Hot Break?
- Thread starter GABrewboy
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Technical Term - "Hot Break"Hot Break is a sudden foaming of the wort that generally happens just after the wort comes to a boil. Do not be alarmed, but do be on the lookout. When the wort foams up, it can easily overflow. Usually you can tame the Hot Break by taking the lid off your kettle. If the wort starts to overflow anyway, simply turn the heat down a touch (but don't turn it down so much that the wort stops boiling). Within a minute or so, the foaming will subside, and you can relax again. Some brewers refuse to use a lid on their kettles out of fear of overflowing during the hotbreak. Of course, if you don't use a lid, it takes much longer to bring your wort up to a boil.
A foam will start to rise and form a smooth surface. This is good. If the foam suddenly billows over the side, this is a boil-over (Bad). If it looks like it is going to boil over, either lower the heat or spray the surface with water from a spray bottle. The foam is caused by proteins in the wort that coagulate due to the rolling action of the boil. The wort will continue to foam until the protein clumps get heavy enough to sink back into the pot. You will see particles floating around in the wort. It may look like Egg Drop Soup. This is called the Hot break and may take 5-20 minutes to occur, depending on the amount of protein in your extract. Often the first hop addition triggers a great deal of foaming, especially if hop pellets are used. I recommend waiting until the Hot break occurs before doing your first Hop addition and timing the hour. The extra boiling time won't hurt.
Technical Term - "Hot Break"Hot Break is a sudden foaming of the wort that generally happens just after the wort comes to a boil. Do not be alarmed, but do be on the lookout. When the wort foams up, it can easily overflow. Usually you can tame the Hot Break by taking the lid off your kettle. If the wort starts to overflow anyway, simply turn the heat down a touch (but don't turn it down so much that the wort stops boiling). Within a minute or so, the foaming will subside, and you can relax again. Some brewers refuse to use a lid on their kettles out of fear of overflowing during the hotbreak. Of course, if you don't use a lid, it takes much longer to bring your wort up to a boil.
A foam will start to rise and form a smooth surface. This is good. If the foam suddenly billows over the side, this is a boil-over (Bad). If it looks like it is going to boil over, either lower the heat or spray the surface with water from a spray bottle. The foam is caused by proteins in the wort that coagulate due to the rolling action of the boil. The wort will continue to foam until the protein clumps get heavy enough to sink back into the pot. You will see particles floating around in the wort. It may look like Egg Drop Soup. This is called the Hot break and may take 5-20 minutes to occur, depending on the amount of protein in your extract. Often the first hop addition triggers a great deal of foaming, especially if hop pellets are used. I recommend waiting until the Hot break occurs before doing your first Hop addition and timing the hour. The extra boiling time won't hurt.
homebrewer_99
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