Boiling wort on domestic gas ring

[SeasideBrewer]

Hi

I've been brewing for a while using an Electrim bin which has worked well, but struggles a bit on the capacity front for my 23 litres brew lengths. I normally have to top up part way through the boil after some evapouration loss to make sure I have the correct amount of liquid at the end.

I was thinking of getting a 50litre nordic stockpot and boiling on the gas stove instead. I'm not fussed about using electric and using gas would mean only having to drill a whole for a tap.

I still only want to do 23litre brew lengths so I guess would be boiling no more than about 30litres at a time. The gas stove has a large triple ring in the middle and looking at the instrucion manual it says that ring is rated at 3.5kw. Obvioulsy thats more power than the element in the electrim boiler but I think gas is a lot more inefficient?

Do you reckon thats enough power to hold that amount of liquid at a rolling boil

cheers

[soupdragon]

I'd say so. I've got a 33l pot, my largest burner is about 3" and that will just about boil 30l so with your tripple job it should be a doddle. I want one

Cheers Tom

[GrowlingDogBeer]

I should think you would be OK with that.

I use an 8kW propane burner, but that is outside in a draughty/drafty (sp?) garage to boil 60 Litres. I would think indoors you should be fine as there will be less drafts and it will be generally warmer.

[boingy]

Yep, it will work fine. You may even be able to position the pot so you can use more than one ring to get the boil going quicker. You just need to worry about where all the steam will go....

[Mattb]

As the others have said, you'll be fine. I boil 30L on my domestic gas stove just fine. Really good rolling boil.

[fisherman]

I put my 50 litre stockpot on my cooker on a large wok ring it boiled 1 gallon ok for a starter ok, but the heat reflected back down at the stainless steel top and was starting to change colour with the heat, I stopped straight away and when polished and cleaned is ok. Keep your eye on the cooker for damage. I use a large outdoor calor gas ring in my garage. Rob the malt miller's pots are great. His 33 litre pot looks good for inside use.

[Waffty]

I've done it but it's a trade off between heating the stock pot + it's contents and loosing the heat to the atmosphere.

When I moved to an electric 'drive' stock pot, with loads of insulation, the warm up time and perceived heat loss was minimal.

For reference, I have a 50L Nordic stock pot, fitted with two Backer elements and 15mm of insulation, topped off with that bubble foil stuff. I typically only use one element for 30L length, which is controller by a PID controller.

I'd only go back to gas, if I moved to a propane burner & a much larger brew length.

[SeasideBrewer]

Thanks for all the advice folks, and the tip about keeping an eye out for cooker damage, fisherman

I'll go for a 50litre stockpot on the gas ring and see how it goes. If I'm not happy I can always add a decent element at a later date and go back to electric.

Time to order a nice shiny pot!