Hot Flash

Hey everyone,

I am new to brewing and new to this site. Thanks in advance for your help, because I have a lot of questions.

I was making a Rye IPA last night. After I added all the malt I was waiting for the hot flash. The wort was boiling pretty feverishly for a long time, but it never hot flashed? What effects could this have on the flavors of my finished product?

I have a question. What is a hot flash? Never heard the term before. If you had a vigourous boil, you are fine.

Did the "wort" foam up, nearing a boil over, and then subside leaving what looks like threads of egg floating around (think egg drop soup)?

If the answer is yes to all above then you did achive a "Hot Break". Which is just a simplified term to describe the coagulation of proteins.

At transfer, was there a mass of what looks like wet wood putty in the bottom of the kettle (mixed in with hops). That was both the hot and cold "break" combined (provided your chill was effective enough).

Hot Flash = Hot Break? Maybe

Was it an extract brew or all grain?

If you had a good vigorous boil, you may have missed the Hot Break, particularly if you were stirring the whole time when the wort come to a boil. As long as you got a good rolling boil and followed the recipe, I suspect you're not going to have any issues.

Was this an extract recipe?

I found that with extract brewing I never experienced much of a hot break. Now if you go to all grain, watch out! I can over flow a 15 gallon pot boiling 7 gallons of wort.

extract brew

sorry for the terms being wrong. Like I said, "I am new"

No, it never foamed up a great deal. I let it boil for at least 15 minutes, probably closer to 20.

I wouldnt go as far as egg soup but there were flakes of what look like "egg" soup in the rolling boil. There was some tan "putty" in the strainer when I transfered to the first fermenter.

Bonz said:

extract brew

sorry for the terms being wrong. Like I said, "I am new"

No, it never foamed up a great deal. I let it boil for at least 15 minutes, probably closer to 20.

I wouldnt go as far as egg soup but there were flakes of what look like "egg" soup in the rolling boil. There was some tan "putty" in the strainer when I transfered to the first fermenter.

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That would be the break material. As said before, extract doesn't produce as much break as all grain thanks to the manufacturing process.

Was this a hopped extract? 20 minutes isn't long enough to isomerize (pull all the bitter goodness out of) the hops unless it was pre-hopped. If it wasn't pre-hopped you still got some bittering but not as much as you should have. Of course, that depends largely on the recipe. Was this a kit? Which one?

As for the terminology don't let it "break" you. Brewing has it's own vocaublary you will learn over time.

I don't believe the extract was hopped I hadn't put the boiling hops in yet. That was next according to the recipe. The boiling hops were in for 30 min. Sorry, was that your question?

Bonz said:

I don't believe the extract was hopped I hadn't put the boiling hops in yet. That was next according to the recipe. The boiling hops were in for 30 min. Sorry, was that your question?

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Usually, regardless of style, hop are boiled for 60 minutes minimum. Maybe the kit was taking a different approach (seems wasteful tho). There are too many ways "to skin a cat". Kit details might be helpful, even if just the Brand and Style.

The hops were boiled for an hour. Boiling hops 60 min, flavor hops 30 min, finishing hops 2 min. Thanks for all the answers.