Experimenting today

[tubby_shaw]

I am in the process of brewing my running ale, it's a light bitter/light ale and I have made it on at least 12 different occasions
Today I decided to change the procedure slightly, I know it's not good experimental procedure but I changed two parameters.
1. During the sparge I monitored the grain bed temperature as per SteveD and maintained it at around 77º C rather than using sparge liquor at 77º C.
2. Instead of my usual practice of adding the bittering hops to the boiler and running the wort onto them (first wort hopping) I added the bittering hops as soon as the wort came to a rolling boil.
My first observation was sh1t that's a lot of foam as the wort came to the boil
I don't get a lot of foam on this recipe during "normal" brewing so maybe the hops act as an antifoam agent or coagulate some of the proteins before the boil ?
I'll post more observations as they happen

[maxashton]

piiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiics!

[Andy]

I found the same when I tried FWH - minimal hot break foaming.

[tubby_shaw]

piiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiics!

Nooooooooooooo!
Too late
You've probably seen enough pic's of my crappy set up any way and trying to take a picture of the boil is nearly impossible

[Andy]

[tubby_shaw]

I did say "nearly"

[tim]

I usually add hops as wort comes to the boil and yes, there's a lot of foam - if I waited 'til rolling boil it would boil over (as has happened a couple of times) Adding the hops at that point settles it down within a couple of minutes with a bit of stirring back, and rolling boil is then no problem.
T

[tubby_shaw]

Second lot of observations.
The wort tastes more bitter than usual, so perhaps first wort hopping does reduce hop utilisation I'll know more when I'm drinking it.
The other rather concerning thing is that I can't get the wort to run clear, even though it is being filtered through the hops

[tubby_shaw]

Final observation for today, efficency is up by 3%
Hotter sparge? Helping to liquidise the sugars and improving the run off?

I've also found that the clarity of the run off from the MT or the boiler has no bearing on the final clarity.

Those are my findings also DaaB, but this brew always runs clear Or should I say it has the last dozen or so times I have notes for
Just to clarify this is a tried and reliable recipe and all I have changed is the sparge temperature and the way the hops are used.
I'm looking forward to tasting the beer to see if has made any changes in the final product

[delboy]

Heres any interesting link which may have some relevance for FWHing.

http://bavarianbrewerytech.com/news/boilhops.htm

i found it quite informative, also seems to suggest some tannins in the boil isn't necessarily a bad think (i might not have to be so anal about the volarufing )

[SteveD]

Also with relevance to first wort hopping... something which suggests it might be a bad idea

Regarding the boil

"This first half hour, in case of infusion mash, is to decompose and precipitate some of the proteins. This should be accomplished before hops are added, because otherwise the sticky hop resins will combine with the coarse protein flocks and precipitate out of solution. "

To summarise... FWHopping reduces hop utilisation. I could never really understand the reason for doing it. What is the benefit of first wort hopping, because I can't see that it makes any sense. It can't be flavour/aroma because that gets boiled off anyway, hence the neccessity for late additions to restore it. It can't be for bittering as the article, and someother parties, suggest the hot break interferes with hop utilisation....so what is the point?