Let's talk about Foam Control drops (aka Fermcap)

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What do you think of Foam Control/Fermcap Drops?

  • I've tried it -- love the stuff!

  • I've tried it -- meh.

  • I haven't tried it, but mean to.

  • I haven't even heard of this before.

  • Don't put that in my beer -- Reinheitsgebot baby!


Results are only viewable after voting.
I added 7 drops of Anti-foam to my last batch right at boil start and it completely stopped a boil over. I also thought that this would stop any blowoff or at the least keep it in control. I have never had so much blowoff. the beer is a pale ale with 1056 which I have had great results with before. I usually only have maybe a cup worth of blow off foam. With this batch I had constant blow off for 3 days.
 
Lonnie Mac said:
Personally, I will kiss the bared ass of the guy that invented foam control!

Hear, hear! I've been using Fermcap-S for years and years and swear by it. I used to only put it in my primary, but I've also put it in my kettle for the last few batches, and it is wonderful. I have never had a problem with head retention, off flavors, or anything else i could attribute to Fermcap-S.

Do be aware that this stuff can get old on you, although it takes a while. I used a very old bottle in a batch one time and still got some blowoff. However, I never kept that bottle in the refrigerator, and the stuff in it has separated. This bottle was at least a few years old, though. I found it in some of my other stuff and thought I would give it a try.

Also, I understand that using it does not violate the Reinheitsgebot, either, as it comes completely out of the beer. I have never actually confirmed that, not that it makes much difference, unless you are brewing in Germany for the German market. :)


TL
 
I can't believe I waited so long to try this stuff. I put 7 drops in my boil tonight and had no problem boiling 7 gallons in a 30 quart pot. The wort was about an inch from the top of the pot and didn't boil over. I will use this in evey batch until I can get a bigger boil kettle. :ban:
 
I just tried this product yesterday and I have to say it worked like a charm. Never once had to worry about a boilover even with the burner turned all the way up.

:mug:
 
Fantastic stuff! I love using it in my starters. No more burned hand, peeling skin, from boil overs.

I dump whole starter into wort so I think I do get carryover to fermentation and I don't get nearly the blow off I would get without fermcap. Good bye blow off hose! Yee Haaa!
 
It works well for taking gravity samples as well... get rid of the head real fast. Just put a drop in your sample tub, shake it around and wait for 20 seconds. No head and a much better reading.
 
Last weekend I tried it for the first time, in both my starter and the boil. Both were a pleasure, with virtually NO chance of boilover. Boiling wort in an erlenmeyer flask is usually a very fiddly procedure, but just one drop took all the risk out of it. Plus, I was able to get a much more active boil going in my 7.5 gallon pot, which has got to be a good thing.
 
atarlecky said:
It works well for taking gravity samples as well... get rid of the head real fast. Just put a drop in your sample tub, shake it around and wait for 20 seconds. No head and a much better reading.
Now that's a great idea! Gotta try that. Thanks.
 
Tried this last Monday. I usually have to worry about regulating the burner at boilover time, but not with this stuff! I just let it run and it saved me probably 10 min of messing w/ the gas, waiting until the hot break fell. Now, the true test in about 4 weeks as to wether my beer tastes like a rubber hose. I don't think it will as I thought I read the silicate precipitates out.
 
I'm getting fired up to use this stuff. Some things I have noted through research; It is also used in cosmetic surgery, especially breast implants (when they used to use silicon). I have also found studies that show that elevated blood levels of silicon have been shown to prevent arterial plaques (heart disease). Silicon also binds with Aluminum in the body, and has been suggested as an anti-Alzheimer's agent. On the down side, the MSDS states that at temps above 150F, the compund can release formaldehyde vapors. http://209.85.173.104/search?q=cache:_5lGXEwc2goJ:www.brewerssupplygroup.com/pdf/brewing_aids/foam_control/FermCap%2520S%25205D01530%2520MSDS%2520Apr07%2520Update.pdf+fermcap-s&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=3&gl=us FWIW, this is a very similar compound to Gas-X, Mylicon, etc. (simethicone is the true name). You could probably put a few drops of Gas-X in the BK or fermenter and get the same effect.
 
I just bought some foam control from morebeer.com because of this thread, but now I wondering how to store it. Should I put it in the fridge?
 
I bought some Fermcap-S from Midwest this week. I took it out of the box and stuck it with my other ingredients on the counter. So yesterday I am going to brew up an American-ish Honey wheat and I finally get around to taking the bubble wrap off the bottle of Fermcap and it says "keep refridgerated"...Doh! So I am 1 inch from a big boil over and I put a few drop into the boil and instantly the foam goes totally away. Amazing. So now I have it in the fridge, but not having mine chilled for 5 days did nothing to harm it apparently.
 
Just tried Fermcap-S last week. Wonderfull product! Never thought I could ferment in a five gallon carboy without a blow off tube. Now I can.
 

I have 5 gallons of Belgian Dubble in 2 each of 6.5-gallon carboys that I brewed on Thursday. Today, the foam started to blow out of the airlocks. I have previously only used this stuff in the boil, but I added about 3 or 4 drops to each carboy. Problem solved. The foam started to drop immediately. Very convenient, as I cannot use my thermowells with a blowoff tube.
 
