Do you skim the hotbreak in your Kettle

Was listening to the Basic Brewing Podcast and there was a mention of someone skimming the hot break from the Kettle during the boil.

I often times see a mess of something (trub?) during the boil that foams up, some of which is hops, but never thought to skim it...

What's the consensus on this? Is there one?

I don't. I've seen a lot of people mention that it's not needed, so I never did it.

I do sometimes just as a way to keep the foam down if it seems to be rising. My boils are very close to the top of my kettle so I skim it sometimes just to keep it from going over but not for flavor reasons.

I have, and that was one of the cleanest carboys I had yet. It was an all grain pumpkin ale with real pumpkin (used in the mash). I didn't do it on the next one an added pumpkin to the boil Nd I have about a gallon of sediment in there, mostly pumpkin. I say give it a try and see how it does for you.

I do 100%. Someone will no doubt come in here and sight brewlocifer's trubby study deal where he uses some experiment to discredit the notion but since I've been doing it my quality has increased (of course, I do a lot different now).

I do it w/ a SS mesh colander/sieve. That's the way I was taught. Also, if you look at the Stone Brewing book w/ recipes, they recommend skimming, too.

Never have I ever....

I never do.

I did for a while as it actually kept the boil-overs under control, but then I started not doing it again and I think my beer has improved again.

There is some anecdotal evidence for ya.

FWIW

YMMV

JosephN said:

I have, and that was one of the cleanest carboys I had yet. It was an all grain pumpkin ale with real pumpkin (used in the mash). I didn't do it on the next one an added pumpkin to the boil Nd I have about a gallon of sediment in there, mostly pumpkin. I say give it a try and see how it does for you.

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A batch of pumpkin is exactly why i'm asking.

Homercidal said:

I did for a while as it actually kept the boil-overs under control, but then I started not doing it again and I think my beer has improved again.

There is some anecdotal evidence for ya.

FWIW

YMMV

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really curious how it affects taste (either negatively by removing things from the boil that are needed, or positively by removing things from the fermenter)

govner1 said:

I do it w/ a SS mesh colander/sieve. That's the way I was taught. Also, if you look at the Stone Brewing book w/ recipes, they recommend skimming, too.

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This is an interesting idea...currently on my kettle i have a 45* tangential inlet. i suppose i could attach a similar SS braid like i have in my MT. Is that what you are referring to?

I did notice that pumpkin in the mash is way cleaner than in the boil. If I could do it all over again I would have put the pumpkin in a corse mesh bag and boiled it with my wort. I have noticed a better taste and smell with adding the pumpkin to the boil. Plus I think more of the sugars are extracted. The straining method I used was with a fine mesh flour sifting strainer. I didn't have to do it much, maybe 5-10 times and it was done, but it did cut down on stuff transferred into my carboy. About removing the proteins that the yeast need, I use yeast nutrients and I believe that in itself gives the yeast a lot of what they need. I might be mistaken, but it's something to look into. Ps I bottles my pumpkin ale and it was very tasty. I think it needs to age in the bottles for at least a month

The only time I skimmed was one of the only times I had a significant boil over. I think I skimmed most of the Fermcap off with the hot break. It seems my experience on that was different from some of the other brewers here, but it might be something to keep on your radar. Especially if you're first wort hopping like I was. I lost some hops with the boil over.

I'm a skimmer too. I go after the hard waxy looking smutch that forms on top of the boiling wort. Some recipes produce more of that stuff than others but I like seeing it going into a dump glass than into the bottom of my kettle or my fermentors.

No. I never thought to.

corypedia said:

This is an interesting idea...currently on my kettle i have a 45* tangential inlet. i suppose i could attach a similar SS braid like i have in my MT. Is that what you are referring to?

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No. Its basically a SS sieve w/ a handle just like a kitchen strainer. I keep a small plastic bucket nearby that I empty into as I skim. It usually takes a few times to get most of it.

I poke at it with the mash paddle but never thought of trying to skim it. Seems like it would plug a skimmer up and make a mess cleaning it out after each pass

I just use a big a$$ spoon

sloanfamilydsm said:

I poke at it with the mash paddle but never thought of trying to skim it. Seems like it would plug a skimmer up and make a mess cleaning it out after each pass

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It doesn't. Just tap it out, it comes out rather easy. I guess it would depend on the size of your scoop/strainer/skimmer, container you're transferring it to (I just sling mine out in the ground since I brew outdoors), and the amount of control you have of the skimmer.

I do. I don't know if it makes any difference but it's what I've always done. It's just something to do as I wait for the wort to come to a boil.

I did for a while.
Then I didn't for a longer while.
Now, I do again, probably for good.

I figure since I'm standing at the pot during the hot break I may as well remove those extra proteins from the brew now rather than wait for them to settle or floc out later. It's easy and something to do while making sure the hot break is under control.

I doubt it does anything good or bad for the beer, but it's definitely less **** in my yeast slurry later on.

I was wishing I would have yesterday. 13 gallons in my keggle is pretty tight. Only had a little boil over. Who would have thunk I needed bigger than 15.5 gallon pot?

