After doing so many wheat beers lately, I thought I'd go for the opposite end of the spectrum this time. My sweet stout took second place in the Napa brew competition this year, so I figured that I'd try and perfect the recipe a bit.
In the last few brews, I've nearly boiled over several times. Rather than cleaning up hot wort off the stove, I decided to spring for a propane burner.
I went to Home Depot and picked one up. It was about sixty dollars, and 45,000 BTUs. The burner came with a turkey pot, since it was meant for deep frying turkeys.
I got home and assembled the thing in about a half hour. Here's the kettle steeping.
So far, so good.
Now, I'm running into problems. After two to three minutes, the flame is going out. I'm not sure if the regulator is broken, I just need too much heat for the little 45,000 BTU burner, or what. In any case, I re-light it several times, and it still doesn't last. The water is only up to about 100F, and not going much higher.
At this point, I've steeped the grain, but not added the malt extract yet.
Eventually, I give up, and bring the kettle inside. The water boils as expected.
A quick shot of the recipe.
Things are progressing nicely. The malt extract has been added here. Notice the side-mount thermometer. This was by far the best part of the burner that I bought. I definitely need to pick one up for the future. It clips nicely to the side of the pot.
The hops have now been added. It's time to wait things out.
Here we are, call loaded up in the Carboy.
All in all, this was a pretty bad experience with the burner. I'm going to return it to Home Depot.
Everything turned out pretty well with the sweet stout. The OG is 1.046. Not quite as high as I wanted, but not terrible either. Next run, I'd probably add a bit more LME, and a bit more DME.
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