A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Carboy

[beerisyummy]

Hello Brüers!

Last night I brewed up a SMASH IPA, my second one. When transferring the wort to the fermentor, I got a TON of foam, something that's never happened before. The foam did eventually settle into beer, but I seem to be missing a half gallon or so. VERY strange!

My 5 gallon AG recipe, obviously, was simple: 14 lbs of malt and 2.5 oz of pellet hops. 2 oz of the hops were in Wilser bags and I threw in the last 1/2 oz loose at flameout. Other than that, I put 2 tsp. Gypsum in the mash, and towards the end of the boil I tossed in 1/2 tsp yeast nutrient and 1/2 a Whirlfloc.

My system is I use a Shurflo self-priming pump to suck the wort through my ExChillerator counterflow chiller into the carboy. I also have a siphon spray wort aerator attached to the end of the transfer tubing. All the hoses are secured on both ends with clamps.

I haven't changed any of this for many batches and never observed this foaming before. I wondered if I should suspect a problem with the pump; but I didn't observe anything unusual when I sucked a gallon of sanitizing solution through the system before the transfer, nor afterwards when I flushed the system with hot water.

Anybody feel like doing some detective work, I'd appreciate your thoughts!

 

[Abhishek Dewan]

Probably grains. That grain bill is on higher side considering liquid to grain ratio.

 

[day_trippr]

Filling the carboys with the WCIPA I brewed yesterday the headspace was filled with foam.

90% GP, some Vienna and a bit of Gambrinus Honey malt in this batch, and no FO or WP hops, so unlike my neipas there was much less hop oils in the wort, and it foamed maybe twice as much...

Cheers!

 

[beerisyummy]

I think it was cavitation in my wort pump. Got this little gadget to fix it:
https://www.exchilerator.com/stop-cavitation-with-a-purge-waste-bleeder-valve/

 

[VikeMan]

I think it was cavitation in my wort pump. Got this little gadget to fix it:
https://www.exchilerator.com/stop-cavitation-with-a-purge-waste-bleeder-valve/

Yeah, it's best to try and avoid excessive foaming when transferring. The proteins that provide the foam's scaffolding are single use, i.e. those same proteins won't make foam later.

The foam did eventually settle into beer, but I seem to be missing a half gallon or so. VERY strange!

This unexpected volume loss wouldn't have anything to do with the foaming, unless you actually had foam that escaped.