foam control

[mookow]

I know that there is a product called "foam control" that cuts down on the krausen, thus allowing you to fill your fermenters more without worrying about about them throwing foam.

Is there any such product for the boil kettle? And if so, does anyone have experience with either of these products?

[barleyburps]

The best cure is to get a larger pot. . .

I've never seen anything like that, I just always leave my lid cracked well enough so that foam is not a problem.

of course, if you're filling your kettle almost to the lip the way I used to do when I used 10 and 8 gallon pots, foam and boil over will probably always be an issue.

[mookow]

Originally posted by barleyburps
The best cure is to get a larger pot. . .

I've never seen anything like that, I just always leave my lid cracked well enough so that foam is not a problem.

of course, if you're filling your kettle almost to the lip the way I used to do when I used 10 and 8 gallon pots, foam and boil over will probably always be an issue.

Well, my current boil kettle is a 15.5 gallon converted keg, and I havent had a boil over in at least half a dozen batches. I'd just like to not have to watch the keg like a hawk when I'm brewing a 12 or 13 gallon batch.

[barleyburps]

Is there another reason you want to do foam control other than boilover?

[corkybstewart]

You can use that same product in the kettle and it works pretty well. I've used it on big beers where I collect 14 gallons and I need to boil down to 11.
Barleyburps, you shouldn't be boiling with the lid on at all. DMS is a chemical driven off during the boil, it gives beer a cooked corn or cabbage taste. If you leave the lid on, it gets concentrated in your beer instead of driven off into the atmosphere.

[mookow]

Originally posted by barleyburps
Is there another reason you want to do foam control other than boilover?

The less foam I have the more wort I can pack into my boil kettle, resulting in a bigger batch of beer. This isnt an issue when I do a bigger beer because I run out of mash tun room first, but when I'm doing a beer such as a hefeweizen, I'd like to maximize my output.

[Dextolen]

There is definitely a substance brewers can use in the boil to reduce foam/boilover. If you watch the Dirty Jobs show on brewing, they toss it in right after the hops. Don't recall if they addressed what it was.

[Mad Scientist]

Check austonhomebrew, I know they have it, just don't remeber the name

[corkybstewart]

I htink it's just called Foam Control. It's some sort of silica product so it's harmless.

[barleyburps]

I use a lid mainly to get it up to boil faster, but also leave it on to keep spiders and cobwebs from falling into the pot.

I leave it cracked plenty far enough for the dms to be driven off with steam.

[HogieWan]

The best foam control agent I've found was hops. I started using FWH in my recipes because of the fact that I get very little foam when I do it. Drop in some hops as you begin to sparge. Just remember that you'll get the flavor of adding those hops at ~20 as well as the bitterness of your full boil

[Dextolen]

Hops does the exact opposite for me, but I add during the boil.

[corkybstewart]

Originally posted by Dextolen
Hops does the exact opposite for me, but I add during the boil.

Same here. And when the hops boil over it really screws the recipe up, its hard to measure how much hops you lost to the floor.

[Mad Scientist]

Which is why I keep a close eye on my beginning boil.

[HogieWan]

yep - adding hops to boiling wort will cause a boilover if you're not watching. I'm not sure why they inhibit the foam, but having the hops there while heating to boiling seems to control it very nicely.

[Mill Rat]

FWH hops will help control foaming because they will have had the time for the hop oils to leach out into the wort, and the oil is what helps control the foaming, just like oily additions to a beer will kill the head on a beer faster than W.C.G.'s bad jokes.

When you add hops to wort that is already boiling, the hops become additional nucleation sites, which make it even easier for the water in the wort to flash into vapor, forming lots of bubbles all at once (aka boilover). It's similar to the way that scratches in glassware are nucleation sites for carbonation to come out of solution. There's nothing special about the hops in this reaction, just about any rough solid that contacts a boiling liquid will temporarily increase the rate at which vapor is released.

[MichaelM]

Originally posted by Mill Rat
FWH hops will help control foaming because they will have had the time for the hop oils to leach out into the wort, and the oil is what helps control the foaming, just like oily additions to a beer will kill the head on a beer faster than W.C.G.'s bad jokes.

When you add hops to wort that is already boiling, the hops become additional nucleation sites, which make it even easier for the water in the wort to flash into vapor, forming lots of bubbles all at once (aka boilover). It's similar to the way that scratches in glassware are nucleation sites for carbonation to come out of solution. There's nothing special about the hops in this reaction, just about any rough solid that contacts a boiling liquid will temporarily increase the rate at which vapor is released.


I tell you this man is a friggen genius!!

[HogieWan]

Originally posted by MichaelM
I tell you this man is a friggen genius!!

no, but he plays one on RealBeer

[Mad Scientist]

Originally posted by MichaelM
I tell you this man is a friggen genius!!


Nah....He's an engineer, they're good at sounding like geniuses.....Geologists are they real geniuses

[corkybstewart]

Geologists just know everything, engineers have to whip out a calculator to see if something is even possible. The scariest thing in the oilfield is an engineer with a calculator. The well is blowing out, crap flying everywhere and that stupid engineer pulls out the calculator and declares "this can't happen, look at these numbers". This geologist is already headed for the hills.

[Mad Scientist]

I cannot even begin to describe the effect of an engineer with a calculator on the environmental business......

[Mill Rat]

The calculator is the bane of all good hair-of-the-gonads engineering sense. As a constant reminder to me and those I supervise, I have a sign at my desk that reads:

Measure with a micrometer
Mark with chalk
Cut with an axe

Never trust any answer with more than 3 significant digits. It's either a mathematician working in the theoretical ether or an architect, geologist, or engineer that reality (or a contractor) has not yet brutally slapped a measure of common sense into their gray matter.

[dparsons]

Originally posted by Boerne Brew
Nah....He's an engineer, they're good at sounding like geniuses.....Geologists are they real geniuses

If geologists are geniuses, then why are you living in Midland, TX?

[Mad Scientist]

Originally posted by dparsons
If geologists are geniuses, then why are you living in Midland, TX?

Well, despite my genius status, I typicially do not have alot of choices in employers.