Boiling Wort On An Open Fire.

[Beer&Kebab]

I am a primitive guy and have pyromaniacal tendancies.. Winter is long and cold in Bathurst so I love to burn stuff.. I am currently doing split boils on my gas stove using of those 19ltr Big-W pots (a fairly thin SS).. I am thinking about using an outside fire (maybe remove the chimnea off my chiminea) to do the boil.. Is this crazy or could it work ? Seeing as most of the brewing will be done in the cooler weather this just seems to make sense to me..

 

[Pollux]

Might be hard to adjust the heat level to prevent boil overs etc ....

 

[newguy]

I think it would work. I'd let the fire burn down a bit before putting the kettle on, though. It's easier to get the fire to burn hotter than it is to cool it off. I'd be really interested to find out if the beer takes on a smoky character.

 

[Muggus]

Sounds like fun! If you can get the fire consistantly warm enough to do a full boil then you're in business.
I remember hearing/reading somewhere that boiling the wort in such a way can lead to a bit of caramalisation? Have to look into that one...

 

[kook]

I know "pint of lager" on our forums used to brew over an open fire:

http://oz.craftbrewer.org/Library/Gear/Phi...shBrewing.shtml

Not sure if that is still the case though.

 

[buttersd70]

Might be awkward to control, but it's certainly not crazy....lets face it, how did brewers boil wort before the industrial revolution?

 

[Guest Lurker]

Yup POL lives near you and does it. I did it once, before I had a decent burner. Unless you boil all the water off for hours you wont get caramelization. The problem I had was it is an 80 l kettle, and at the end of the boil it was too heavy and hot to get off the fire, and so the immersion chiller was useless to chill it down.

 

[Beer&Kebab]

I believe I have met Phillipa.. I think she works at TCB from time to time.. A very interesting article.. I will be using 2 x 19ltr stock pots so I will only have about 12 litres in each of them so I will be able to lift them on and off with kitchen mits when I need to. Also, if I use my chiminea (it is like a pot belly stove) any spillovers (hopefully wont occur) will simply run down the side and not put the fire out.. I think I will give it a go..

This will be a unique brew..

1 - BIAB in a 28ltr cooler
2 - Boil 2 x 19ltr pots on a fire
3 - No chill in a 20ltr cube

The neighbours are gunna love me

 

[kenworthy]

Ive been boiling and heating up my mash water on a wood fire now for years love it wouldnt change it save on gas as long as you have plenty of firewood the final boil can be a bit erratic just leave a bit of room for the boilover and you will be right I use an old fashioned chip heater not copper it carmalise the wort but there are the old cast iron or steel ones generally the flue comes up the centre for more efficiency,glass lined, cut the top off and you have a 140litre boiler Id put a photo on but dont know how will do it though,just got to find a young kid to do it for me.

 

[Jazzafish]

Maybe a chance to try an a traditional stone beer? Instead of putting hot wort on the fire, remove a white hot stone from the fire and add it to your collected wort. As seen on the Beer Hunter episode

 

[newguy]

I've always wanted to try to make a steinbier, but I'm afraid of either choosing a rock with some kind of poisonous mineral/metal in it or of the damn rock exploding when I heat it or when it experiences the thermal shock when it hits the wort.

 

[Guest Lurker]

Kind of off topic. I have done a stein beer as well. See here.

http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...p;hl=stein+beer

Note there are a couple of other photos of that day, that better not appear, or I may go postal.

Fortunately I am a geologist so choosing the rocks wasnt a problem. Also I ended up leaving the caramelized rocks outside for a day or so, then adding them to the beer, and not surprisingly the beer ended up horribly infected, so not much of it got drunk anyway.

 

[barfridge]

I don't know what you're talking about GL.

Now I'm off to fix a teapot with a broken handle h34r:

 

[MHB]

Stein brewing is one of those ideas that you (well I) always think would be great to try one day.

So GL what sort of rock would you choose, Basalt is the one that springs to mind.

Any tips on rock selection appreciated.

MHB

 

[Pumpy]

I am a primitive guy and have pyromaniacal tendancies.. Winter is long and cold in Bathurst so I love to burn stuff.. I am currently doing split boils on my gas stove using of those 19ltr Big-W pots (a fairly thin SS).. I am thinking about using an outside fire (maybe remove the chimnea off my chiminea) to do the boil.. Is this crazy or could it work ? Seeing as most of the brewing will be done in the cooler weather this just seems to make sense to me..

This is a great idea considering in years gone past o that is how beer was boiled on an open fire and you may get a smokey hint to your beer which would be more original flavour to give to the beer .


Pumpy