why would this happen?

[bottlebomber]

Tonight I made a 2 liter starter as I've done many times. Only THIS time, I thought back to a thread I read recently where everyone was talking about how they'd boiled their stir bars in the flask. So because everyone is doing it, I decided id give it a shot. This is what happened.

When I popped the stirbar into the already boiling flask, a 16 inch gyser of wort shot out, reducing my starter to 1 liter and flooding my stove. Plus my wife was cooking dinner and wasn't feeling good, so I got to enjoy one of her "you and your freakin brewing" looks.

She'll get over it. I did, and I feel much better.

However, I can't help wonder why this happened! I had the stir bar in my bucket of starsan. So this is what I came up with. 1. when I dropped the stirbar in, the few drops of starsan instantly lowered the boiling point of the solution, making a burst of steam (and wort) necessary. Or 2. The stir bar has some kind of texture that acted as a nucleus for bubbles, similar to the Mentos/Diet Coke experiment. I wonder if this has happened to anyone else, and if anyone knows why this may have occurred.

 

[Dogphish]

the professor used to tell us to do this in chemistry class when we were boiling liquids. read the beginning of the second paragraph in this article:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boiling_chip

 

[Seven]

Next time add the stir bar before you start heating the liquid!

 

[Misplaced_Canuck]

Look up "nucleation points".

M_C

 

[Bigscience]

If it was already boiling then it wasn't super heated, then I vote option 2. Did you use any fermcap? I don't boil in my flask but a few drops makes it IMPOSSIBLE to boil over when I make starters in a pot.

Also, dropping a stir bar in a flask, boiling or not, is asking for trouble and a new flask. I always slide it down the side of a tilted flask.

Sent from my iPhone using HB Talk

 

[bottlebomber]

If it was already boiling then it wasn't super heated, then I vote option 2. Did you use any fermcap? I don't boil in my flask but a few drops makes it IMPOSSIBLE to boil over when I make starters in a pot.

Also, dropping a stir bar in a flask, boiling or not, is asking for trouble and a new flask. I always slide it down the side of a tilted flask.

Sent from my iPhone using HB Talk

Oooh that's a good point. Dropping a stir bar into a flask is kinda dumb now that I think about it. Ill have to try the fermcap trick. I don't have any off that stuff.

 

[Bigscience]

Morebeer sells it but I heard and always wondered if you could use infant gas drops. Cheaper and more available.

 

[starrfish]

Look up "nucleation points".

M_C

this issue of byo mag!

 

[DannyD]

How does starsan work?, is it an oxydising agent? If it is, then it could be a burst of oxygen that was released, Like "elephant tooth past" (google it)