Five Star Defoamer

[Calder]

I've been using FermCap for the past 10 years and it has worked great. 1 drop per gallon in the kettle eliminates boil-overs, and 1 drop per gallon in the fermenter minimizes blow-off. Saved a lot of mess and lost beer over the years.

My current bottle of FermCap is almost empty, but I do have a 2 ozs bottle of Five Star Defoamer. Bottle says "Add as needed, not to exceed 200 PPM per batch. A typical starting point is 1 drop in a 5 gallon batch."

Will I get the results I want using just 1 to 2 drops per batch. Are 1 to 2 drops of Five Star Defoamer as good as 5 to 10 drops of FermcCap. My batches are 4.25 gallons in a 5 gallon brew-pot, and 6.25 gallons in a 7 gallon fermenter, so I don't leave much space for error.

A quick calculation says 1 drop in 5 gallons is ~ 5 PPM, so there is a lot of room between that and the FDA recommended maximum of 200 PPM.

Anyone used it? Anyone compare it to FermCap?

 

[marc1]

They both seem the same to me

 

[Calder]

I assumed that they were the same, so was confused by the different recommendations on each of them.

So, what is he right does, 1 drop per 5 gallons or 2 drops per gallon?

 

[marc1]

I use them interchangeably. Maybe 8-12 drops for ~13 gallons of wort in the boil. A few drops in the fermenter.
A great use is in gravity samples. Gets rid of the foam when pouring back and forth to degas.