What is the relationship, if any, between the foam that forms on top of the boil and the stringy, egg-drop soup looking hot break material?
It’s protein, mostly. You don’t see it hanging out on top after the hot break, right? If you skim it, it won’t be there to get in your way later. If you don’t have problems with break material in your way later, don’t worry about it. Either way, you don’t want it in your beer.
I like to skim off the top, because I’ve noticed that some of the draff from the grains will be carried up by the protein, so you can get both at once.
I just let it boil over and have the wife clean it up ;D actually i pour my wort through a strainer enroute to the fermenter and it is not a problem
You funny…
Haven’t found a strainer, yet, that will catch the hot break.
I use a regular strainer with a piece of flour sacking over it.
Da man!!!
Using whole hops can effectively turn a strainer into a hop back, and seems to do a decent job of removing break material. That’s what I use for my small batch brewing, where losing a small volume can mean losing a high percentage of good wort, and the wort stays pretty clear into the fermenter.
Someday I’m going to collect the last gallon of wort, break and all, and ferment it side-by-side with the clear wort to see what difference it makes. I don’t want to say it doesn’t matter, but I can’t say that I can really cite any obvious difference in the flavor of beers I made before I left the break behind and those I made afterwards.
Hi, my name is Ron and I am a skimmer. ;D
I skim when I don’t first wort hop, but I tend to FWH a lot.
I’m with Jeff on this one. Because I can skim that material easily, I do it for all my brews that aren’t First Wort Hopped. There is ample evidence in my opinion that the scum on the boil has flavor negative impacts, so it seems that it is worth doing when I’m not going to lose some of my FWHs.
I skimmed for about a year, mainly to alleviate boil overs. When I upgraded to a bigger kettle a few years ago, I stopped skimming. I’ve noticed no difference whatsoever in flavor. The most noticeable flavor difference I’ve tasted recently has to do with hitting a proper mash pH and adding flavor salts to the kettle to hit an appropriate water profile.
If you skim the foam, then you’re more likely to be watching the pot when it comes to a boil and thus less likely to have a boilover. If you’re prone to getting easily distracted by shiny objects, then skimming gives you something to do.
I think it’s one of those things that gives you a greater margin of error later on, so it doesn’t do any harm. I started doing it because of the similarity in making stocks.
As with any process in brewing, if you get good results without doing it, then don’t worry about it. Nobody said everyone has to brew the same way. Well, if they did, they’re wrong.
LOOK! a chicken!
Nah, its not a chicken or even the kids that provide the distraction. Its usually “Now where did I put those damn hops I weighed out 10 minutes ago ???”
I have to say that when my wort is about to come to a boil…I’m right there and watching it closely.
If you’ve ever had a boilover you’ll understand why. >:(
Once bitten…twice shy. 
Ample evidence? Could you cite some of that?
For the record I will often skim just for something to do. I don’t think its much different than the rest of the protein, and when I don’t skim I find that the floating denatured protein winds up on the side of my kettle as the level drops. So I don’t think I’m affecting my beer by doing this, just making it a little easier to clean the kettle later.
I do also sometimes see a little hop color (and presumably oils) sticking to the scum when I first add my bittering addition. SIn this respect maybe it has some very minor affect on tthe bitterness.
Actually the biggest distraction for me is this forum. What starts out to be a couple minutes sometimes turns into 20, then why did the flame go out, and what’s that propane smell, or dang boil-over…
please no one tell my wife ::) i use a strainer that is extremely fine. does take a while to pour through and i actually have to rinse it once or twice while pouring through it. i think she (Lord help me) got it from pampered chef
Well, I haven’t been able to ascertain any negative effects from the foam, so I leave it. I used to skim, but when I started doing a lot of FWH beers I stopped the skimming. When I was able to make a comparison due to stopping, I found that there really wasn’t any difference that I could attribute to skimming.