BeerBorg

My very old electric range can't get 2 gallons of water to boil. I think part of the problem is the pot I'm using is really meant to be used for steaming seafood and it's diameter is slightly larger than the heating element. It seems like a lot of brewers use 3 gallons, but that's not going to work for me.

Replacing the range isn't an option right now. So my question is how little amount of water can I use for a hop boil (with some dme added in)?

Looks like I'll be adding an induction plate to my Christmas list.

In my opinion you can get away with a gallon. You might want to consider getting an outdoor burner

try covering 2 burners as much as possiable with the pot. that is what i had to do on my gas stove

You need a SMALLER POT.
Sorry couldn't resist that dig at certain persons on the Borg (they know who they are).

Seriously though if you are using HMEs why not try a hop stand instead of a short boil? Hold your wort temp under 140F for twenty or thirty minutes with your hops in it.

We do PM SMEIBB brewing so we do a 60 minute boil but when the brew kettle goes into the ice bath we add the hops as soon as the temps are below 140 and they sit until the wort is cool enough to tranfer to the fermenter.

Also I think I read that using a pot that is larger than the burner can be a hazard so you might want to check the owners manual.

Other option is to use two pots and split the difference. But remember, for best hop utilization you will want to keep your wort at around 1.030-1.040 during the full boil if you will not be boiling the full volume between the two kettles.

jimjohson wrote:try covering 2 burners as much as possiable with the pot. that is what i had to do on my gas stove

My heat elements are set too far apart (or my pot isn't wide enough). Thanks anyway.

Brewbirds wrote:You need a SMALLER POT.
Sorry couldn't resist that dig at certain persons on the Borg (they know who they are).

Seriously though if you are using HMEs why not try a hop stand instead of a short boil? Hold your wort temp under 140F for twenty or thirty minutes with your hops in it.

We do PM SMEIBB brewing so we do a 60 minute boil but when the brew kettle goes into the ice bath we add the hops as soon as the temps are below 140 and they sit until the wort is cool enough to tranfer to the fermenter.

Also I think I read that using a pot that is larger than the burner can be a hazard so you might want to check the owners manual.

The recipe kit I bought is made with DME and a 60 minute hop boil. I guess I could always go out and get some HME's for now.

Gymrat wrote:In my opinion you can get away with a gallon. You might want to consider getting an outdoor burner

DaYooper wrote:Other option is to use two pots and split the difference. But remember, for best hop utilization you will want to keep your wort at around 1.030-1.040 during the full boil if you will not be boiling the full volume between the two kettles.

Great! I'm going to do a 1 gallon test boil now. Thanks for the wort/hop/gravity info. I knew I needed some starch/sugars in the wort for the hop oils to "stick" but wasn't sure how much. Thanks.

Root Skier wrote:

Gymrat wrote:In my opinion you can get away with a gallon. You might want to consider getting an outdoor burner

DaYooper wrote:Other option is to use two pots and split the difference. But remember, for best hop utilization you will want to keep your wort at around 1.030-1.040 during the full boil if you will not be boiling the full volume between the two kettles.

Great! I'm going to do a 1 gallon test boil now. Thanks for the wort/hop/gravity info. I knew I needed some starch/sugars in the wort for the hop oils to "stick" but wasn't sure how much. Thanks.

Yes, this will work, and is basically what I do when I am brewing MORE then 2 gallons, because I can't boil 4 gallons. It all amounts to the same problem and the same solution will work just fine.

One small thing just FYI. You do not need starch/sugar for the hop oils to "stick to". That is an unfortunate bit of nonsense that lots of brewing folks propagate because they read it somewhere. It's not what happens. (EDIT: I did not mean this as an insult to you, please do not take it as such, it's more of a poke at more experienced brewers who continue to tell people this).

The reality of it is that the PH is modified by the wort, and the difference in PH along with the heat is what allows certain hop oils to be more easily extracted and then once extracted change in their chemical structure (which is what isomerization really is, it's not gluing two totally different molecules together, and malt sugar/starch is not a magic substance that hop oils happen to like to stick to). You do get stuff out of hops boiling them in plain water. It's just different stuff and/or stuff in different quantities and/or in different amounts of time, so it will make the product "different", especially from a bitterness perspective. IE if you are going for flavor and aroma you can easily get that in just plain boiling or near boiling water, or by using a French press to make "hop tea" and add it to your wort both before or after fermentation. It may be a bit different then the flavor/aroma you get from a boil in the wort due to a different oil makeup. But it is usually a pleasant flavor/aroma none the less.

It's just that since you want to end up with wort anyways, using wort as the ph adjuster makes sense.

Similar chemical changes occur when making say "invert sugar". Which happens to also be make simply using heat and acid. Acid is actually not even needed, it just makes things happen faster. I make my own candi syrup using just heat, which is more time consuming, but is the more authentic way.

:: geek mode deactivated ::