Boil-over HELL

[SkaBoneBenny]

Well I had my first boil over today. And my first kitchen fire. As I went to pour a bag of DME into my wort during the boil, it sprang a massive leak in the bottom and poured extract into the boilpot, all over my hands and onto the burner, causing it to carmelize and catch fire. When I called SWMBO over she tried to put it out using paper towel... not such a good idea. You'd think 4 years of a college education would suggest that... but, what can you do...Eventually, the mini fire was contained and I kept adding more extract. About 7 pounds of extract into the adding the wort began to turn tan and rise up, and then proceeded to boil over for 10 seconds or so. It was really great.

My concern: can a boil-over seriously effect the final outcome? I was making a double IPA with continuous hopping and a 90 minute boil. When I started adding the extract (around 1 hour or so) the brew stopped boiling and I lost a good half an hour. During this period I did not continue with my hopping. I remember people saying they pause the boil-clock when it stops boiling. I'm just worried that maybe the boil-over screwed up my hopping or something like that. Could it have carried away a larger precentage of the hops or something like that when it boiled over the side? Have boil overs seriously affected your final outcomes in the past? The OG came out fine with a 1.076 or 1.078 (I really couldn't tell, I was still shaking with rage.) Anyways, I'd love some feedback to put my mind at ease. Or make me freak out more.
-Ben

 

[Sir Humpsalot]

Ummmm... RDWHAHB?

 

[the_bird]

It's possible you lost a good amount of hops, but the extra near-boil time means that the utilization on those that remained should be a bit higher than usual.

For the future, buy a spray bottle, keep it filled with water to combat boilovers. Also, most people take the heat off when adding extract, both to minimize boilovers and (moreso for LME) to minimize the risk of scorching.

But, relax, you'll have beer, likely very good beer.

 

[Engelramm]

Eventually, the mini fire was contained and I kept adding more extract. About 7 pounds of extract into the adding the wort began to turn tan and rise up, and then proceeded to boil over for 10 seconds or so. It was really great.
-Ben

The last sentence really made me laugh out loud.

You probably still have a good beer coming to you, despite your best efforts.

 

[digdan]

Loosing hops and of course wort is probably the extent of your beers sufferage. Just matters how long the hops were in there, and how much boiled over. I do notice that hop particles like to stay at the top of a boiling brew.

btw, after my first boil-over I was exiled to outside to brew by SWMBO (and I obeyed).

I ussualy boil through a hotbreak until there is no longer a threat of a boil over, THEN I had my first hops. I also try to brew in a kettle that is 20% bigger than my brewing volume. And just incase I keep a refridgerated spray bottle handy; a couple squirts tames the wildess of hot breaks. I havn't had a boilover since.

 

[Orfy]

The beer will be fine.

Turn the flame off when adding the DME, it'll help stop any scorching and help prevent boil over. Keep a water spray bottle to hand as well. One to help stop boil over and TWO to put flames out.

 

[Torchiest]

I had a major boilover with my second batch, and it came out fantastic. Yours will be great, I'm sure. BTW, was that a Dogfish 90min clone?

 

[Hopfan]

I just get a kick out of the fact that after a kitchen fire, your first concern was for the quality of your beer. A home-brewer after my own heart

 

[SkaBoneBenny]

Well thanks for all the assurances. Iäll make sure to both turn off the flames while adding extract and to keep a spray bottle. I tried blowing on the rising tide of foamy wort and yelling at it, but neither seemed to help. Also, yes this was a somewhat dogfishhead 90 minute clone rom this link:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=17406&highlight=dogfish

I made some hop changes based on the availability of the hops and used slightly more extract. Although I think that extract balanced out as a nice amount of it ended up either coating my defiant hands or on fire.
-Ben

 

[dcbrewmeister]

I just get a kick out of the fact that after a kitchen fire, your first concern was for the quality of your beer. A home-brewer after my own heart

I was amazed SWMBO didn't exhile him to the outside on the spot, despite the fact she tried to "help" the fire by feeding it paper towels

Yeah your beer is prolly fine and I would be surprised if this near disaster is the best tasting beer you make.:fro:

Consider a turkey fryer - 30 bucks at target on clearance - SWMBO won't put up with too many more of these in her kitchen, and you don't need her help burning down the kitchen.ROFLMAO

 

[the_bird]

So did you end up buying a new stove?

Boilovers are HELL to clean up. I've had dinky littles ones from making starter wort that seemed like they took an hour to clean up. Not good times.

 

[SkaBoneBenny]

Well first off SWMBO is still the GF so the level of obedience is not quite at its highest.

Also, after the boil over I moved the brew pot to another burner further away and covered what I could of the mess with paper towels. After the boil was finished I soaked the whole stove top with cool water and then gave it some elbow grease to unstick all the goop. SWMBO slept on the couch during all of the cleanup so she didnt really care.

Good times... well at least fermentation is going well. I peered into the bucket this morning and the krausen was nearly at the lid. Woot.

-Ben

 

[Ol' Grog]

Dude, been there, done that. Your brew will be fine, it just won't be as hoppy. You might want to try dry hopping to get it hoppier.

 

[BrewStef]

Man, we have all been there. RDWAHAHB. I agree, it will not be as hoppy but it will still be awesome.

Consider this your baptism into homebrewing.

Cheers.

BrewStef

 

[david_42]

Maybe we need a poll: How many homebrewers were "forced" to get a propane rig and move the brewing outside after a boil-over?

 

[BrewStef]

Maybe we need a poll: How many homebrewers were "forced" to get a propane rig and move the brewing outside after a boil-over?

I would be one of them. For both a boil over, and because when SWMBO was pregnant, she could not stand the smell of boiling wort.

 

[teu1003]

Maybe we need a poll: How many homebrewers were "forced" to get a propane rig and move the brewing outside after a boil-over?

i have one of those stoves that are just a flat glass surface with the glowing red ring UNDER it (what an incredibly inefficient way to heat stuff)

my lhbs guy told me that having full bore boils lasting 90 minutes (when you consider heat-up time) on this type of stove can ruin it (the stove not the wort) quickly. so i banished myself to the garage with a propane turkey frier.

once you get "outside", you quickly move to larger pots and full wort boils and at that point you wonder why you are using extract ...

about a grand later you are kegging your all grain and chilling it in your chest freezer (with the johnson temp controller) ... blah blah blah ...dont get me started ...

 

[Monster Mash]

I moved out to the garage without SWMBO asking, I just wanted more space. I then moved to the backyard because it is much easier to hose down and my 1BBL system wouldn't fit in the garage....