When I brew a batch on my cook top, I use two buners as pictured above. As you can see, my kettle isn’t quite large enough to cover both burners which causes btu’s to escape. Got me thinking, Am i losing more heat from the exposed areas than I would if I simply use one burner? Thoughts?
Fill the pot with a gallon of water. Put your thermometer in the water and time how long the water temperature takes to increase 20 degrees over two burners. Then empty the pot and let everything cool down. Repeat the process with one burner making sure that the starting temperature of the water is the same as for the first experiment. If experiment one heats water faster than experiment 2 then you are getting a benefit from 2 burners.
I cannot believe I didn’t think of this. I’ll try it.
What I did was started at 80 degrees for both situations and my end target was 160.
Results:
1 burner - 10:06 to bring to 160
2 burners - 7:20 to bring to 160
I know this really has nothing to do with making better brew but it was a curiosity I had. The two burner method isn’t as efficient as the single burner however it does get me to a boil quicker.
It takes much less energy to keep it at boil than to get to boil. If it were me I would use two to get to boil then go back to 1. This way you are more efficient overall but get to boil as quickly as you can.
I think this is a great opportunity to pitch getting a bigger brew pot to the Mrs. “But honey, think of all the BTU’s I’ll be saving us…” heh.
