Beer Forum

I'd like to move the last of my brewing activities–making starters–out of the kitchen.
Can I use Erlenmeyers with electric hotplates? I think I read/heard somewhere that you shouldn't?

Thanks!

If you can use them on a stirplate or an electric stove I don't see why you shouldn't be able to use them on a hotplate.

As long as it isn't directly on the heating coil you should be fine. You actually shouldn't use one directly on an electric stove because the coil doesn't heat evenly which will crack the glass. If you use a trivet or something to disperse the heat evenly across the glass the flask can handle it though.

You just need one of these heat diffusers

I agree that the potential problem is uneven distribution of heat but Kimax, Pyrex etc. are specially formulated to be able to withstand that kind of thermal stress. They are used on stir plates in labs all the time. If you have extra cheapo "student grade" flasks this may be more of an issue than if you have a better grade flask.

ajdelange wrote:I agree that the potential problem is uneven distribution of heat but Kimax, Pyrex etc. are specially formulated to be able to withstand that kind of thermal stress. They are used on stir plates in labs all the time. If you have extra cheapo "student grade" flasks this may be more of an issue than if you have a better grade flask.

The issue isn't a heated stir plate, but a hot plate, presumably with a coil heating element.

So do you think something like this http://tinyurl.com/yf6u9e5 work or am I going to be creating wort grenades?

Hey, check out this thread that you started in May.