I've spent a good 10 weeks reading everything available regarding homebrewing, and feel like I've got a very solid theoretical understanding of the proceses. I was holding off on brewing until after Christmas, as I knew my wife was buying me a starter kit, so in preparation, I bought a couple carboys on Craigslist, some tubing, etc. Should have been ready to go.
Went to assemble everything to start earlier this week and realized my biggest pot -- 7 liters -- was just too small to do anything in (doh!) No problem, I drove downtown and bought a nice 4mm aluminum 32 quart pot for $65. Brought it home and tossed it on my Frigidaire electric stove to boil some water and... nothing. Nada. Okay, lowered it down to 5 gallons. Nothing. 3 gallons? Nope.
I tried spanning the pot across two burners; I can JUST put one edge over the large front burner and catch about 1/3rd of the small back burner. Still nothing -- couldn't bring water to more than about 90 degrees celsius.
No problem, figured this might happen, so I went out and spent another $40 to buy a 2600w canning element. Get home, throw 3 gallons in the pot, put it on the canning element... and hit a rolling boil in about an hour with the lid on. However, the instant I take the lid off the boil falls back to about 90-95 degrees again.
Feeling hopeless, I wrapped the entire pot in about 30' of heavy duty aluminum foil, put more foil under the element to direct it straight up around the pot, and preboiled 3 gallons of water using my three other elements and smaller pots. Tossed the boiled water in, put the lid on and kept a rolling boil, but once again fell back to 90-95 almost instantly without the lid. I can keep it at around 95 by fashioning a "cowl" around the top of the pot with aluminum foil to shrink the opening, but I still can't get it above more than a very lazy bubble. I've read about using Reflectix to wrap the kettle, but I can't see how it will help that much more than the aluminum foil, and I don't have $30+ to spend on a solution that doesn't end up working.
The only logical solution I've come to is installing an electric heating element IN the pot. However, there are no GFCId outlets in my kitchen -- closest is across the apartment in the bathroom -- and the kitchen outlets are 15A split from 30A breakers, which I've been told can't have GFCIs installed on them. I can't do the old "outside with a propane burner" method, as I live in a small apartment with no balcony or outside area to speak of, and no close friends or relatives with driveways to use within 50 miles. I'm more or less out of funds for equipment at the moment, so I'm not sure what my next steps are. I've read about heatsticks, but for just about the same cost and complexity I can mount the element IN the kettle and have less overall stress. Would mounting a 1000W 120V heating element in the pot give me enough additional power to bring water to a boil?
Okay, that was long and convoluted, but does anyone have any input?
TL;DR: Can't boil 3 gallons of water in a 32 quart aluminum pot on a 2600w electric stove element. Can't brew outside. Out of money. Help?
Went to assemble everything to start earlier this week and realized my biggest pot -- 7 liters -- was just too small to do anything in (doh!) No problem, I drove downtown and bought a nice 4mm aluminum 32 quart pot for $65. Brought it home and tossed it on my Frigidaire electric stove to boil some water and... nothing. Nada. Okay, lowered it down to 5 gallons. Nothing. 3 gallons? Nope.
I tried spanning the pot across two burners; I can JUST put one edge over the large front burner and catch about 1/3rd of the small back burner. Still nothing -- couldn't bring water to more than about 90 degrees celsius.
No problem, figured this might happen, so I went out and spent another $40 to buy a 2600w canning element. Get home, throw 3 gallons in the pot, put it on the canning element... and hit a rolling boil in about an hour with the lid on. However, the instant I take the lid off the boil falls back to about 90-95 degrees again.
Feeling hopeless, I wrapped the entire pot in about 30' of heavy duty aluminum foil, put more foil under the element to direct it straight up around the pot, and preboiled 3 gallons of water using my three other elements and smaller pots. Tossed the boiled water in, put the lid on and kept a rolling boil, but once again fell back to 90-95 almost instantly without the lid. I can keep it at around 95 by fashioning a "cowl" around the top of the pot with aluminum foil to shrink the opening, but I still can't get it above more than a very lazy bubble. I've read about using Reflectix to wrap the kettle, but I can't see how it will help that much more than the aluminum foil, and I don't have $30+ to spend on a solution that doesn't end up working.
The only logical solution I've come to is installing an electric heating element IN the pot. However, there are no GFCId outlets in my kitchen -- closest is across the apartment in the bathroom -- and the kitchen outlets are 15A split from 30A breakers, which I've been told can't have GFCIs installed on them. I can't do the old "outside with a propane burner" method, as I live in a small apartment with no balcony or outside area to speak of, and no close friends or relatives with driveways to use within 50 miles. I'm more or less out of funds for equipment at the moment, so I'm not sure what my next steps are. I've read about heatsticks, but for just about the same cost and complexity I can mount the element IN the kettle and have less overall stress. Would mounting a 1000W 120V heating element in the pot give me enough additional power to bring water to a boil?
Okay, that was long and convoluted, but does anyone have any input?
TL;DR: Can't boil 3 gallons of water in a 32 quart aluminum pot on a 2600w electric stove element. Can't brew outside. Out of money. Help?
