Wimpy Boil

[d_m_s_00]

So I get a small boil, more of a churning then a rolling boil on my gas stovetop when doing 5.5 gal batches. So I have a couple questions about wimpy boils.

I’ve been keeping the lid on the kettle for the 45min-1 hour it takes to get to boiling point then removing the lid as soon as it starts, then I’ll add the 1st hop addition and set the timer. Is this ok? I find I’ll loose quite a bit more to evaporation and it takes longer to get to the boil point if I don’t put the lid on.

Since I can’t get a good roll, should I boil for maybe 90 min to help with DMS evaporation? (I didn’t get that cooked corn taste, but I’ve only did 1 batch on this stove so far)

And yes I have a keg kettle and propane burner that the condo corporation will defiantly not let me use on the patio.

Also, are there any other tips from brewers that have this problem too?

 

[Bigsnake]

I think it's fine to leave the lid on while you build up to a boil. There are plenty of reasons to have it off during the boil though.

I'm not sure on if you should boil longer though. If you're boiling, you're boiling and still at 212. Some people are just having more steam blow out of their pots than others and getting some good circulation. Might not get as much circulation as others but I don't forsee any problems, as long as you are hitting a boil. Unless my beer was coming out with some flaws in it that could be traced to not boiling long enough, then I think I'd leave it at 60 minutes.

My older burner never got a violent boil going on my large batches and they seemed to come out fine. It had decent circulation, bubbles, and steam coming from the pot though. If you're not getting bubbles from the boil, then you might not actually be hitting a boil. I noticed water in these large pots starts to circulate pretty well before you actually get to boiling temps.

What kind of kits are you doing though? Extract, All-Grain, Partial Mash?

You could possibly reduce the amount of wort you're boiling if you're doing extract.

 

[Edcculus]

If you aren't getting a good boil I think it would be perfectly fine to boil longer. Just make sure you aren't boiling off a lot. Old breweries used to barely be able to bring wort to a boil. They report long boils of 2-12 hours. A longer boil will darken your wort however.

 

[d_m_s_00]

I’ve been doing all grain, I was thinking about trying to add a bit more grain to the mash, sparge to collect about 4 gallons of higher gravity wort, then watering it down after the boil... but I don’t want to mess around with that until I know for sure if I’ll have problems resulting from a crappy boil.