Boiler down, wort in kettle, Help!

[TJC]

Kettle is full of 15 Plato wort, and boiler is not operating at full output. We have been having issues with the boiler (electric) not firing on all elements. The kettle temp has stalled out at 185. Is there anything I can do with this wort besides dumping it? It received 20 ibu's worth of first wort hops although I'm not sure what has been extracted yet at these temps if any. My two thoughts were chill to 110 and toss in some milled pils and see if I can get the boiler fixed in the next few days to produce a Berliner, or send it to my sanitized fermenter, repair boiler, xfer back to kettle and proceed as normal? Anyone ever done such a thing? This is just not my day...

[panadero]

On the off chance this is a stout electric sytem, you could transfer to the hlt and boil in there. Another option (better - more time consuming) - transfer to cleaned out mash tun, swap the faulty elements with the ones from the hlt / rims tube, and proceed. Our elements short out every once in a while, the seals on the aluminum boxes seem ok, it is where the element is coming out the flat side that they short, my guess anyway. I can boil with two of the four elements - if I go over fifty percent power with all four, it will not stop boiling over. (7 barrel)
This of course is assuming it is the elements at fault. If it is a stout/brewmation system, brewmation responds quickly, and have helped me out more than once in a pinch.
Good luck.
David

[TJC]

thanks for the reply but its a steam system with an electric boiler. its been creeping up slowly and at 200 now, if it gets up to a boil i have my doubts that it will sustain it. we shall see.

[panadero]

I figured - anyone with a stout would already know what to do without my advice. No steam experience here, so I will bow out. Again, good luck.

[beerguy1]

Well I cannot address your steam issue because I have only used gas/steam. As far as what to do I would ferment it out rather than dump it. Its times like this we can all learn from. If it tastes bad then flush but what the hell it might be great. Its past the sanitation temp so give it a try thats assuming you are not too cramped for space

[mswebb]

Consider kettle souring while you get the boiler fixed then proceed to boil. An opportunity to try a new technique.

[Bainbridge]

Kettle is full of 15 Plato wort, and boiler is not operating at full output. We have been having issues with the boiler (electric) not firing on all elements. The kettle temp has stalled out at 185. Is there anything I can do with this wort besides dumping it? It received 20 ibu's worth of first wort hops although I'm not sure what has been extracted yet at these temps if any. My two thoughts were chill to 110 and toss in some milled pils and see if I can get the boiler fixed in the next few days to produce a Berliner, or send it to my sanitized fermenter, repair boiler, xfer back to kettle and proceed as normal? Anyone ever done such a thing? This is just not my day...

The second option. We saved a beer once that way when our burner went down. Chill it to fermenter, crash to 35 or so, fix boiler, pump in and reboil. It will take a long time to heat back up, be warned.

[TJC]

Well everyone,

I decided to try and ride it out, and it did eventually get to a boil, after 3 hrs of waiting. I made it through 75 min of a (very weak) 90 min boil before the boiler breathed its last breath. Glad I stuck it out because it looks like we are due for a complete replacement, which I imagine could take weeks. We will see how the beer goes, I don't have too high of hopes. I normally would have just dumped it, but I have a row of empty fermenters (due to the boiler's last issue). Its a pils, all pilsner malt, so I'm worried about DMS and all my late hop additions are out of wack now. Ill give a report in a couple of weeks after I see how it turns out.

[Todd Hicks]

I have found electric boilers for running a brewhouse are not reliable,energy efficient or cost effective. They may have a purpose for steam sanitizing kegs, or for a very small nano system.

[TGTimm]

What Todd wrote. We had a Sussmann electric boiler and keeping it running was a PITA and very expensive. Lovin' the Columbia gas-fired!

This is a good time for a reminder: keep critical spares on hand at all times! If you rely on an electric boiler, and can't just run out and buy new elements, keep a full set handy! Same goes for anything that can shut you down if it fails and you can't easily source locally.

Because of our remote location, we have a shipping container nearly full of spares....

[brewfun]

I had a situation like this. What I did was transfer half the wort into the HLT, boiled & knocked out, then boiled the other half. It took about as long as you described, but it was more vigorous since I didn't have too much wort soaking up btus.

I had a worse situation where the steam return pump failed. I had to rig up a hot water hose to the return line and just slowly add water to keep it working. I think I lost 5 lbs running between the brewhouse and the boiler.