Combating Boil-overs

[styletheboss]

When boiling my 30 litre wort i tend to, almost always, cause a boil-over. Anyone have any remedies?

I've read in the How To Brew (Palmer) book that you throw a few copper pennies in. If that's the case should i put a shed-load of pennies in? Thoughts?

 

[3G]

When the wort is coming to the boil reduce your heat. Watch the size of the bubbles and characteristics of liquid coming to the boil and pre empt the boil over. Try to get a feel for the wort and watch it at the crucial time(maybe 10 mins before boiling. A few hops help break the surface tension also.
After 20 ags still no boil over. You want a rolling boil but not a vulcanic explosion.

 

[fraser_john]

How big is your kettle that you are boiling in? If its only 35 litres its always going to be tough to prevent a boil over!

Watch for the foam starting to form, its a good indication boil is not too far away, turn the heat down a little at a time, watch for movement beneath the foam as an indication. If your burner is not too loud, you can also hear the boil getting ready to start as the gas bubbles start to form on the bottom of the kettle.

Spray bottle full of cold water, spray the boil as it starts helps to kill down the foam.

Some reckon scooping off the foam, which is comprised of some broken down proteins anyway, helps prevent boil over.

 

[goatherder]

I do exactly what fraser_john says - turn down the heat and hit it with a spray bottle. Works a treat.

 

[styletheboss]

Quick and to the point fellas. Ta very much. My kettle is indeed 35L. The burner i have is very hard to regulate. The softest touch...and whoosh!

 

[tazman1967]

+2 for Fraser_John

I just keep a glass of cold water handy..kills the boilover asap...then adjust my reg

 

[Doogiechap]

Foam Control from Grain and Grape may help. I use a similar product which is made from Hop Extract combined with skimming the scum which enables me to boil 45l in a 50l pot without boilovers... OK well mostly h34r: .
This topic has been covered pretty thoroughly in this thread too.
Cheers
Doug

 

[dr K]

Get a bigger kettle or make a smaller batch.
A seriously big boil is a seriously big help, now if you were a commercial brewery you wuld have a covered kettle with a sort of stove-pipe to evacuate the volatiles, but you do not, you have an open kettle and have none of the advantage the stove-pipe may give you.
My typical finished batch is 55 litres, my kettle is 120 litres boilovers are still a problem in the early part of the boil.

K

 

[Hargie]

...if you have a tap at the bottom of you kettle then before you hit boilover,gently run a couple of litres of wort out of the kettle into a jug and reintroduce slowly after a few minutes , after the foaming has subsided and surface tension has eased....remember , heated liquids e x p a n d .....


Cougar

 

[Adamt]

The "copper pennies" just act as a nucleation point for vapour bubbles to form, so you could use anything roughish, any clean coin or two should be alright.

No formation of vapour at boiling point = superheated wort and eventually it will flash, a whole crapload will vapourise and boilover.

Edit: Alternatively when you start getting a smallish, stable foam on the surface, you can just stir continously to allow vapour to leave the surface.

 

[Tony]

I remember chatting with luke When he was brewing at Potters and asked him if the boilover was the cause of a type of chemical reaction (as we watched hops boil out the hose from his kettle)

HE said yeah........ once the break forms it dies down.

I find this in my setup. It wants to go over for a minuite of so abut settles out and i can boil the hell out of it without a problem.

I dont like the idea off adding more crap to the beer to stop a problem that only lasts a minuite. I turn down the burner and stir! Once its settled down ,i turn the burner back up to get the boil i want.

Too easy.

cheers

 

[twowhits]

I always skim the froth/foam as it comes up to the boil, usually with a large perforated SS spoon. Takes off some pretty gunky looking stuff that probably shouldn't be in beer anyway. Also means you're at the kettle as it comes to the boil and can turn it off quick if it starts coming up too fast.

regards

Andrew

 

[Barge]

I found that using a pedestal fan blowing across the kettle worked for me. Not sure of the physics/chemistry of it but it definately worked. I went this road because I found that after the initial boil-over, just when i thought everything was sweet and i ramped up the heat, the wort had the potential to boil over again. i obviously haven't waited long enough for the break to form, etc. but with the fan it's not really even a factor. keeps a nice rolling boil without the need to constantly check it (not that i'm ever far way )

 

[Kai]

The "copper pennies" just act as a nucleation point for vapour bubbles to form, so you could use anything roughish, any clean coin or two should be alright.

Hop pellets make for good nucleation points too, consider adding some of your bittering hops before the wort is boiling. Though if you do still boil over then you may lose some of them. I find the initial foam is the gas within the water being knocked out of solution by the agitation of the boil, once that's past the boil is very smooth. However, I'm usually boiling 32L in a 36L electric kettle which is a different kettle of fish, if you'll pardon the pun.

 

[geoffi]

I now regularly boil up to about 1 inch of the rim of my 50L kettle.

I use a 'nasa' burner, so the wort gets up to boil pretty fast. When it starts to foam up, I knock the gas way back and let it subside. Then I slowly increase the flame again. It takes a couple of minutes of close watching, but I don't have boil overs even with this ridiculously full kettle.

 

[PostModern]

I do double batches in my 50 keggle. I heat the kettle with a variable regulator on a three ring and to help it get to the boil, I use the over-the-side immersion element from my HLT. With this setup, I can cut the heat from the element instantly when I see simmering starting, which stops the simmer. Then I throttle back the gas until the simmer restarts. Once it's simmered for a bit, I can ramp the heat back up and get no major foam. The only boilover I had was when doing a single batch. Foamed like mad. Geez burning malt and hops stinks!

 

[Batz]

I do exactly what fraser_john says - turn down the heat and hit it with a spray bottle. Works a treat.

+2
If I didn't do this I'll have a boil over every-time

Batz

 

[Screwtop]

I use boil nuts - 4 SS nuts in the bottom of the kettle

+1 for the spray bottle - spray to settle it down, then using the nuts in the kettle I can boil it hard. Used to have multiple boilovers before, I like to boil hard to keep evap rate high.

TIP: I went to the Tip Shop and bought an old SS laundry tub insert for $10 and cut the bottom 90mm off. Had the drain hole welded up (no need, a plug would work) and I use this under the burner, it's slightly larger than the Keggle so any spillage is easily cleaned up and doesn't go all over the concret floor of the shed.

 

[PostModern]

I like to boil hard to keep evap rate high.

I was wondering how people got good efficiency from a fast mash run off. Boil off the excess water! Fabulous!

I just simmer my wort along and lose only about a litre and a bit from the hour-long boil. The small temperature difference shouldn't make much difference to any reactions going on. Maybe less kettle caramelisation? Less DMS and volatiles being blown off?

 

[matti]

I scored myself a 70L kettle so I can achieve a rolling boil to be able to get full hop utilisation and a great hot break

if you have a smaller pot and get easy boil overs. Do a more concentrate wort and top up to fermenter to avoid boils overs.