It says it's perishable...I'm not sure how because it's pretty much inert silicone. I think it's probably just because it goes into food items. Just make sure you swirl it around and resuspend the ingredients. Some people are paranoid about putting it directly into the fermenter...don't be. It won't be a deal breaker if your fermentation is already off to a start.
 
I'm buying some of this stuff. Just brewed a smallish beer (1.043), only got a bit less than five gallons out of the keg and fermenting in a 7 gallon Ale Pail. Still had gunk in the airlock this morning.
 
Used it for the first time last night. Seemed to work well.....nasty, foul smelling stuff though....and creamy.

-Todd
 
I've used it in two batches thusfar, and I still had some ruthless boilovers from my Bayou Classic pot. I'd prefer a larger kettle, but until I can justify another purchase, I'm pretty much stuck with it.

Then again, this isn't Fermcap, per se, as much as the Foam Control drops from AHS. They might not be the same thing. But the stuff I'm using isn't really doing much good that I can tell.
 
A spray bottle with some water in it works very nicely. A 40Qt stock pot works damn nicely too on a 6 gallon boil. A 7.9 gallon bucket works very nicely for a 5 gallon batch of wort.
 
The foam control powder AHS sells also works great.

I did too. I used a pipette to put a drop in my starter flasks and voila, no boil overs it rocks!.

It's basically 5 Star Kettle Kettle Defoamer 105 in a 2 oz. bottle for $5.99.

The only problem I see with it, is that it states it has a shelf life of 6 months and AHS repackaged it and did not put a date on it. It could already be out of date.

For starters, you only need a teensy amount, hence using a pipette instead of the dropper.
 
I just started using Fermcap. Awesome. One question: Does the beer need to be filtered after being used in the fermenter? Does it clog up the spigot in a keg? THANKS. you can email me directly at [email protected]
 
No need to filter. It will settle out and mix with all of the crap in the bottom of the fermenter so it won't tranfer to your secondary (or kegs/bottles if doing primary only).
 
If anyone around the Seattle area knows of a LHBS that carries this please let me know. Otherwise... i'll be putting an order in to Northern brewer as I really gotta try this.
 
I've never tried it but I'm sure it works. I voted Rheinheitsghabut or however the hell you spell it...I do like the Rheinheitsghabutters do and add hops during lautering (FWH) which helps with initial hot break/boil over. Once the boil over knocks down there isn't really a problem and I do crazy hard boils, and I almost never get blow offs. (wish I did, I like the blow offs)
YMMV
 
Haven't had a problem yet!

gold.jpg

Wait, they give awards for foam control? That's awesome!





j/k I'm jealous.
 
Side note

I used it for the first time this weekend on a 13 gal boil (in a keggle). It worked as I expected it to to prevent a boilover, but a great side-effect was that i didn't have to keep scraping the hops off the side of the kettle back into the wort! I'm convinced. I'll be using it on all of my batches.

I have a good buddy who is a brewer for Bighorn Brewing, he comes by to sit in for brew sessions from time to time. While I was scraping hops back into the kettle he said that as soon as those things hit the wort, they pretty much do their thing so scraping them back in was not really that important.

$.02

ander
 
Side note



I have a good buddy who is a brewer for Bighorn Brewing, he comes by to sit in for brew sessions from time to time. While I was scraping hops back into the kettle he said that as soon as those things hit the wort, they pretty much do their thing so scraping them back in was not really that important.

$.02

ander

I find that very hard to believe or we'd have alot of "tea bagging" brewers out there taking their hops out of the kettle as soon as they had done "their thing". While it may be true that once the alpha acids are out of the hops and into the wort you could take out the hops, it seems unlikely that the hops give up their alpha acids right away or you wouldn't have to dry hop for more than a few minutes to impart the hop goodness. Even with hop pellets I would expect a significant period of time would be necessary to extract the acids into the wort and you can loose a ton of hop material (especially using pellets) to that initial boil over. While I wouldn't get bunged up about scraping hop material back in I also wouldn't say it won't help your hop utilization and avoiding having to deal with it at all is pretty attractive.
 
I find that very hard to believe or we'd have alot of "tea bagging" brewers out there taking their hops out of the kettle as soon as they had done "their thing". While it may be true that once the alpha acids are out of the hops and into the wort you could take out the hops, it seems unlikely that the hops give up their alpha acids right away or you wouldn't have to dry hop for more than a few minutes to impart the hop goodness. Even with hop pellets I would expect a significant period of time would be necessary to extract the acids into the wort and you can loose a ton of hop material (especially using pellets) to that initial boil over. While I wouldn't get bunged up about scraping hop material back in I also wouldn't say it won't help your hop utilization and avoiding having to deal with it at all is pretty attractive.

Key words here, "not that important" and also maybe if you were "dry hopping" at 212 you would only need a minute or so (hops at flame out)
-ander
 
I bought some Fermcap-S from Midwest this week. I took it out of the box and stuck it with my other ingredients on the counter. So yesterday I am going to brew up an American-ish Honey wheat and I finally get around to taking the bubble wrap off the bottle of Fermcap and it says "keep refridgerated"...Doh! So I am 1 inch from a big boil over and I put a few drop into the boil and instantly the foam goes totally away. Amazing. So now I have it in the fridge, but not having mine chilled for 5 days did nothing to harm it apparently.
You do not need to refrigerate fermcap. Just keep it below 85F. It probably is not a bad idea to refrigerate it though. Check this out for more info.
 
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