I was watching a video on Lutra Kveik tonight and saw the guy removing the “foam/hot break” off the wort during the boil (about 2:55 in - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vym7xmsh4lE). Anyone know what the purpose of this is?
I will do this sometimes on high volume boils to alleviate a boil over of the hot break. On days that don’t have large volumes, I will spray with RO water to knock down the break. I honestly don’t know if leaving hot break in the boil or removing it does much in terms of quality. I think that leaving all the little beasties and proteins in the boil has a positive effect on the wort but that is based on zero data and just my opinion.
I skim simply as a carry over from cooking soups and stews. No reason except habit for me. …unless I FWH then I’m paranoid I’ll pull hops with the foam. [emoji23]
I read that proteins are important for head retention but also noticed this stuff seems to be what ends up at the bottom of my foundry. Even on 120VAC I end up with a bit of this stuck to the bottom. Maybe skimming it off when it breaks would make clean up a little easier. I guess it ends up being trub in the end, which we don’t really want in the ferementer.
That Kveik documentary on this forum somewhere (can’t find it now) was really interesting and the old guy they were interviewing skimmed this stuff off the top of his boil too. I think he called it “removing the headache”. I’ve always been curious if he was referring to the hangover kind or the cleanup kind.
The purpose itm to have something useless to keep you occupied while the wort is boiling. I have experimented many times with skimming and not skimming and found it made no difference. Try it both ways and draw your own conclusion.
I feel like it removes some volatiles from the boil. I skim all that junk off the top of my boils as well. Maybe it’s a waste of time or not, but I think of it kind of like top cropping or skimming the yeast and braunhefe off during fermentation, which I think it produces a smoother finished beer. Although I don’t always do that either.
[emoji106][emoji23]
I think that is the heart of it. You generally want to keep the hot break material out of the fermentor (though you will get different opinions on this).
Depending on your equipment and process, you can leave some of that material behind in the mash tun, you can skim some of it off at the beginning of the boil, or you can leave it behind in the kettle post-boil (or any combination of these).
In the case of the video you posted, skimming all of that foam was probably necessary to prevent a boilover since the kettle was so full.
+1. If you don’t keep the brew(st)er busy, there’s no telling what mischief s/he might get into.