Ceramic stove top brewing?????

[IBEWJamie]

I do all grain, 5 gallon batches in my unheated garage with propane. The pic was taken on 12/11/13 when it was 9 degrease out. As you can see it got a little foggy in the garage. I could even see the wort while it was boiling. I use a cooler for my mash tun for the time being and I have to set it up in my kitchen when its cold out so I can keep the temp up in the cooler. It is such a pain since I have to go to the garage to heat the strike water, bring it in to the house, mash, go out to heat the sparge water, bring it in the house and take all the collections out to the garage to boil.I had a regular electric stove but the wife had to have a ceramic top stove. I had thought about trying to do a BIAB on the stove but I wanted to see if anyone has had any luck with a ceramic top. I haven't looked into it yet but, can you do a 3 gallon, concentrated step mash and do a 60 min boil and top it off to 5 gallons in the carboy? Thanks for looking....

 

[FRS]

1) using a propane burner in a closed, unventilated garage is asking for carbon monoxide poisoning! Please be careful

2) I have used my glass cook top for 3 gallon all grain BIAB batches with success. I used to add DME and dilute as you describe when I wanted a full 5 gallon batch. It works, but on my stove is quite slow... Takes about an hour to heat the strike water to temp, then another hour to reach a boil after the mash.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Home Brew mobile app

 

[RM-MN]

Look up "heat stick" and brew indoors on the ceramic top. You can add a lot of heat with a heat stick because it is immersed in the water. It will be much safer than brewing in that garage with the door closed. Carbon monoxide isn't the only thing to worry about there, a slight propane leak will cause propane to pool on the floor. When it pools high enough to reach the flame there will be an explosion. The risk is slight but present. Propane is much worse than gasoline in this respect because it will burn (explode) in a wider range of concentrations.

If you do brew on the ceramic top, watch closely for boilovers or you will be banned. If you do spill a little, clean it up as soon as possible.

 

[Weezy]

I haven't looked into it yet but, can you do a 3 gallon, concentrated step mash and do a 60 min boil and top it off to 5 gallons in the carboy? ....

Absolutely! If you have two pots, use a bag to mash in one, dunk sparge in the second one....good efficiency and minimal top off water needed

 

[IBEWJamie]

Thanks for all of your concern on safety!!! I did have the window cracked and the walk in door cracked to create a small breeze low to the floor but not enough to bother the flame. The speed of the water getting up to temp and getting a boil is my concern so I don't turn the brew into a job instead of a hobby. I'm going to look up the heat stick, I've never herd of those before. My next question is, would you take a 5 gallon recipe and just scale the water back to 3 gallons and top it off to the 5 gallon mark at the end? I'm just probing to see the different ways this has been done and had a good turn out. Thanks for looking!!!

 

[RM-MN]

Thanks for all of your concern on safety!!! I did have the other garage door cracked and the walk in door cracked to create a small breeze low to the floor but not enough to bother the flame. The speed of the water getting up to temp and getting a boil is my concern so I don't turn the brew into a job instead of a hobby. I'm going to look up the heat stick, I've never herd of those before. My next question is, would you take a 5 gallon recipe and just scale the water back to 3 gallons and top it off to the 5 gallon mark at the end? I'm just probing to see the different ways this has been done and had a good turn out. Thanks for looking!!!

You could probably do this just fine with the exception that your efficiency may suffer a bit since you will have a concentrated wort. You would be doing an all grain batch much like the people who do partial boil extract batches.

I do quite a few 2 1/2 gallon BIAB batches on the kitchen stove but I have a stove with the conventional coil element. It has the capability to boil 6 1/2 gallons so I do a few 5 gallon batches on it and it works good. The problem I have is a bad back and lifting 5 gallons of wort off the stove gives me grief for days so I scaled back. I've streamlined my process enough that I can do a couple 2 1/2 gallon batches in a single day if I wanted to.

 

[brick]

If you want to do partial boils indoors for 5gal batches, I think partial-mash BIAB is the way to go. That gets you the best of both worlds: some of the sugars come from a mash over which you have good control, and using extracts to make up the balance solves the issue of really poor efficiency that is likely to come from trying to run off 5gal worth of sugars with 3gal of wort from your mash tun. The beer can still be excellent, and it's really fast and easy.

 

[Beernik]

I mashed in my kitchen yesterday and moved outside to the driveway for the boil. Then moved back inside to chill and back out to the garage to ferment.

My ceramic top had no problem bringing 4 gallons to a boil. The burners aren't big enough for my 10 gallon pot. I wouldn't feel comfortable straddling two burners on the ceramic top.