Is it ruined? Doh!

So, I decided to get as close to a full 5 gal boil as possible, because the burner I have gives plenty of BTUs and I have a 7 gallon brew pot. In my standard "Ready FIRE Aim" fashion, I put 5.25 gal of water in the pot, got to 160 deg, added the grains, steeped, the poured another 1.5 quarts of 170 deg water over the grains. Brought to boil. Then I added the tub of LME. Well, as you can guess, by now I have well over 6 gal of liquid in my pot and am stirring very carefully as I bring the whole lot to a boil. I manage the rising foam with a fan and a careful hand on the gas control. Reach my hot break, rolling boil, and TA DAA !!! Success. Didn't spill a drop.

Now it is time to add the bittering hops. I walk up to the pot and dump 'em in. Guess what. The whole damned thing immediately foams over the top all over the driveway, and I can see little bits of hops everywhere.

Is it just hopeless? Or will it simply be extremely sweet, malty ale? It is a sweet honey blonde anyway, wondering if it is RUINED or not.

Thoughts?

cheers
Ken

Welcome to the club of "boiled my hops right out of the pot".

We've all been there...done that.

Given the style, I think you'll be okay. True...maybe not as bitter as called for in the recipe, but certainly a quaffable beer.

I'm not sure if it's hopeless, probably just...

wait for it...

hopless! Oh man, I kill me...

You will be fine. I would recommend for the future though, a spray bottle of water for just such an occasion. Much easier then trying to manage with a fan and fire control. When it starts to foam up, spray the hell out of it like you are a fireman, and turn the fire down a little. It will take some time but you will learn your set up and what you cna get away with and what you can't.

Good luck with the foam control in the future.

Yeah, def fine. You also lost quite a bit of wort as well, probably not a direct ratio of hops to wort, but hopefully close.

What did it look like when you transferred to primary? Lots of hop residue?

In the future anytime you add hops, fermentables, or anything like liquid extract or dried extract (especially dried) turn the fire way down, if not off. With a pot doing full boil and a heavy burner it only takes a min. or three to get back to full boil if you reapply full flame right away. As soon as you see bubbles again turn the gas back down and give it a min. to settle down and adjust as necessary. I've got a blow torch type and it doesn't take but a brew or two and you'll do much better. Fire control comes with experience.

Just don't do like me and get sloppy one time and forget to kill the flame as you make a starter from DME in a little pot on the stove. Luckily I got it cleaned up as Grandmother took a nap and she was unaware; had it not been that way I would have took a carboy to the head and my brewing days would be over. She hates beer and the mess anyway.