(Brew) Pot Paranoia

[GHBWNY]

I know it's totally useless to do so, but after initial boil up from hop addition and settling back down, I have to check on my brew pot at least every 5 minutes. For what? I dunno. Am I worried that the flame will have gone out and it will not be boiling (it's a gas range in my kitchen for cryin' out loud!)? Am I worried it will have decided against all logic and probability to re-boil-over for no reason? With visions of walking into the kitchen to find a half inch of sticky wort flooding the kitchen floor? And subsequently being drawn-and-quartered by my wife? Or here's one: "What if it evaporates? Or boils down to nothing?" Really?

Surely, a lot of you schedule your brewing so you can pull up a chair, sit with a homebrew or two (or 3 or 4) and stare at it for a full hour, but since I usually have other things to do during and right after brewing, that doesn't work. So... I do the 5-minute thing while I'm doing other things. Maybe I'm getting better; maybe it's 6 minutes in between checks.

Anyway, just curious: what's the rule and what's the exception out there for that critical hour when grain and hops become one? Not that it matters --- I'll probably go on checking it every 5 minutes for the rest of my life anyway.

 

[mongoose33]

I watch the kettle for the first 20 minutes or so, waiting for the hot break. I keep a small spray bottle with water handy so if I start to get a boil up I simply cool it down with sprayed water.

After it settles down, I wander about doing other tasks, such as sanitizing the fermenter and lid and airlock, getting the immersion cooler out, emptying the mash tun and washing it out with a hose, etc. I'll keep an eye on the kettle but once past about 20 minutes, unless I'm adding hops (which can create a boilover), it's not likely to do anything.

I'm doing this in my garage where there's a drain so if the kettle did boil over to the floor, I just wash it down the drain. But that hasn't happened since my first batch.

 

[Sailingeric]

A watched pot never boils, an unattended pot boils over. I made beer Friday and the second I looked down at my phone to post to the Gallons of Beer this year thread it boiled over. :smack:

 

[radwizard]

I just hang around the pot when it looks like it is gonna take off and wait for the hot break to settle. Then I just casually peak at it. Ive never had a boil over, and Im not even worried about it after the hot break settles..

 

[GHBWNY]

I might be a little skittish since today I had a boil over. I had put the lid most of the way on just to get it up to boil, but it took off quicker than I thought, then the hissing and spitting alerted me to the foam spewing out from under the lid and down the sides of the pot. Felt pretty dumb since this was the first ever and I'm normally real careful to watch for it.

 

[vNmd]

I am kind of a techie and after the initial hop addition and the foam recedes, I leave. I put a wireless web cam pointing at the flame to ensure it doesn't go out and monitor it from my office computer down stairs while watching videos, drinking beer, and smoking cigars. I might go up once a few minutes after the initial boil starts to make sure it is still boiling at the intensity I want, but I don't go back until I need to add more hops or the wort chiller. I then go back down until it is time to turn the flame off. I have to add that I brew in my garage next to the partially open door.

I do remember my first brew or two sitting there watching it boil in 90 degree heat. Good times

 

[ballsy]

5 min after initial hop addition once it's settled and rolling I do other things and prob check on it every 10-15 mins, probably so I can just get another big whif of that delicious smell of grains and hops together!

 

[MaryB]

Once the boil settles down I check maybe every 15 minutes. I go surf or read a book and wait for the hop times to go off... unless it is a beer like today with a hop addition every 5 minutes out of the last 20...

 

[mongoose33]

5 min after initial hop addition once it's settled and rolling I do other things and prob check on it every 10-15 mins, probably so I can just get another big whif of that delicious smell of grains and hops together!

Funny how people perceive things. Once the boil gets going, I think the aroma that comes off the kettle is fairly unsettling. Stinks up the garage, and it's why I will never be able to boil a kettle inside. The first time I ever boiled a batch in the garage, one of the vehicles was in there and had the window down; stunk up the car, stunk up the garage.

