Foam Control/fermcap-s

[Gopha]

Has anybody used Fermcap-S?
G&G sell it under the name of Foam Control, it is used for keeping your krausen under control during fermentation, use it to control boil overs and manage starter foam.
I found references to it on another USA forum and it sounds like it may solve an ongoing problem that I have.
The problem that I have is that I plan my brews around having 25lts into the fermenter plus a 2lt starter, this doesn't leave a lot of head space for krausen and generally end up with a bit of blow off.
Normally this is not a problem but my last batch was pretty wild and I blow out at least a 1.5lts of Krausen/yeast/wort. When using dehydrated dry yeast I have no problems.
My last batch was a APA and my bittering, flavour and aroma additions where added in the last 20mins of the boil and I feel I may have lost some of my bittering compounds - Cheers

 

[sam]

Yep, works well for the listed applications. I use it quite a bit. The bottle lasts a while. And I haven't noticed any negative effects on beer foam either.

Cheers

 

[Bribie G]

I'd like to get a bottle. Even with 23L batches I often end up with blow-through as I often do ales around 22 degrees (Irish Yeast and Ringwood particularly) and like the above poster I reckon I lose a bit of bittering in particular as the bitter oils just love to travel into the foam.

 

[kevin_smevin]

Has anybody used Fermcap-S?
G&G sell it under the name of Foam Control, it is used for keeping your krausen under control during fermentation, use it to control boil overs and manage starter foam.
I found references to it on another USA forum and it sounds like it may solve an ongoing problem that I have.
The problem that I have is that I plan my brews around having 25lts into the fermenter plus a 2lt starter, this doesn't leave a lot of head space for krausen and generally end up with a bit of blow off.
Normally this is not a problem but my last batch was pretty wild and I blow out at least a 1.5lts of Krausen/yeast/wort. When using dehydrated dry yeast I have no problems.
My last batch was a APA and my bittering, flavour and aroma additions where added in the last 20mins of the boil and I feel I may have lost some of my bittering compounds - Cheers

I haven't used this product. I set my brews up the same and almost always get foam coming out the airlock. Now I harvest the yeast that comes out. It's really lovely clean yeast. I simply capture it in sterile water inside a flask.



I use a stainless steel elbow/blowoff tube in the fermenter lid and in the silicone bung pictures. I simply boil about 1L of water in the flask to sterilise and away i go. Sorry the picture is sideways.

 

[MeLoveBeer]

The thing that scares me about such products is that there has to be some change to the way that the yeast behaves and this would have to have some impact on the finished product?

 

[JestersDarts]

I haven't used this product. I set my brews up the same and almost always get foam coming out the airlock. Now I harvest the yeast that comes out. It's really lovely clean yeast. I simply capture it in sterile water inside a flask.


I use a stainless steel elbow/blowoff tube in the fermenter lid and in the silicone bung pictures. I simply boil about 1L of water in the flask to sterilise and away i go. Sorry the picture is sideways.

Why the lanyard? do you carry it around your neck?!

Oh and what is this fermcap stuff?! adding a defoamer to your beer?

what next? Ground up cow bones?

 

[kevin_smevin]

Why the lanyard? do you carry it around your neck?!

Oh and what is this fermcap stuff?! adding a defoamer to your beer?

what next? Ground up cow bones?

silicone bungs are very slippery when wet so it kept popping out of the neck of the flask. The "lanyard" was just to stop the bung from coming out.

 

[JestersDarts]

silicone bungs are very slippery when wet so it kept popping out of the neck of the flask. The "lanyard" was just to stop the bung from coming out.

Aahhh I see it now - its got its seatbelt on!

 

[kevin_smevin]

Aahhh I see it now - its got its seatbelt on!

Yep, something like that

 

[Gopha]

I haven't used this product. I set my brews up the same and almost always get foam coming out the airlock. Now I harvest the yeast that comes out. It's really lovely clean yeast. I simply capture it in sterile water inside a flask.

View attachment 40637

I use a stainless steel elbow/blowoff tube in the fermenter lid and in the silicone bung pictures. I simply boil about 1L of water in the flask to sterilise and away i go. Sorry the picture is sideways.

I use a similar process but use a plastic bottle instead of a Erlenmeyer flash and it is good to hear that you have been able to harvest the yeast. I may try it in the future.
Fermcap I believe only reduces surface tension of the wort so that there is less foam at surface and drops out of solution with the yeast, with no ill effects I believe - Cheers