), it takes about 30 minutes or so. Not too bad for an old stove

 

[Gduck]

On my less than reliable kitchen gas stove I get 6.5ish gallons of mash (which is generally around 150ish coming out of the mash tun) to a boil in about 45 minutes.

 

[tonyolympia]

So does everyone keep the lid on the pot completely while waiting for a boil? I keep mine cracked pretty wide because I'm afraid of boil-overs. That could contribute to the long wait.

 

[Beezy]

I did my first two on a glass top electric. It pretty much sucked. That's why I have a propane burner now. It take a little while even with that but much better still. If I had a gas stove here I would have certainly considered staying indoors.

 

[MBasile]

My crappy electric stove took probably and hour or so to get 4ish gallons to a boil. Now with propane I start heating slightly (burner at about half of what it is for a vigorous boil) about halfway through mashing, turn it up as it gets closer to the end of the mash, and am boiling not too long after finishing the mash. Just a comparison of my processes.

 

[samc]

You know, whatever your setup is, I'm still interested. If I learned that people were bringing 10 gallons to a boil in 10 minutes over a propane burner, I can assure you I'd leave the comforts of my kitchen and start brewing outdoors.

You might want to read some of the threads in the Electric Brewing area. You can go pretty fast with a large element. I've done stove top, propane, ng & electric - with electric being the easiest and fastest for me.

 

[JuanMoore]

You know, whatever your setup is, I'm still interested. If I learned that people were bringing 10 gallons to a boil in 10 minutes over a propane burner, I can assure you I'd leave the comforts of my kitchen and start brewing outdoors.

I bring ~13.5 gal to a boil in ~15-20 min with my propane burner, but that's from mash temps.

 

[Haputanlas]

I bring ~13.5 gal to a boil in ~15-20 min with my propane burner, but that's from mash temps.

It takes me about 10-15 minutes to boil 8ish gallons on my propane burner as well.

 

[bigbeergeek]

My propane gets 7.5 gallons of wort from mash temps to boil in 13 minutes, and takes 13.5 gallons up to a boil in about 20 minutes. That's full throttle, lid on until I see hot break to skim.

 

[hops2it]

Yep, I was using math to approximate my earlier calculation at 25 mins. Since I'm AG like the above posters, and I know it takes me about 10 mins to reach boil from mashout...I figure thats about a 60* increase per 10 mins (150ish to 212).

So if I'm starting with water somewhere in the 60's* range, it leaves me with a factor of 2.5 (10 minute intervals) to get up to boiling, or...25 mins.

Not sure of the physics of the thing, if it's entirely linear, but I figured it would be a good ballpark estimate.