Boil Over Prevention

I'd think it would work like a pot-watcher, in that the agitation would disrupt the foam somehow. I know other people stand ready with a spray bottle of Star San. I've had LOTS of luck with antifoam. About 6 drops in the kettle and I can pretty confidently walk away from the boil with the burner half throttle or less.

 

Never tried pennys. Let me know if it works. I always have to lower my flame once the boil gets going. But until I get the flame adjusted I have to stay close. If I see the foam start to climb I just blow into the pot. Works like a spray bottle.

 

Never heard of using pennies. Sounds disgusting. Fermcap-S is more expensive than pennies, but not by much.

http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/fermcap-s-1-oz.html

 

I use fermcap, but usually have a lot of room in my kettle anyway. boiling starters in an Erlenmeyer is another story; fermcap is a lifesaver there.

 

Buy a large enough kettle and you will less chance of boil overs. Not being sarcastic. Don't skimp on the kettle. If you are going to do 5 gallon full boils I would suggest at least 10 gallons. That is the one piece of equipment I wouldn't try to save money on. A good quality, large enough kettle should last you a long time.

 

What they said... I avoid trouble by having a 20 gallon kettle for 10gal batches. Antifoam works well too; it'll also keep your fermentation from crawling out of the carboy.

I think the penny is to supply the yeast with some copper. Brewers started tossing one in the kettle when stainless replaced copper and they noticed sluggish fermentations.

 

+1 to getting a larger kettle than you think you need right now. I have done it both ways, and will never go back to a marginal kettle size again.

 

I don't think its a chemical process. I threw my chiller in at the beginning of a boil as an experiment on one batch and stiill had copious amounts of foam before my hot break. I have been first wort hopping everything lately. The oils from the hops actually help prevent boil overs.

 

Palmer sez no such thing.

BA has a totally awesome SEARCH utility.
Take it out for an epic spin to learn a whole lot about your new hobby.

 

Today's penny is only 2.5% copper, so I suspect it would have little benefit from that perspective today.

A bigger kettle is always a good thing. I have boilover issues with 10 gallon batches in my 15.5 gal keggle (I need better burner control). A quick spritz with the garden hose kills the rapidly rising foam.

 

Stir the brew as it comes to the boil , don't add hops until things have settled and keep stirring while you add the hops.After that it's simply a matter of adjusting the heat to give a good rolling boil.

 

fermacap. It has set me free on big batches.

 

Below are details on the metals in a penny (from the US Mint website):

“The alloy remained 95 percent copper and 5 percent zinc until 1982, when the composition was changed to 97.5 percent zinc and 2.5 percent copper (copper-plated zinc). Cents of both compositions appeared in that year.”
The metals of a penny have been consistent since 1982.

One aspect that I know is that wort contains all of the necessary nutrients that yeast needs except for zinc, wort is deficient in zinc. I personally add Wyeast nutrient (it contains zinc) to my wort. I suppose that adding some pennies to the wort would add some zinc as well?

More related to the boil over discussion, I once purchased an object called a pot watcher (made of glass) from Bed, Bath & Beyond that allegedly keeps a pot from boiling over. That item never worked in my brew kettle (after a few attempts I just threw it in the trash). I highly suspect that throwing pennies in a brew kettle would be equally ineffective.

Cheers!

 

Until the hot break is finished, use a big spoon to constantly to skim the foam from the center of the pot towards the edge, to allow the steam to escape. Also, if you are boiling on the stove, use the exhaust fan in your stove hood to help draw away the steam.
Before I moved my brewing outside with a propane burner, when I boiled on the stove, I would also open up a nearby window and set up an osculating fan to create a cross breeze over the stove to move the hot air away, and that seemed to really help.

 

In the days of brass fittings the yeast could extract all the zinc it needed from these.A brewer from Theakston's told me about when they switched to stainless steel and the yeast went on strike.They had to add zinc chloride solution to the wort.

 

I use a 7 gallon pot for 5 gallons and I'm constantly on the look out for boilovers. Ive done one or more of the following on any given brewday:
1. Watch the wort like a hawk as it comes to a boil.
2. skim foam as it begins to boil with a strainer and bowl of cold water to rinse strainer.
3. Add 3-4 glass marbles, like the ones you played when you were a kid. They are made of tempered glass and the spherical shape gives them a lot of strength. I've had them for years, no breakage.
4. Add 3-4 pennies
5. Fermcap

 

The marbles or pennies are nucleation sites for the bubbles to form in the boil. Some like to add pellet hops, when they dissolve lots so nucleation sites. I have found that FWH with pellets give a well behaved boil.

 

I think yeast like zinc and copper. Anyway, the practice came from the WWII and shortly after era, and probably started in Britain; as Marquis says, brewers noticed issues when they began to modernize.

I have a copper immersion chiller so I'm savin' my pennies... I do add a tiny bit of zinc though.