Never Reached Hot Break?

I'm still relatively new to brewing. I've done about a dozen batches so far, but I had about a year and a half break until recently.

During my latest batch this past weekend, which was an extract brew, I couldn't seem to reach a hot break. I have a propane banjo burner turned to about as high as I could get it, and the wort would repeatedly start foaming and almost boil over. The foam would then settle, but 3-5 minutes later it would build up again. I had it boiling for a solid 45 minutes, and the process never stopped. This was before adding any hops, so I wasn't seeing the foam build up you can get when adding them.

Is this abnormal? Should I have kept boiling until the foam didn't build up anymore?

 

Did you use any adjunct grains (steeping)? If not, this wouldn't surprise me because if you just use extract, all that you've added is pure sugar, with no proteins to speak of.

 

I am not sure this is true. Extract is concentrated wort from mashed grains. I don't think it goes through a process to actually remove the proteins from the wort.....

 

If you achieved a boil, then you got a hot break. Just a lot smaller then you were expecting. All's well.

 

The only times I've ever not gotten a hot break was when I used Fermcap S (which I still occasionally use), but that's specifically designed to prevent a boilover. Technically speaking, I DID get a hot break when I used Fermcap S. The foam just didn't boil up like usual. I used to use it to prevent my airlock from getting clogged in super active fermentations, but now that I use a 30L Speidel, I don't need it for that anymore.

But, yeah, I believe that malt extracts do contain enough proteins that they should still cause a hot break even if you don't use steeping grains.

 

I used 0.75 pound chocolate malt, and 0.50 pound Caramel 55L.

I was under the impression that once you reach the hot break, that the wort wouldn't boil up anymore until the hops are added, because most of the proteins would have coagulated together. Was this an incorrect assumption?

 

Yes. Hotbreak is just the term for the coagulated proteins that kind of look like egg drop soup. If you achieve 212*, then you will get coag.
And she sure can boil over even after the hotbreak. Just ask my garage floor. And my kitchen range before SWMBO banished me to the garage.