3rd brew, first boilover - how bad is it?

[Craig311]

Turned my back for a second and the lid was coming off. Probably lost a cup or so of wort - all over my new turkey fryer and pot! How much, and in what way might this screw up my beer? I salvaged some of the bittering hops off of the lid and added it back to the pot.

 

[McKBrew]

This isn't going to make a noticeable difference at all, esp with that small of an amount. Everything is cool!

 

[Yooper]

But, from now on- boil with the lid off! It's ok to have it on while you bring it to a boil, but then keep the lid off. Two reasons- one is so you can see it getting ready to boil over, and one is so that you boil off DMS. DMS is released in the water vapor during the boil, and you don't want that on the lid of your pot and then having in drip back into your pot.

At least it was on your turkey fryer, and not on your indoor stove! Boilovers are really hard to clean up off the stovetop!

 

[Craig311]

This isn't going to make a noticeable difference at all, esp with that small of an amount. Everything is cool!

Cool - thanks for the reply. Looking at the scene now, it may have been a bit more than a cup... It's all over the sides of the pot and the base of the turkey fryer along with a small puddle on my deck underneath. Still, I don't think it was a huge amount.

 

[Craig311]

But, from now on- boil with the lid off! It's ok to have it on while you bring it to a boil, but then keep the lid off. Two reasons- one is so you can see it getting ready to boil over, and one is so that you boil off DMS. DMS is released in the water vapor during the boil, and you don't want that on the lid of your pot and then having in drip back into your pot.

At least it was on your turkey fryer, and not on your indoor stove! Boilovers are really hard to clean up off the stovetop!

Thanks. I was just trying to bring it to a boil and have the lid off now. Definitely better on the deck than on the stove!! She's churning away nicely now...

 

[eddie]

I get a boil-over every time I brew. It's just one of those things that goes along with it. You can limit the severity of your boil-overs by using enough heat to get your wort to a boil then reducing the heat until it's just enough to maintain the boil. Some people use a foam stopping chemical that helps reduce boil-overs. Also, you shouldn't use a lid when boiling your wort. The lid will trap heat in the brew pot which will cause more boil-overs and will also prevent DMS from evaporating from the wort.

 

[greenleaf]

boil overs on SWMBO stove top is a bad thing.....Trust me.

 

[Funkenjaeger]

I get a boil-over every time I brew. It's just one of those things that goes along with it.

Like nearly everyone, I've had a boilover or two, but it's really not that hard to prevent. One useful tool is a probe thermometer with a temperature alarm (which I use for mashing and such as well). I set the alarm to go off a few degrees below boiling, so I know when to start watching it. Between controlling the heat, using a spray bottle of cold water, and possibly stirring, you should have no trouble stopping the hot break if it's threatening to boil over. I successfully did a lot of batches in a 30qt turkey fryer pot with just a few inches of headspace this way.

Then I got foam control drops. Since then, I don't have to do a thing, even if I've only got a couple inches of headspace.

 

[malkore]

when brewing on a nice wood deck/porch, you might wanna hit home depot and get a 2'x2' sheet of plywood, and four 12"x12" ceramic floor tiles.
glue those to the plywood so you have a surface to 'get dirty' without mucking up your wood deck.