FWIW - If I were to skim the hotbreak, I'd do it from outside the kettle.

corypedia said:

Was listening to the Basic Brewing Podcast and there was a mention of someone skimming the hot break from the Kettle during the boil.

I often times see a mess of something (trub?) during the boil that foams up, some of which is hops, but never thought to skim it...

What's the consensus on this? Is there one?

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It depends on your mash. I do a lot of decoction mashes, so I typically scoop up that foam on a step and add it back into the mash.

On the other hand, on a non decocoction brew, I typically don't scoop the foam off the boil. Personal preference? Maybe? Difference in beer appearance and taste? Minimal! IMHO.

Cheers,
Dan

I don't skim. I tried a few times when I started but then figured, it all boils down and falls to the bottom during the cold break, so if I transfer carefully, it wont end up in the fermenter anyway.

I don't know if there is any difference, I'm hugely lazy though and use fermcap-s and I never get boil overs (unless I put 3oz of fresh orange zest in the boil). I like to just sit in my lawn chair and drink a beer with one hand very close to the propane controls and updating notes in my brew log, standing over the kettle for 10 minutes makes me want to cry. Definitely should be something the Brulosopher should do (as opposed to high/low trub batches).

Spartan1979 said:

I do. I don't know if it makes any difference but it's what I've always done. It's just something to do as I wait for the wort to come to a boil.

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Drink a brew man, haha. I usually clean labels off d bottles while I wait.

I'm a skimmer prior to boil and during the boil until I add hops. It just looks nasty and i don't want it in my beer. I also read the Germans do it so there must be a good reason for it.

wobdee said:

I'm a skimmer prior to boil and during the boil until I add hops. It just looks nasty and i don't want it in my beer. I also read the Germans do it so there must be a good reason for it.

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[emoji106]🏻[emoji106]🏻

i hadn't ever read anybody doing it when i first started. but i recently read a blog of a norwegian guy who was going around all of the farmhouse breweries here in norway to study their styles, methods, yeast, etc. they all have slightly different methods, but largely a very similar style of brewing. they all pretty much have their own yeast strains. all of these things are just passed down from generation to generation.

anyways, on one of the farms the guy started skimming off the hot break and said, "Here's where you get rid of the headache." apparently he was taught that what is in the hot break is what's causing day-after headaches. since reading that i've wondered if there was anything scientific that would explain why that would be.

also gordon strong recommends in his book "Brewing Better Beer..." but then again he advocates for leaving the trub in the kettle.

i've been thinking about giving this a shot, but have been wondering if there's any real data to prove that it improves things.

I'm gluten sensitive, so, I skim the hot break because there are many glutens in this material that can be done away with by skimming. The rest are settled out with clarity ferm.

I have and haven't. No noticeable difference. Especially on clarity. I whirlpool at the end so most crap stays I'm the kettle.

Yup, I do it on every boil. I didn't always, but I guess I like a nice clean rolling boil for some reason.

Nope - put me in the no skim camp. But then I use a 15 gallon kettle for my 5 gallon batches so boil overs aren't an issue.

Nope

I made a starter last night and used DME in my stove top. I had it wide open, boiling 2liters, and it just keep trying to boil over. I skimmed the HB and it cleared up the rest of the time. In doing this I also noticed the evaporation rate was a bit quicker since I didn't have all that junk built up on top. I'm gonna try it again on Sunday's batch and see what result I get in cutting down my evaporation time.

I'll wait for my hot break before I add any hops. I will skim any foam off from the hot break but won't after I add hops. I don't want to take out any hops while I'm skimming.

I don't and never have. Never read to skim until now.

"8. Watch for boilovers. As the wort boils, foam will form on the surface. This foam will persist until the wort goes through the "hot break" stage . The wort will easily boil over during this foaming stage, so stay close by and stir frequently . Blow on it and turn the heat down if it begins to boil over. Put a few copper pennies into the pot to help prevent boil over." Palmer - How to Brew

I brewed a porter on Friday that I skimmed the hot break. When brulosopher came out with the trub experiment the first and second time (i think), there were many who replied with some seemingly scientific evidence of why it would be a not so good idea with so much trub with darker beers. So I thought I'd give it a go on this one. I won't know for a while how it affected things, and it's my first porter, but I'm hoping this will help make it a very smooth chocolatey porter as a base for my christmas beer.

Like many, many homebrew topics, this one is probably subjective as how do you measure the quality difference between skimming and not skimming? FWIW, I skim as I feel anything that looks that nasty probably tastes that way too. I use stainless steel screen cylinders for my hops, and I whirlpool through them. All kinds of break material and other proteins get caught in the screens and my beers have been much cleaner in the fermenter. Since my process allows me to clean up this stuff, either via skimming or recirculating through screens, I just do it. Personally, I don't think it changes the flavor perceptively at all, but it is really no more work one way or the other. It just makes me feel better about the process, so I do it. Others could care less, and I don't think they brew bad beers...

I said I would report back from my brew this weekend. Well I added that Ferm cap stuff and didn't have anything build up on the surface, so no need to skim.