Is 209°F Enough for an AG Boil?

[djt17]

During the cold MN winters; I use a heat stick to assist my stove. It works great, I can get 7 gal of water from mash temp to vigorous boil in 20 min, then I turn the gas down a little. Plus; but not installing an element in my boil kettle, I can brew outside (when weather permits), with my turkey burner. By the way, prior to building my heat stick I tried the Reflectix insulation on the top half of my brew kettle and used my kitchen gas stove.. It melted most of the insulation!

 

[Onkel_Udo]

Thank you for this. I'm either going to do this or a heat stick.. seems like they will each cost a similar amount, but heat sticks look cooler and they don't attach to my kettle.

The heat stick is a better all around solution but lots of folks are scared of building one. It does take longer to find the right parts requires a lot more attention to detail.

Even though suggested the insualtion, if the build does not intimidate you, do the heatstick.

 

[mabrungard]

As already mentioned, the temperature of the boil does affect hop isomerization. Assuming that the OP's wort is actually creating a rolling boil at 209F, it is accomplishing the major goals of driving off undesirable components from the wort, but the isomerization is reduced. I want to say that some of the hop bittering formulas do include an accounting for elevation or boiling temp.

If the wort is at a rolling boil, insulation won't do much good.

 

[TANSTAAFB]

As already mentioned, the temperature of the boil does affect hop isomerization. Assuming that the OP's wort is actually creating a rolling boil at 209F, it is accomplishing the major goals of driving off undesirable components from the wort, but the isomerization is reduced. I want to say that some of the hop bittering formulas do include an accounting for elevation or boiling temp.

If the wort is at a rolling boil, insulation won't do much good.

At 800' ASL he's not at a full boil at 209°...needs that 2-3 degrees, but I doubt the hop utilization or DMS is really much of a problem at a "light" boil. And Beersmith does adjust for boil temperature, just have to look up the temp water boils at your elevation.

 

[Bambooshoot]

Did you follow a tutorial?

yes, i used this one: http://www.3d0g.net/brewing/heatstick

i looked about about 10 sets of plans and this is the best (particularly the idea of using acetone to thin the jb-weld to pourable consistency and then pouring it down the tube). the parts are all very easy to find in the hardware store plumbing section, just bring a printout of the instructions with you to the store and it will all become obvious.

 

[BrewCrewKevin]

First of all, your temp most likely won't go any higher than that. If it's boiling, you're at boiling temp. You will NOT get the water to heat above boiling temp. (Although you may have another degree or so, so I could be wrong).

(Here's the physics, if you care) Energy in the form of heat will do 1 of 2 things (never both). 1) Raise temp or 2) phase change. So when it hits the boiling temp, it starts putting the energy into converting liquid to gas (steam). That's what a boil is. So steam can be over boiling temp, but water can't be. This is the same reason snow is (almost) always at 32 degrees. It can go lower, but not until it's entirely solid and there is no water present, which is rarely the case.

Just a side note there- just saying don't sweat the temp too much. It's more important to VISUALLY make sure you have a rolling boil. A heat stick or insulation should help with that.

 

[djt17]

yes, i used this one: http://www.3d0g.net/brewing/heatstick

i looked about about 10 sets of plans and this is the best (particularly the idea of using acetone to thin the jb-weld to pourable consistency and then pouring it down the tube). the parts are all very easy to find in the hardware store plumbing section, just bring a printout of the instructions with you to the store and it will all become obvious.

My first heat stick used the Acetone method; after 1 week I tried it but it kept tripping the GFCI. I tore it apart & noticed that the J-B had not fully cured. I then built 2 using this method: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f170/my-method-sealing-heatstick-220198/ Much happier.

 

[junior]

I use two pots and once volume is reduced I combine into one pot for the last 30 minutes.

 

[PhilosophicAle]

Hey guys, I know it's been awhile since I started this, but I just wanted to check in for those who helped me out.

I got my heat stick, and brewed my first all grain batch just now. The heat stick worked wonderfully, I was able to turn my burners down a lot and still have a full rolling boil. To anyone thinking of getting or building a heat stick, I definitely recommend it!

My first all grain day went off with out a hitch also.. got 5.5 gallons of Brown Ale getting ready to ferment, and I nailed my BG and OG on the head!

Thanks again for the help everyone,

Cheers!