Boil overs are awesome!

Turns out watched pots never boil and a non-watched pot always boils over; Now my stove-top is covered in a black char. Any ideas on how to get that off before I get yelled at and forbidden from brewing again?

Buy a new stove. Or, failing that, flee the country before your wife/girlfriend/mother gets ahold of you.

i dont know how people DONT have boil overs..
i boilled over AGAIN last night... AS I WAS WATCHING IT... i thought i didnt use alot of water, but all the malt pilled up.

The inital part when all malt and hops goes in, always boils over.
--guess the trick is to clean it up right away and dont use a cover.

for pfranco81: Clorox cleanup seems to work well. spray on, wait five minutes, and then elbow grease it. repeat until the black char is gone. I've boiled over a few times and about 5 times of clorox this will work.

for bobbydigital: I read somewhere that if you keep spray bottle of cold water around to spray the foam down that works. And the water doesn't need to be sanitized because it will go back into the boil.

Also, make sure you are boiling without a lid, and also know that you can add the DME or LME in small increments (one pound at a time) and wait for each portion to heat break instead of the whole amount.

Edit: Edwort (as usual) way ahead

I keep a spray bottle with ice water handy. If you start to bubble up, spray it vigorously and sometimes you get lucky. Doesnt always work, but it is better than nothing.

If you're doing extract recipes, make sure you take the pot off the heat until you get the extract stirred in and dissolved completely - it will help a lot since extract has already had its hot break.

i did all that, It's still trying to boil over and I'm 50 minutes into the boil! I don't know what I did wrong, but this Wit is out to get me.

I just sprayed my stove down with simple green and it came off after about 20 minutes of sitting.

Small tip: Don't add the hops until after the heat break and they won't end up all over your stove.

Oh and if your pot is giant like mine is now, I don't think you can really boil over. 42 quart pot wins!

pfranco81 said:

Turns out watched pots never boil and a non-watched pot always boils over; Now my stove-top is covered in a black char. Any ideas on how to get that off before I get yelled at and forbidden from brewing again?

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Run, run far away. Quick!

Use some soft scrub and or Oxyclean.

pfranco81 said:

i did all that, It's still trying to boil over and I'm 50 minutes into the boil! I don't know what I did wrong, but this Wit is out to get me.

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I find your defenses against boil-overs are good heat control, kettle headroom and a spray bottle of water.

I had my first boil over with my last batch. Fortunately I brew outside with the turkey fryer so clean up wasn't a big deal. Two questions though:

1) Other than clean up - are there any negative side effects of boil overs
2) If I don't use a hop bag, am I losing much hops if there is a boil over - should I wait to add the hops until after the hot break to be sure

Well I was on top of it after the DME addition and the hop addition, but it kept coming throughout the entire boil.

brewt00l said:

I find your defenses against boil-overs are good heat control, kettle headroom and a spray bottle of water.

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Took the words right out of my mouth. Can't just turn on the heat and let er rip cause it will happen everytime. Watch, watch, watch your wort and get to know when it starts to go. Turn the heat down and baby it through the break. Spray bottle and headroom is good too.

I've only done 11 batches so far, but I have yet to have a boilover <knock on wood>. I've had a couple of close calls during hop additions but a quick drop in heat takes care of it for me.

Oven cleaner eats most carbonized material. Use carefully, wear gloves and test an area before proceeding.

i haven't had a boilover in a couple years. i do a partial boil, usually 2.5-3 gallons. i have a 30 qt stockpot, which helps. i turn the knob down to med-high (electric stove) once i get to a rolling boil.

I've never used a spray bottle, but i have blown on it when it was getting a bit high and turned down the heat.

ok, i lied...i did have a boilover about a week ago when i was boiling some dme for priming in a little saucepan. that sucked.

Like BassBurner asked, is there a downside to boilovers other than the mess?

Dude, not that hard to clean up... go to any grocery store or walmart and hit the cleaning supplies. You will have 4 or 5 options of stove top and/or oven cleaner. Spray the stuff on, usually white foamy substance, let sit for 45 mins to an hour then wipe off. If some is left, repeat. WOrks like a charm.

Oven cleaner fumes are awesome.

Boilover downsides.

Loss of volume.
Probable more proportional loss of hops (if already added).
Net effect - meh

RDWHAHB!

pfranco81 said:

i did all that, It's still trying to boil over and I'm 50 minutes into the boil! I don't know what I did wrong, but this Wit is out to get me.

Click to expand...

I found that if I turned the heat down a litte it would not boil over. Juct don't go to low and lose the boil.

Alcohol is a good surfactant/defoamer. On the job we use as a way to keep the foam down on printing inks by spraying onto the surface of the ink/foam.

***Disclaimer: I have no idea how spraying Vodka in your boil pot will affect the beer. Maybe someone with more experience that I can comment on this. However I bet it would work to control boil overs at least in the short term.