Boilover before boil begins!
 

OK, here's the deal. I need advice in the next 30 minutes as I am in the middle of a brew. I am doing an extract brew with 11 lbs. of malt. I started with 1.5 gallons of water in a 5-gallon brewpot.

I can't even get the wort to boil before the foam heads for the top and I have to shut the burner off.

What I don't need to hear is that my pot is too small - that's become very obvious - lesson learned. HOWEVER, I want to save this brew. I've been altering the heat on and off, but I don't leave the heat on for more than 30 seconds before the foam starts moving on up. How in the hell do I boil my way out of this mess? Any ideas? Or am I SOL? Thanks.

get a spray bottle filled with cold water, spritz the foam as it starts to rise. Also aim a fan to blow across the top of your kettle. Once you get past the initial hot break you should be able to maintain a low boil with no more foam creeping up.

Blowing on it will usually calm it down a bit. Some people use a spray bottle of water. Once it gets boiling it usually stops foaming up as much. Next time, get yourself some fermcap-s. Keeps the foam down.

Thanks. Will do.

I'll definitely grab some fermcaps before the next boil. Thanks.

Your pot is too small. You need a bigger pot.













:p

Thanks for the help. ;-)

Spray bottle's working great. THANKS!!

Next time, add most of the extract at the END of the boil. Then you won't take up so much room in your pot!

Glad it's working out this time with the spray bottle.

OK - obviously I'm new at this, so how does one determine how much extract to add at each end of the boil? Also, I'm doing a continual hop addition, so does that matter? Thanks for any insight.