Why did my boil keep foaming up?

[pksmitty]

I did my first AG over the weekend. When the wort first came to a boil, it foamed up a lot, near the top of my 10 gallon pot. (6.5 gallons in the boil). I misted with water to avoid boilover, and after a couple minutes, the wort went to a nice, vigorous boil.

Periodically throughout the 60 minute boil, the wort would foam up again, never as high as the original, but I really didn't expect it to foam up at all. I only had a 60 minute hop addition, and a 10 minute cocoa powder addition, so that wasn't the cause of the foaming.

Is this normal, or can I do something to help control this? Maybe turn down the heat some?

 

[ForRealBeer]

What kind of wort was it?

I've seen the same thing from time to time, especially with a wheat beer, or sometimes with pellet hops. Never really thought too much about it, I would turn the flame down a bit and then mist the top or stir it away.

 

[Clonefarmer]

Boiling over a high heat may cause this. After your wort boils turn it down a bit to a rolling boil.

 

[pksmitty]

It was a chocolate oatmeal stout with 2 oz fuggles pellet hops at 60 mins. I've seen foaming at hops additions before, but this kept coming back throughout the boil.


I had a pretty vigorous boil going most of the 60 mins. I'll try turning the heat down more next time. I'm all in favor of saving propane!!

Thanks

 

[FlyGuy]

Get yourself some fermcap / foam control drops. Problem solved.

 

[IrregularPulse]

To answer your question, yes this is normal.

 

[phatuna]

I agree that after the initial hot break, turn down the burner until you are just getting a nice slow roll.

Take good notes about how much liquid you burn off in one hour. This will help you dial in your mash and sparge water amounts and eventually will give you a more predicatable brew day and end product.

 

[KYB]

What was the recipe like?

My Foreign Extra Stout always seems to do this, but none of my other beers. Maybe because it has a lot of flaked grains? I don't know.

 

[pksmitty]

What was the recipe like?

My Foreign Extra Stout always seems to do this, but none of my other beers. Maybe because it has a lot of flaked grains? I don't know.

12 lbs 2-row
2 lbs flaked oats
1 lb crystal 60L
13 oz chocolate malt
9 oz roasted barley

 

[ForRealBeer]

12 lbs 2-row
2 lbs flaked oats
1 lb crystal 60L
13 oz chocolate malt
9 oz roasted barley

Interesting, when it happened to me, I had oatmeal in my mash.

 

[kanzimonson]

Holy crap, a boil of 6.5 gal should never foam so much that it reaches the top of a 10gal pot. Your heat is probably way too high. What kind of boiloff rate do you get?

All you have to do during the boil is turn the wort over. Look for rising columns of bubbles that kinda shift around. Not explosive rumbling on the surface that makes you scared to put your hand near.

 

[pksmitty]

Holy crap, a boil of 6.5 gal should never foam so much that it reaches the top of a 10gal pot. Your heat is probably way too high. What kind of boiloff rate do you get?

All you have to do during the boil is turn the wort over. Look for rising columns of bubbles that kinda shift around. Not explosive rumbling on the surface that makes you scared to put your hand near.

Well, it was my first time using the burner. I was kinda fascinated by a true boil for the whole 60 minutes.

I boiled off about 1.5 gallons in the 60 mins. Looking forward to future brews and learning to control the equipment better!

 

[homebrewer_99]

When you boil water the first thing it does is bubble up to release all the oxygen in the liquid.

Whatever you add after that has oxygen in/on it and has to burn off as well.

 

[kanzimonson]

I was kinda fascinated by a true boil for the whole 60 minutes

Oh hell yeah I know the feeling. Try to scale it back a bit, though. I keep my boil at the lowest setting possible to still get some bubbling and turning over. Then I check the volume after 30 minutes to make sure I'm on target for my final volume. If I'm a little high, I'll jack it up some.

 

[Schwoopty]

I used to always think I needed a vigorous boil and went through a tank of propane after 3 or 4 batches! It wasnt until I started to read the forums and people were saying to use a soft rolling boil that I turned down my heat. I cant believe how much freaking propane I am saving!

I also just got a new hurricane burner too. Im sure that wont help with the propane savings much Cant wait to try it out though.