A lesson learned last night...

...while brewing in the garage:
Do not just dump in an ounce of hop pellets into an 8 gallon kettle filled with 7.5 gallons of wort at a rolling boil. YIKES! I think I lost almost a gallon of wort. My hydrometer reading said I got really good efficiency out of the tun though, so my sugars are ok. I added a bit of water, got 5.5 gallons into the fermenter, and hit my planned O.G. of 1.052. Yay! I just worry about how many of those freshly added hop pellets ended up on the garage floor.

Should be standard to have a spray bottle of cold water on hand for the boil. Blast a potential boil-over with that and you should be good to go. I typically can get close to the top of my kettle relying on this technique.

cactusgarrett said:

Should be standard to have a spray bottle of cold water on hand for the boil. Blast a potential boil-over with that and you should be good to go. I typically can get close to the top of my kettle relying on this technique.

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Nice, will keep one handy.

Foam control drops work wonders too. I haven't needed my spray bottle since I started using them

I usually use a hop bag for my initial charge...and tend to wait until the break has subsided and the heat has been lowered. A spray bottle is always good to have around!

+1 for foam control drops. Magic stuff. Boil-overs are a thing of the past now. So easy, and no babysitting.

FlyGuy said:

+1 for foam control drops. Magic stuff. Boil-overs are a thing of the past now. So easy, and no babysitting.

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any effect on head retention once you use it in the BK? Does it also carry its effects over into your primary and prevent blowoffs?

Amazingly just blowing on it really reduces the amount of foam. I had to use this method last brew session when I realized my wife had re-commissioned my handy spray bottle for her own use.

Linc

hayabusa said:

any effect on head retention once you use it in the BK? Does it also carry its effects over into your primary and prevent blowoffs?

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I've never had a problem with head retention after using them. From what I understand your head retention will be better than if you did have a boil over/blow off because the proteins are staying in the vessel.

They don't seem to make it over into the fermenter, so I always add a few drops in the fermenter as well

The stuff is designed to settle out as soon as your rolling boil or active fermentation subsides. So it is generally all left behind when you transfer from vessel to vessel.

After seeing some people on the forum using fans for foam control, I used a hair dryer last night- worked great, and might be a convenient option for those of us stuck brewing in kitchens.

That spray bottle also comes in handy for BBQ flairups.

I'd heard of the foam control stuff before, but wasn't too interested 'cause it's just one more thing to buy. The simplicity and price tag of the spray bottle of cold water though... I'm gonna have to try that.

Besides a spray bottle I keep a small fan blowing across the top
of the kettle. Helps alot