Praying For Patience - and a couple of questions

[pentachris]

I completed my first brew on Saturday. It wasn't without a few mishaps, but nothing went terribly wrong. My only questions for more experienced brewers:

1) Right after bringing the wort back to a boil after stirring in the LME, I noticed a little bit of black in the foam. It didn't last long, and there were no scorch marks in the pot when I cleaned up after. I'm sure if I scorched a little bit, it was very minimal. Just wondering if that's fairly common? (Full boil, 6.6 lbs of LME, and yes, I had the heat off when I added and stirred in the extract.)

2) I kept it at a full rolling boil. I was surprised at how much hops ended up an inch or two above the wort level due to the foam up during the hops additions - especially the second addition, 15 minutes before flame-out. Do you scrape the hops back into the boil?

I went home for lunch & checked my airlock today. It needed a little water. On a whim, I pulled it out and took a whiff. It smells magically delicious - I'm seriously praying for patience.

 

[cheezydemon3]

BLACK???? Never seen that.

Yes, scrape the sides.

 

[unionrdr]

Your boil may've loosened some bits of stuff already burned onto the pot. If of course it's used for other things,or the previous batch got scorched. Just strain it out after chilling & going into the fermenter.

 

[cheezydemon3]

Yeah, I should have said "No need to worry" but honestly, never seen black in the foam.

 

[pentachris]

This was the first time I'd used it for anything other than boiling water to test the thermometer and spigot seals for leaks. The black was gone after just 2 or 3 seconds. What's coming to mind is something boiling off of one of the aforementioned seals - I'll worry about it more if it continues to happen.

Funny you should mention straining; that was actually one of the minor mishaps. About halfway through the transfer from the kettle to the pail, the strainer dropped in the pail. I'm pretty sure the whole strainer was sanitized, and not just the mesh part that I knew the wort would contact. Whatever, I ain't askeered. I just turned off the spigot, dipped my hand in Star-San, retrieved the strainer and kept on going. It's gonna be just fine.

 

[unionrdr]

I mentioned it since I aways use a fine mesh strainer going into the FV. You wouldn't believe some of the odd looking grainy bits I've strained out.
I've had mine tip over into the FV before when using loose whole leaf hops in the boil. Had only a couple bottles with one leaf in the bottom. But still,trying to fish them out half way through racking wasn't fun. I went back to using hop sacks for pellets & grain sacks for leaf hops.
But some of the strangest bits of stuff I've seen in the strainer afterwards. Like these turquoise lookin small square bits,small black grainy things,some that even looked like beach sand. But no more than about 1/2tsp all together.