As some of you know, I have been doing mini-mash, stove-top batches while I am recovering from my surgery (going well btw). The other day I neglected to purchase muslin bags for my hop additions so I decided to just use a big nylon strainer bag. It was floating to the top so, I searched for something to weigh it down. My wife had these super smooth rocks we get from the Sound about 1/8th of a mile from our house. I made sure they had no crud on them and popped 2 in the bag. About 2 minutes later I noticed this vigorous boiling coming from two concentrated points. Guess where? A few moments later my entire boil was noticeably more active.
When brewing on the stove-top, it can be challenging to get a vigorous boil going. This seemed to really make a difference. I know the guys have discussed this on the show before with stainless steel and pennies but, in lieu of using stainless steel washers, it appears using rocks also makes quite a difference. Just make sure they are really flat, smooth, and clean. The ones I used were.
