I was almost "that guy"

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FedoraDave
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I was almost "that guy"

Post by FedoraDave »

Brewing the first batch of Hopsperiment today. I'm using Ahtanum, which should produce a nice Pale Ale, and, most important, give me a sense of what this hops brings, so I can make better decisions when formulating future recipes.

But anyway.... I was waiting for the boil to begin, and I knew the temp was over 200, but I got distracted thinking about Thanksgiving. I'm doing the turkey again this year; my third year smoking it, and I got to thinking about the seasonings I'll be using. So I started pulling out the herbs I figured I'd be using, and began sniffing and tasting, just to get a sense of how they'd work together (by the way, I'm going to be using a rub of 1/2 stick of butter, blended with salt, pepper, onion, garlic, rosemary, thyme, and basil. Apple wood for the smoke, if you're keeping score at home).

So I got distracted. And when I was done, I look over to the brewpot, and what do I see? Hot break creeping dangerously close to the edge (I doubt it would have boiled over; I had a pre-boil volume just under 4 gallons, and I'm using a pot that holds about six gallons). Still, I had a bit of a shock. I grabbed the spray bottle containing cold water and sprayed the heck out of it until the break subsided (thanks for the tip, Gymrat; I've always kept a bottle of cold water handy every brew day).

No harm, no foul. Got the first hop addition added, set the timer, and now I'm chillin'.

But I really would have felt like a dope if I'd allowed that to happen.
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MadBrewer
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Re: I was almost "that guy"

Post by MadBrewer »

Haven't had that happen in a while, but it sucks when it does. One thing I miss is I used to have a combo digital thermometer/timmer I used on brew day. It had a corded probe that I would drop in the pot and set the alarm for about 208* so that I could be riminded hot break was comming and have a minute to watch it over. I think I will be picking up another next time I come across it. It was the probe that eventually went bad but for $20 I got a lot of use out of it.
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Re: I was almost "that guy"

Post by ScrewyBrewer »

Geeezz... I remember when first brewing on my eBIAB system I looked away for less than a minute and the hotbreak poured out of the 15 gallon kettle like a volcano. That cleanup added at least a full hour of cleaning up time to my brewday. Of course it also took me two other lesser spills before I learned my lesson. I'm happy to report that I haven't had a spill like those during any of my more recent brewdays.
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Tabasco
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Re: I was almost "that guy"

Post by Tabasco »

I never seem to get much of a hot break BIAB american brewers malt. I get a nice malty smell, and the usual frothy top til it starts to boil ... but never unmanageable. I only had hot break issues when I extract brewed.
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Re: I was almost "that guy"

Post by bpgreen »

I use fermcap. Foaming is never a problem with a drop or two in the pot.
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Re: I was almost "that guy"

Post by Pudge »

bpgreen wrote:I use fermcap. Foaming is never a problem with a drop or two in the pot.
Huge +1. Great stuff.

I did that all DME beer recently and it tried to jump out of the pot when I added it to boiling water. No way was I expecting that much hot break and later that much hot break material from DME.
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Re: I was almost "that guy"

Post by HerbMeowing »

My boil-over early warning system is three copper pennies in the kettle.
When the boil draws nigh ... they start jumping around and making noise.
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Re: I was almost "that guy"

Post by Inkleg »

HerbMeowing wrote:My boil-over early warning system is three copper pennies in the kettle.
When the boil draws nigh ... they start jumping around and making noise.
:huh: That doesn't make cents. :rofl: :rofl:
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