Don't take your eye off the ball

[vanish]

Part way through a brew day, doing Bathams best bitter.
All was going well, sparge complete, boiler on with both elements on and lid on so as to bring it up to the boil faster. And yes you've guessed it a boil over occured. I only noticed this because the RCD tripped and my loud music went off. So I panicked big time rushed to my boiler and for reasons I cant quite fathom I turned the tap on!!! Now it's really going everywhere. So after turning the tap off and removing the lid I was down from 29L to 25L.
I've just finished cleaning my sticky floor and there's just under an hour of boil time left.
One of these days I'll have a brew day without any boo boo's. Ohh well you could call it learning.

[boingy]

There are at least two lessons here:

1. Never leave a boiler unattended. Get a TV/book/Nintendo/whatever and sit near the boiler.
2. Um, don't turn on the tap that is holding back gallons of boiling hot wort.

If you are only going to learn one of the lessons I'd go for the second one!

[vanish]

You could say that there's learning a lesson, and learning not to be damn stupid

[boingy]

Yeah, it's a good job the rest of us are perfect.

I've definitely never tried to use beer as a sanitiser...

[vanish]

of course not, that'd be silly!

[Tony01]

I'd forget the lid too while you're boiling .. apart from it making it easier to boil over, there are some things you want to get rid of in that steam

[vanish]

What lid... It;s gone already. No longer a part of my kit!

[gti1x]

I'd forget the lid too while you're boiling .. apart from it making it easier to boil over, there are some things you want to get rid of in that steam

OK what's in the steam that you want to get rid of? I'm just about to make a boiler and was going to keep the lid, as it'll loose less heat, and so be more efficient, but if there are aromatics that I want to remove I'd better not.

GTI

[vanish]

I've not heard a definitive answer but have simply read that there are certain precipitates that may be carried away in the steam. I guess that it's just precautionary.

Well back to my balls up before. Things had to improve didn't they. My post boil liquor weighed in at 21L, with a post boil gravity of 1.057. Which is much higher than I expected. However it allowed me to add 5L water to achieve 1.046. And by the time I had cooled it all down the gravity was 1.047. I ended up with almost 22L in the FV.
So after all I achieved my target gravity within 1 point. and was was only 1L down on a full size brew.
Didn't taste too bad either.

[Scroogemonster]

OK what's in the steam that you want to get rid of?

I believe there are volatile compounds which, if not allowed to "gas off" can give a harsh bitterness +/- aftertastes to the finished product.

I leave my lid 2/3rds on to keep the heat up and give a good rolling boil on one element, but it still allows undesireables to be vented from the copper.

I'm lucky though in that my copper is a H&G 10 gallon model so with a 5 gallon brewlength, there's no danger of a boil over. Even if it did, I boil outside with the copper siting on a wooden pallet (no risk of spills inside the house or going anywhere near the occupants)

Cheers
Kev

[gti1x]

I beleive there are volatile compounds which, if not allowed to "gas off" can give a harsh bitterness +/- aftertastes to the finished product.

I leave my lid 2/3rds on to keep the heat up and give a good rolling boil on one element, but it still allows undesireables to be vented from the copper.

That seems like a good compromise, might try that.

GTI

[Tony01]

Sorry for the delay in replying, forgotten about this post completely.

Boiling your wort will (among a great many other things) boil off DMS (Dimethyl Sulfides) which can give your beer an off-taste. Some DMS can be a good thing depending on the beer you are brewing, but generally it's good to let them boil off. I never use a lid at all on my boiler.

Hope that helps.

[vanish]

Now I know why I'm doing it.
That's great thanks Tony.

[gti1x]

That's what's so great about this hobby - so much to learn, but I can STILL produce a reasonable pint.

Thanks Tony for the info

GTI