How i prevent boil overs

It occurred to me a couple of brews ago as i was using my big spoon to break the surface tension of my 7.3 gal boil in my 8 gal pot to try to prevent my usual boil over that hops might do the same thing so i added my 1st hops addition BEFORE I achieved boil...and it worked! The hops circulating through the wort and emerging back on the surface was way more effective than my spoon in breaking up the surface foam.

I havent come across this method in my research...maybe it's common knowledge, but it does work and has greatly reduced the cleanup of my stove top brewing.

You could use Fermcap S. With that size pot I think it will serve you well

I use fermcap - s it a simethecone (sp ?) product. A few drops and no worries!

I always turn off the heat right before I chuck in my hops and keep a spray bottle of cold water handy to fight back any rising foam. For big hop additions, turning the heat down and sprinkling in a few pellets at a time rather than dumping them all in seems to be the way. Softly softly catchy monkey.

I've only had one boilover - a small batch extract beer that decided to jump out when I ignored the above advice and dumped load of Mosaic in. Burnt-on wort is a pain to scrub off a hob!

ya...i've looked into Fercap but keep forgetting to pick some up. Also, there's a part of me that gets a kick out of brewing in accordance with the German Beer Purity Act of 10,000 B.C. (giggle). Just a little bit of whole leaf hops seems to work great also.

Brulosophy, please do an exBEERiment on this to convince me that Fermcap has no effect on head retention.

DrankGoodness said:

ya...i've looked into Fercap but keep forgetting to pick some up. Also, there's a part of me that gets a kick out of brewing in accordance with the German Beer Purity Act of 10,000 B.C. (giggle). Just a little bit of whole leaf hops seems to work great also.

Brulosophy, please do an exBEERiment on this to convince me that Fermcap has no effect on head retention.

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No effect on head retention. I've brewed a billion beers, almost all with the aid of fermcap-s.

Get with the program you Luddite. Chemistry FTW.

passedpawn said:

No effect on head retention. I've brewed a billion beers, almost all with the aid of fermcap-s.

Get with the program you Luddite. Chemistry FTW.

Click to expand...

pffff...you only have 20,000+ posts. why should i listen to you.. oh, wait....

thx! You might be surprised by how many of your posts have helped me.

I know you're (almost certainly) right. I'd still love to see the evidence!

DrankGoodness said:

pffff...you only have 20,000+ posts. why should i listen to you.. oh, wait....

thx! You might be surprised by how many of your posts have helped me.

I know you're (almost certainly) right. I'd still love to see the evidence!

Click to expand...

If you were closer you could drink the evidence. I've got a brown ale in front of me that you'd like. I've also got on tap a pale ale and a wheat beer that has a head that won't quit.

Back on topic, I usually add my 60m hops to the boil after the the hot break. It's the first foam-up that you notice, soon after the boil. I only brew outdoors, over a drain, where a boilover isn't a big deal. If I brewed indoors, which I've never done, I would always use fermcap-s. I buy the stuff by the half-liter.

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