The aroma of grain in the mash tun is great, and when it's coming to a boil I think it smells great, but put the hops in and, to my and my wife's noses, the aroma goes south from there in a hurry.

 

[GHBWNY]

The aroma of grain in the mash tun is great, and when it's coming to a boil I think it smells great, but put the hops in and, to my and my wife's noses, the aroma goes south from there in a hurry.

Yeah, it was such a nice day yesterday, I could have brewed outdoors, but I chose to do it in the kitchen where everything was handy. But I did open all the windows to let a lot of fresh air through, and after awhile there was very little to any smell. Or at least that was what my nose was telling me. A couple hours after I put it in ferm, my wife walks in the door and exclaims, "Honey! That smell is horrible!!" And of course I said, "What smell?"

 

[Cardassian]

After the boil settles down I sanitize the fermenter, weigh out hop additions and get the chiller ready.
I tweak beersmith and consider changing hop additions at the last minute.
I also make notes as I go so I can track what went right/ wrong (doesn't always help).

 

[ballsy]

The aroma of grain in the mash tun is great, and when it's coming to a boil I think it smells great, but put the hops in and, to my and my wife's noses, the aroma goes south from there in a hurry.

Yeah, it was such a nice day yesterday, I could have brewed outdoors, but I chose to do it in the kitchen where everything was handy. But I did open all the windows to let a lot of fresh air through, and after awhile there was very little to any smell. Or at least that was what my nose was telling me. A couple hours after I put it in ferm, my wife walks in the door and exclaims, "Honey! That smell is horrible!!" And of course I said, "What smell?"

I put my pot in the oven at 150 to mash for 60 min (keeps temp exact w/in 0.5 deg) and my wife definitely starts with the "uh....that smell is giving me a headache/feel nauseous/etc...!" comments. But I do my boil out in the driveway. The oven part doesn't smell good but not as bad as she makes it out to be (darker grain bills do smell a bit strong though) but the boil outside smells oh so good to me!

 

[mongoose33]

I put my pot in the oven at 150 to mash for 60 min (keeps temp exact w/in 0.5 deg) and my wife definitely starts with the "uh....that smell is giving me a headache/feel nauseous/etc...!" comments. But I do my boil out in the driveway. The oven part doesn't smell good but not as bad as she makes it out to be (darker grain bills do smell a bit strong though) but the boil outside smells oh so good to me!

I'm slowly getting used to it--sort of an acquired taste, I suppose, which I associate pretty well with the end product.

I've always assumed the undesirable smell is the undesirable stuff boiling off, so naturally it doesn't smell the greatest. Well worth the "cost" given the outcome.

 

[MaryB]

I must be odd, I love the smell of boiling hops...

 

[BlueHouseBrewhaus]

I usually check on mine every 15 min or so. I tie the strings on my hop bags off to the BK handles and hang them in the BK. Every once in a while the bag wil get stuck on the scum line near the top of the wort so I have to unstick it. That's about the only thing I need to check on. Haven't had a boil over since I went to AG.

I usually brew on my day off (Fri) and when my girls get off the school bus and walk in the door, they always give me a hard time - "Ew, Daddy, it stinks. You've been brewing."

Of course, my proudest moment was when I was helping out in my younger daughter's kindergarten class and the teacher asked all the kids what their Daddy's did for work. My daughter loudly proclaimed, "My Daddy brews beer." I thought the teacher was going to pee her pants.

 

[Natdavis777]

I keep a watchful eye for 5-10 min after the boil has started and hops have been added. I am electric though, so I know 60% Duty Cycle is going to give me a nice rolling boil, nothing more or less. So I typically can go do whatever until my phone goes off for the next hop addition. Nothing wrong with chronic checking though, especially when brewing in the kitchen. Nothing sucks more than a a sticky boilover mess to clean up (something I do have to monitor for my yeast starters)