Foam Control (FermCapS), Anyone use this?

So i used this for the first time yesterday when making a starter. ive had a few boil overs when boiling some DME to make wort in the kitchen. Also i can fill my flask much higher without having to worry about krausen blowing all over the place.

I'm wondering why i don't hear of many people using this product on the site. Are there any negative effects that i'm unaware of?

 

Some people don't like the fact that it's "not natural". I used it a few times and while it made it easy to avoid boilovers it also reduced the head retention on those beers. They say it settles out and you leave it behind with the yeast when racking, but...
I decided that I'll only use it on 10g high gravity batches to avoid boilovers in my keggle, otherwise I'll just tend the fire closer.
It does work wonders though at breaking the surface tension. Most people on HBT seem to prefer the cheap way: squirt the foam with a spray bottle of water.

 

It worked great for boils in my house but when i used it on my last boil outside it boiled over like crazy.

To answer your question, ive read its silicon based and i dont know how great that is to ingest.

 

This was really big a couple of years ago. I used it, it does work. It contains silicone and the FDA? recommends filtering it out. Most feel it settles into the trub and is left behind anyway. I just don't bother with it anymore.

Boil overs can happen even if you do use it. Heavy boils will overrule the Fermcap at the start.

 

Huh, thats interesting. Its said to not effect the head on beers.

Would genatin get rid of it or do you have to filter? also what micron is needed to filter it out?

 

I use FermcapS on every batch in the boil kettle.

I have also tried the "natural" Patcote 376 stuff which says it only needs 1 or 2 drops per gallon...not even close. Here is my first and only boil using the Patcote 376 stuff. I still have the Patcote and will use it again but will up the drop amount by double or maybe even triple.

 

I would say that it would still hang around after cold crashing and gelatin. There is a non silicon version but I haven't seen it at homebrew sizes.

 

If i only use them in my starters, should i be worried about it going into the fermentor or would it all be in the beer that is decanted out?

I have a filter setup but i only use it for certain things like cider to get rid of yeast and back sweeten or beer that i'm going to keg and transport to an event. Id rather not filter so im going to avoid using it in the boil.

 

I wuldnt sweat it too much

 

Bah, NO head retention problems on most of my beers, and I use Fercap-s in every boil. 2 drops per gallon of preboil wort added in as you see the hot break beginning to form does wonders. I crank my burner up and let the boil roll. I use it in my starters as well and boil my wort directly in my 2L flask without having boil overs. That keeps the Mrs. happy! I love the stuff, but to each his own. I would assume that my recipe be culprit of little head, or head retention problems before I blame the Fermcap-s due to my experiences with it.

 

i might try it out this weekend and see for myself if it causes any head issues. last two batches i made i had a boil overs. i looked away for like 5 seconds too both times. id rather not have to watch the boil so closely every time.

 

I've used it before, particularly when I used a 7.5 gallon pot to make 5.5 gallons of beer, things sometimes got hairy. These days I use my 20 gallon kettle to make 11 gallons so it's much less of a problem. I did use it the other day when I was making a 4L starter, I have no complaints but for the most part I just don't need it.

 

I just used it to contain blow off in the carboy and I think it did pretty well. A little still blew off, but that was going to happen no matter what.


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I love this stuff! I only use it in the boil, but it allows me to walk away from the kettle and clean stuff. It used to be that I had to watch the kettle like a hawk and then spend 2 hours cleaning after a batch. When the boil is done, all I have to clean is the kettle, the chiller and the hop spider.

It's made a big difference that allows me to enjoy my brew days.

BTW, no issues with head retention.

 

same here, I've been using it since my 4th or 5th batch and i love it. I boil 7 to 7.5 gallons in a 9 gallon pot and never get a boil over, a lot less stress and like Spartan said I can walk away and not worry.

 

I use it every batch in the kettle and in the fermenter. Probably 100 batches. Love it, no issues, would not want to brew without it.

I believe part of its marketing is that it IMPROVES head retention, and increases IBUs by about 10%. I can't say I have really noticed.

 

Yes and boil overs are still possible

 

I bought some of this stuff for my latest batch and I kept it refrigerated until the day of the brew. When I used it, it was very viscous and hard to just put in a few drops. I left it out for several hours before I used it but it was still thick and not runny at all. Is that the normal consistency of this stuff? I seem recall using it maybe 5 years ago and it was very runny and had the consistency of milk.

It also didn't seem to work as well as I remembered. I probably added a whole dropper full and there was still quite a bit of foaming.

 

Mine is pretty thick (like gravy) straight out of the refrigerator but easily makes single drops from the eyedropper.
When I use it, it normally takes about 6-8 drops for a 5.3gal batch (7gal boil).

 

Same for me, thick like gravy, but easy to count out drops from the eye-dropper. I use 2 drops per gallon. Never have a boil over.