Boil-overs

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skinfiddler

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When I was getting my AG stuff together over the winter. I bought a 60qt Al brew pot thinking that I would eventually use it for 10g batches.

My first boil was for a 5g batch and STILL had boil-overs. I'm having a hard time imagining doing a 10g brew.:(
 
Use a thermometer in your boil pot. When the temp reaches 210, turn that sucker down a bunch. When just starts to boil, turn it down some more. If the foam starts to build, use a spray bottle of cool water to keep it at bay. It only takes about 3-5 minutes for the hot break to conjeal most of the protiens that lead to boil-overs. Then you can turn the heat back up some. You don't have to boil at really high settings, and doing so just wastes fuel. I regularly use my 30 quart pot for 5.5 gallon batches, and I only get boil-overs when I'm half drunk and not paying attention.
 
I've had boilovers with my 15.5 gallon keggle, so it doesn't matter how big the pot it, it can still boil over. Shafferpilot has good advice, it will do ya fine.
 
That is one hell of a boil over! A 5 gallon batch boiling over through 10 gallons of head space!!! If you are really worried about it, pick-up some Fermcap-S. It can be had at Northern Brewer and is an additive that prevents boilovers and blowoff. I think it :rockin:
 
I don't use fermcap because I'm a cheap bastard and I wouldn't get a good workout with my stirring arm or my trigger finger on the spray bottle :) I've got a 7.5gal pot doing 5gal boils and I found the long thermometer, my long spoon and a spray bottle work great. Once my hot break is over (same as shafferpilot, I'd say 3-5mins) I just set my burner to give me about 200F boil and go off to clean and organize, while coming back to check every 5-10minutes.
 
You can either watch your pot like a hawk with a bottle of water close by, or add some foam control and forget about it.

I regularly do 6.5 gal boils in my 30 quart pot on the stove without worry. This weekend I also did a 13 gal boil in my keggle and no boil overs. This picture doesn't show the beginning of the boil, but when it started I was within about 1.5" of the rim. Foam control takes all the worry out of boil-overs -- magic stuff.

bigboil.jpg
 
I regularly use my 30 quart pot for 5.5 gallon batches, and I only get boil-overs when I'm half drunk and not paying attention.

This makes me feel a lot better. I mean I know it's possible, people say it's fine, but I got a 30 quart turkey fryer kit yesterday and it doesn't look any bigger than my 24 quart SS pot I was using for extract partial boils. I'm kinda wary about doing 6.5 gals on it, but hell if it's gonna stop me from brewing on Saturday :D
 
I think part of the answer is that I was running it too hot. I WILL consider getting the fermcap drops too though.

Thanks
 
How much foam control do you add per gallon to the boil?
 
I think its easier to get a boil over with a 5 gallon batch than with a 10 gallon batch as it takes quite a bit more heat to puch it to the boiling point. I've boiled over a couple of times on a 5 gallon batch in my 15.5 gallon keggle. Also, the stainless steel of the keggle holds a lot of heat so its not like you can just turn the burner off and instanlty kill the heat, it will take a little bit for that intense heat (assuming you had it cranked up) to cool down if you don't ease off of it before you hit the boiling point (and hense the boil overs).
 
I think its easier to get a boil over with a 5 gallon batch than with a 10 gallon batch as it takes quite a bit more heat to puch it to the boiling point. I've boiled over a couple of times on a 5 gallon batch in my 15.5 gallon keggle. Also, the stainless steel of the keggle holds a lot of heat so its not like you can just turn the burner off and instanlty kill the heat, it will take a little bit for that intense heat (assuming you had it cranked up) to cool down if you don't ease off of it before you hit the boiling point (and hense the boil overs).

Nope not hard at all. With a 10 gal batch I start with 13-15 gal and boil it down. I have a 60qt kettle. The first 30 minutes can be a *****.
 
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