Need Help ASAP- Boiling on Stove Top

[bikerverde]

Me and a friend are boiling 8 gallons of stout on his Stove Top, we just got the kit today but didn't think we would need a stand alone burner. We knew it would take longer but now we are getting nervous.

We just added the malt and we are waiting for it to boil over but it only boils over when there is a lid on the pot.. should we wait for it to boil over with out a lid or should we just add the bittering hops now?...

 

[Zen_Brew]

Most stoves are not going to get 8 gallons up to a boil without a lid, and you can not boil with a lid as it will not allow some of the volatiles you want to boil off from getting out of the wort.

There are a couple things you can try.
Straddle 2 burners if you can to get the heat from both.

Some people insulate the upper portion of the pot, but you need to have the right insulation to do that. No fiberglass and something heat resistant.

Some people use heavy gage foil to seal the area between the burner and the bottom of the pot to capture some of the heat that goes up the sides.

In the future you will need to get a turkey burner style set-up, or supplement your indoor stove with a heat stick. You can search heat stick if you are unfamiliar.

For tonight, just try some of the above methods, and keep it as hot as you can

 

[bikerverde]

Most stoves are not going to get 8 gallons up to a boil without a lid, and you can not boil with a lid as it will not allow some of the volatiles you want to boil off from getting out of the wort.

There are a couple things you can try.
Straddle 2 burners if you can to get the heat from both.

Some people insulate the upper portion of the pot, but you need to have the right insulation to do that. No fiberglass and something heat resistant.

Some people use heavy gage foil to seal the area between the burner and the bottom of the pot to capture some of the heat that goes up the sides.

In the future you will need to get a turkey burner style set-up, or supplement your indoor stove with a heat stick. You can search heat stick if you are unfamiliar.

For tonight, just try some of the above methods, and keep it as hot as you can

Thanks for the reply!.. We are using two burners from the stove to boil it.. I don't think we have any heavy gage foil.. where would we buy that.. At the moment it's past midnight and Walmart is the only store that close by and open..

 

[Brew_4iT]

As long as it comes to a rolling boil it's fine. Once you add extract, or sugars the wort will rise with a boil and may boil over, you just need to settle it for a bit remove from burner and/or stir until you contain it to a rolling boil, then add your hops and start the timer.

 

[dcp27]

kinda too late, but if its extract feel free to leave the lid on next time, the volatiles are already gone. just make sure to leave some gap otherwise you'll have no evaporation.

 

[bottlebomber]

In the future don't add the extract until the last five minutes or even when you kill the heat. It will just lead to messy boil overs, and in my opinion boiling extract, which is already fully processed, just destroys flavor and makes the beer too dark (not an issue with a stout, but dark ipas and light ales don't look attractive to me)

 

[grace1760]

In the future don't add the extract until the last five minutes or even when you kill the heat. It will just lead to messy boil overs, and in my opinion boiling extract, which is already fully processed, just destroys flavor and makes the beer too dark (not an issue with a stout, but dark ipas and light ales don't look attractive to me)

But you don't want to just boil the hops in water, do you?

 

[metal850]

But you don't want to just boil the hops in water, do you?

Sure you can, it's the heat that will isomerize the alpha acids. I'm sure pH of the wort matters some but to my knowledge it's primarily the heat.

 

[bottlebomber]

But you don't want to just boil the hops in water, do you?

Oh yes, follow the hop schedule as normal. PH doesn't effect hops as far as I know. However you will actually get BETTER hop utilization boiling them in water instead of wort, because the water is less viscous. Give it a shot. I think you'll be happy with the results.

 

[smyrnaquince]

Me and a friend are boiling 8 gallons of stout on his Stove Top, we just got the kit today but didn't think we would need a stand alone burner. We knew it would take longer but now we are getting nervous.

We just added the malt and we are waiting for it to boil over but it only boils over when there is a lid on the pot.. should we wait for it to boil over with out a lid or should we just add the bittering hops now?...

If this is an extract kit, are you following the directions? Extract kits I've seen call for a boil of 3 gallons or so, then adding that to the extra water needed in the fermenter.

 

[JoeDaddio]

My first brew, completed Sunday, was an extract kit and it had us boiling 2 gallons after steeping @160, then adding the wheat extract, then adding 4 more gallons and bringing that to boil.

It took some time, but it got boiling. Nothing violent, but it was going.

We put the lid on partially to keep some heat in. We weren't aware about the flavor problems associated with this (though the vast majority of the boil was without the lid), but we did discover the mess associated with wort boiling over when left covered and unattended , so be careful with that.

All that said, an outdoor burner and a wort chiller would easily have cut a few hours off our brew time, and that may be our next investment.


joe

 

[bottlebomber]

If this is an extract kit, are you following the directions? Extract kits I've seen call for a boil of 3 gallons or so, then adding that to the extra water needed in the fermenter.

All Northern Brewers kits call for that initially, but that is only a "partial boil". Not ideal. It always gives you and option to do a full boil if you have the equipment. Since I've only ever made their kits, I don't know what other companies are recommending...

 

[grace1760]

Oh yes, follow the hop schedule as normal. PH doesn't effect hops as far as I know. However you will actually get BETTER hop utilization boiling them in water instead of wort, because the water is less viscous. Give it a shot. I think you'll be happy with the results.

Interesting, I didn't know this. This could be really helpful for late extract additions. I've been adding half up front, and half with 15 min left, but for a really light beer, I could do 100% at the 15 min mark. :rockin:

 

[CaptKaos]

I had the same problem on my electric stove. I put a lid on it but not completely covering it. Once it started to boil I removed the lid. My kit was a 2.5 gallon boil.

 

[jsweet]

Okay so, I don't have any experience with this, but I feel like I should pipe up anyways, because I think this advice to not use any extract at the start of the boil is highly unorthodox. More and more people are recommending that you reserve 50% of your extract or even more than that until the end, but the majority view seems to be that you need SOME extract in the boil at the start in order to properly convert the hop resins to soluble form. I recognize that some people are starting to challenge that notion (as is evinced by this thread) and they very well may be right -- but you should know it is not the majority viewpoint.

FWIW.

 

[Zen_Brew]

But you don't want to just boil the hops in water, do you?

Sure you can, it's the heat that will isomerize the alpha acids. I'm sure pH of the wort matters some but to my knowledge it's primarily the heat.

You will get better utilization of the hops for certain with no extract added. The problem with this is you will get more bitterness in the beer than the recipe calls for in some cases creating an overly bitter beer.

Also I believe there is some complex interaction between the hop compounds and the proteins in a wort at low PH. You would get bitterness from boiling only in water, but I would think the chemistry would be different, therefore the flavors may be different.

 

[JustinBeerber]

The kits I've been using have me boiling the extract for an hour. One kit I used had me boil 3.3lbs for 45 min, then add the second extract (hops for an hour).
I did a true brew American Wheat that boiled extract for an hour and it tasted like hoegarden, but had a color of 15SRM.
Should I add extract later?