[a witty man]

Our homebrew club, the Albany Brew Crafters, are planning on brewing a extract / partial boil batch at a local bar for Learn to Homebrew Day on November 3rd. I'm looking for a portable stand-alone type burner to boil 3 gallons of wort, and am wondering if anyone has any suggestions. I think it needs to be at least 1100 watts to get 3 gallons to boil, according to these calculations:

Water Volume (lb) x Temperature rise (°F) x 1 Btu/lb°F= Heat required
(3gal x 8.34lb/gal) x 150*F x 1 = 3496 BTU or ~ 1025 watts

Am I correct? And does anyone have any suggestions regarding burners? We'll most likely be brewing inside.

[erockrph]

Do they have a stove you can use? 3 gallons is perfect for stove-top brewing.

[kramerog]

A 15 amp hotplate should be able to maintain a rolling boil.

If you want to do a calculation, you need to produce enough heat to boil about 0.3 gallons of water in 1 hour plus extra due to heat loss.

[a witty man]

A 15 amp hotplate should be able to maintain a rolling boil.

If you want to do a calculation, you need to produce enough heat to boil about 0.3 gallons of water in 1 hour plus extra due to heat loss.

Why only .3 in 1 hour? Would that mean it takes 3.2ish hours to boil 1 gallon? (Sorry -- Its been awhile since high-school science, and I'm kinda figuring this out on the fly...)

I do appreciate the help!

[kramerog]

You should expect to boil off 10% of the wort in one hour => 0.3 gallons.