About Hot Break Debris

[pharaohpierre]

I couldn't find the answer I was looking for so I'm hoping you guys can help me out, this question has been bugging me.

Today I was brewing a brown ale and as the temperature almost reached boiling, a smooth coagulated film created itself on top of my wort. To my understanding, that is just proteins coming together so that they can gain mass and fall to the bottom of the kettle.

As my wort hit boiling, it started to foam up, rise and almost boil over. As it began to subside it left a dry gunky looking mess on the side of the kettle. I am first wort hopping so here is my question.

That gunky stuff on the side, does it have hops in it? And if so, is that a bad thing because those hops are not being utilized and affecting the overall bitterness and flavor profile of my beer? Thanks in advance

 

[FloppyKnockers]

I'm assuming you use pellet hops, and yes. There are hops in the 'film'. I don't think you'll notice a flavor difference, but I always scrape the side with my spoon and/or stir a whirlpool in there to rinse those guys off.

 

[pharaohpierre]

That sounds like a good idea to get those guys back in there. I will scrape them in next time. I'll wait till this beer is ready and see if it tastes the way that it should. Thanks for the response

 

[jump_xiii]

Yeah- no harm in stirring that back in there in my experience...

 

[joshesmusica]

i notice that i get that with every hop addition i make (which is usually one at 60, maybe one at 10, then one at 5) so i stick around by the pot with each addition to make sure that i'm not losing my hop material to the sides.

 

[brewbama]

If you will reduce your heat to almost nothing you'll limit the foam from almost boiling over so there's less material on the side of the Kettle. Another idea is to use a spray of water to break the bubbles. And of course stirring helps.

 

[kombat]

If you will reduce your heat to almost nothing you'll limit the foam from almost boiling over

Right, but this also defeats one of the main purposes of the boil: a good hot break. You want a strong, vigorous boil, at least until that hot break forms and falls back into the wort. Once the foam dissipates, then go ahead and throttle back your burner, but until then, you want a good, strong boil to get those proteins to clump together.