Boil Over - Don't Let This Happen To You Home Brewers!

[craft_beer_fan]

Okay, so my buddies died laughing at me when they watched this video I posted to youtube. I was documenting my third batch of homebrew and the dreaded boil over happened.

Hope this puts a smile on your face; it did theirs. Don't let this happen to you!!

 

[nebben]

HAHHAHAHAHAHA

Everything looked so shiny right up until it blew up! Hops will always do that, so if you are anywhere near boiling over, it is imperative to lower the heat significantly then add hops, then resume boiling slowly.

...and brew outside.

 

[cl330b]

Rookie move... Nice quality video though. What did you use to record that?

 

[passedpawn]

Hah, I think I hear your Fermcap-S honking in the background.

Thanks for posting!

 

[SilverZero]

HAHHAHAHAHAHA

Everything looked so shiny right up until it blew up! Hops will always do that, so if you are anywhere near boiling over, it is imperative to lower the heat significantly then add hops, then resume boiling slowly.

...and brew outside.

Fortunately, boil-overs are self-limiting. They put out the fire all by themselves.

 

[HopJuicer]

I think those are my exact words when that happened to me but mine was outside thank god! Wifey would have been pissed lol

 

[kh54s10]

Boil overs know when you are not looking!. My last happened while I was posting on HBT.

 

[SmoothSmoke]

Dang! The wife must have been mad!

 

[d3track]

The hop addition got me this weekend too, although your language was a lot cleaner than mine

 

[hops2it]

Yep I lol'd.

I think it's far more funny to those who have experienced the same thing...which is probably most of us. Or at least those of us who dare to be honest.

 

[william_shakes_beer]

But what I want to know is... where are the wort's "eyes" that it can see when I turn my back to boil over. Perhaps if I can just find those pesky eyes and scoop them out with a spoon...

 

[Rocky71]

I've never had a boil over. The only close call I've had was adding DME. I've never seen a foam up on hop additions. I guess I've been lucky.

 

[wilserbrewer]

Fortunately, boil-overs are self-limiting. They put out the fire all by themselves.

Not on an electric stove my friend...had an episode many years ago, was like an out of control science experiment and went on a looooong time! The wort was cooked on the stove top like fired and burnt glass.

Funny video...I like how you put the lid on the kettle...that helped hahaha

After all these years I'll never forget the boilover from hell...with experience one learns to approach and regulate the beginning of a boil as you would approach a nasty mean horse that might kick you in the sack.

 

[DerekJ]

I am so sorry about your kitchen. If I did that in my wife's kitchen I would not only be banned from brewing in the house, I'd be banned from sleeping in the house too for a few days. Enjoy the dog house!

 

[anteup]

Undersized kettle, brewing indoors what else.

 

[capulinflicker]

Get a spray bottle full of water to knock down the foam and add FWH slowly. I made sure to do that after I had a boil over on my second batch. Being the noob that I was, I dumped the full bowl of FWH all at once only to be met with a viscous boil over. That sucked. Haven't had any since

 

[Whut]

Hah, thanks for sharing craft!

 

[DerekJ]

I have never had an issue with hop additions causing a foaming problem. Do you guys that have this problem get a good hot break? When I first start to boil the foam will come on like mad. I just watch it closely and control it with my regulator. I mean, I am encouraging the foam by turning up the gas flow but as soon as it starts to reach the top of the brew kettle I back off the heat until the foam subsides and then I do it again. After about a half dozen times of doing this the foam goes away. From this point on, I can boil to my heart's content without any worry.

 

[SmoothSmoke]

On my first and only wort thus far I used fermcap. Not even a hint of a boilover.

 

[LabRatBrewer]

In 1986 I had a boil over in my mother's kitchen. To this day, she still claims her stove is stained from it. Its not even the same stove anymore, but she loves to tell the story whenever she comes over and I am brewing.

 

[Bradinator]

+1 to a spray bottle of icey cold water. Saved my butt many times.

 

[TheMan]

Time for a larger kettle!

Get a spray bottle full of water to knock down the foam and add FWH slowly. I made sure to do that after I had a boil over on my second batch. Being the noob that I was, I dumped the full bowl of FWH all at once only to be met with a viscous boil over. That sucked. Haven't had any since

Capulin, you may want to research your terms a little...FWH is First Wort Hop, this hop addition gets added to the first runnings when draining your mash tun, well before you are even boiling. Not to be confused with First Hop Addition, which I don't know of an acronym for.

 

[NewTexian]

HAHHAHAHAHAHA

Everything looked so shiny right up until it blew up! Hops will always do that, so if you are anywhere near boiling over, it is imperative to lower the heat significantly then add hops, then resume boiling slowly.

...and brew outside.

^ This ^

 

[Tugg]

I was, at most, an 1/8 of an inch from that on my last brew day lol!! Put a spoon of irish moss in with about 5 minutes left, and instantly spiked about 6 inches, got it off the burner not a split second too long

 

[ASassyBeerChick83]

Wow!

I cannot even imagine how sticky this was to clean-up! Wow! my spoon I just stirred my first brew with was sticky!

I'm a newbie around here & this video is a good reminder to me why I will never walk away from my boiling wort.

Thanks for the great video!! :rockin:


Peace. Love. & Beer.
CHEERS!

 

[JonM]

That happened to me on a WHITE stovetop. The wort tuned into a baked-on layer of black awfulness. It took many, many applications of Easy Off to clean it up.

 

[tre9er]

fermcap-s, reduce heat during hot-break/early hop additions, stir break back down into wort, spray bottle. Haven't had boilover but once in 15 brews using these methods (wasn't using any of them on that one).

 

[ASassyBeerChick83]

Oiy! White has to suck!! I have a white stove right now!

Taking extra precautions so that my Wort NEVER Boils OVER!

 

[Greenbasterd]

lol you added 1 oz of warrior hops and OH S#!T... never heard of it.. i've heard of cat s#!t, somebody tried to mash some the other day

 

[Jaysus]

Rookie move... Nice quality video though. What did you use to record that?

I'm curious about the camera too.