In the middle of brewing and my boiler has just cut out!

[Gray]

Was in the middle of brewing and approximately 15-20 minutes in to the boiling my boiler has decided to cut out, the power is still on and Im positive its because I didnt properly clean the element last time (forgot).

Just wondering what my options are, should I try and carry on somehow or is my brew now ruined?

[Gray]

Thanks very much!

Was planning on boiling for 90mins in total, assuming that i can actually get it boiling again after cleaning it should I boil for the full 90 or just for the remaining 70?

[haz66]

I always have a spare element to hand just in case of the one in the boiler failing mid brew,
all i would do is transfer the wort to another bucket, change element and then transfer wort back to
boiler and carry on.

[Gray]

Thanks very much for your help

Ive drained it and cleaned it and now just waiting for it to come back to the boil, fingers crossed it will actually stay on the boil this time

[haz66]

Hope it went ok

[Gray]

Second time round it went fine thanks, just boiled for 60 mins as suggested, hopefully it will all turn out okay

Id love to fit a second element to try and avoid this in future but my boiler is the Brupaks Enamelled one with a sort of plate type element rather than the usual type so Im not sure if this is possible?

[adm]

It's a common problem with electric elements that they get burnt on sugar from the wort that will make them more likely to cut out unless they are kept spotlessly clean. I think this problem has happened to quite a lot of us at one time or another.

If you can, take it out every few brews and give it a really good clean in a citric solution or similar. If you can't remove it easily, make sure to clean it well after every brew.

[pduk]

I agree with adm. This happened to me on the brew before last, but the boiler kept cutting in and out just below a vigorous boil so I continued anyway. First impressions are that the beer tastes OK (it's GW's Sarah Hughes Dark Ruby) but isn't clearing very well. I gave the element a thorough clean with acid and a good scrape with a teaspoon to get the sugary sludge off. I did Graham's Pendle Witches Brew yesterday and the boiler was back to normal.