Thanks for nothing!

So, I'm brewing my fourth batch in the garage. It's gonna be a nice english brown. Steeped the grains for 30 minutes- no problem. Add the extract and bringing it up to boil no problem. Getting ready for the hot break. Got my gloves on to pick up the kettle from the heat. Done this before no problem. Hot break starts pick it up a few times and put it back down. Hot break seems to be over. I've read a few times that throwing in the hops will help with the hot break so I take a glove off, open the hops up and start to dump them in. Next thing you know, f****** Mt. St. Helens. Oh s***! I can't see a damn thing cuz my glasses are steamed over. So I have to let the geyser ride out, couldn't find my gloves in time with all the steam. Wonderful. Well I popped my boil over cherry tonight. Funny because I warned my wife about boilovers when she took the dog for a walk and when she came back the garage was covered in sticky wort. She laughed I swore and told her she's lucky I didn't use the stove! Oh well mopped up everything and the boil's just about finished. No idea how much hops I lost or have left. Any ideas about adding hop flavor to this? A tea or dry hopping? Please let me know what you would suggest. Throw the hops in my arse!:cross:

Not sure what you mean by hops helping with hot break but I can tell you that if you are close to a boilover.... adding hops will help..... it to boil over! I have heard that there is less chance to have a boilover if you add hops AFTER the hot break but if it is close to boiling over hops are only gunna add to the problem. It sometimes helps to have a spray bottle with water in it and just spray on top of the foam when it starts to get close to a boil over.

If it was your first hop addition then that is usually for bitterness, not for hop flavor. Flavoring hops are usually added later in the boil so all of the flavor isnt boiled off.

yeah that sucks...Its kind of funny your wife laughed!

What i do is wait for the hot break, then throw the hops in. Once i see the wort start getting 'weird' and crawling up the sides, i turn the regulator down. Its a bit tricky to time, and sometimes i have to turn the heat totally off, but it works. After that i turn the heat back up and throw in the first hops.

a good trick is to have a spray bottle at hand, and spray the wort as its creeping up...or simply stir it, until it calms down. But im all about Raging boils, so i dont think that would work for me.

the key is to 'read' the wort, you can tell when its getting ancy.

So what you are saying is "be the wort". No it was my fault. I was in a hurry and I thought the break was over even though there was still some foam. So I threw the hops in and that was it. Next time I'll be more patient grasshoppa. Oh well ya brew and ya learn.

I've only done one boil thus far but...

IT was with 6lbs of Wheat DME

dang.. the foamiest stuff i've ever seen

had to turn the flame off probably 4 times before the foam acted like it was under control..

when i added my hop pellets it did seem to ease the foam.. i'm guessing the oil in the hops cut the surface tension of the foam and calmed it down.. (same principal as adding oil to pasta water)

i didn't think i'd ever get through the hot break....

ws

You guys make me realize that I did the right thing by buying a big pot from the start. No boil overs yet, but I too wait for the hotbreak before adding hops. When my wort starts to rise, I stir it with the gib a$$ spoon I bought, or I blow on the top of it.

I can't wait to brew this weekend. Mead and beer. It's going to be AWESOME.

I keep the hose near buy and lightly spray the the top when it crawls up. Knocks it back down quick. After the hot break I add my first hops and get ready to grab the hose again. No problems so far. Spray bottle work good too.

Is a raging boil better than a nice gentle rolling boil? I should think the latter would be safer, if nothing else.

a nice gentle boil will work, but a huge raging boil is better. You get more bitterness from the hops for one, and a better hot break, wich will lead to a better and/or clearer beer.

ive made partial mash batches on a bbq grill and could barely keep a boil going, the beer came out fine, but with a propane burner my beers are crystal clear, and my hop efficiency went up a few percentage points.

p.s. I wouldnt consider a good rolling boil unsafe, unless the chance of making a mess of your garage/kitchen floor puts you in danger by way of SWMBO...

OK cool. A raging boil it shall be. I aint afraid of you who, but don't tell her I said so!