Tired of always watching the pot while you brew your beer so you don't have any boil overs? Tired of attaching a blow off tube to your fermenter just in case if it blows its top? Well, Ben's Homebrew now has a new product called Fermcap-S. Fermcap-S is an anti foaming liquid that you add directly to your brew kettle or to your fermenter in order to prevent boil overs.
I'll be honest, I was a bit skeptical when I used this stuff. I wasn't sure if it was going to work. So I brewed up a batch of beer and just to try out Fermcap-S, I decided to make sure I had a decent foam going for a boil over. I added 2 drops per gallon of wort and immediately all of the foam subsided. I was amazed at this stuff.
One other great thing about fermcap-s is that you can now collect 7 gallons of wort in a 7.5 gallon brewing kettle. Why, because you don't have to worry about it foaming up and boiling over. You can squeeze more wort into your kettle for the boil. It's awesome. And, you don't have to worry about watching it at all.
Fermcap-S also works the same way in the fermenter. Add 1-2 drops per gallon of wort, pitch your yeast and fermcap-s will hold the krausen (foam) to a 1/2 inch. That's pretty freakin' sweet if you ask me.
And if you're at all worried about fermcap-s causing issues with head retention in the final product of your beer, then don't sweat it. After primary fermentation finishes, fermcap-s drops out of solution to the bottom of the fermenter, so you can just rack right off of it.
If you don't have fermcap-s then I recommend you get some and try it out. One vial lasts a long time and you're never going to have to worry about boil overs or blow offs with your beer. I'm definitely going to be using it with every beer that I brew. No more worries for me. And that's what I'm talking about.
P.S. I'll be demonstrating how it works in an upcoming video. Then you'll get to SEE what I'm talking about!
9 comments:
Hello,
This might have just became my favorite site!
I've been aggravated with blow off in my 5 gallon carboy and am too cheap to go and buy a 6.5 gallon carboy, but this seems like a cheaper fix.
I had a question about adding any supplemental nutrients (gypsum, etc).
Do you have any suggestions on adding a nutrient that might make the beer turn out better?
The only time I would recommend adding any kind of nutrients is if you're doing a big alcoholic beer. If you're doing average beers that are 7% or lower, then additional nutrients aren't necessary.
Glad you enjoy the blog.
So my question is, what is this stuff? What is causing it to prevent the foam?
I may be wrong, but isn't the foam good, especially in the boil? I thought that is where a lot of the good head retention proteins are created and if you stifle that couldn't it affect your head and flavor?
I guess I just wonder what is causing this stuff to prevent those proteins and lipids from doing the thing they are suppose to be doing...
Mike
Mike's Brew Review
I was talking to a master brewer here in town and asked him about ferm-cap and although I didn't ask about what are the specific chemicals that cease the foaming, he did tell me that it is a waxy substance and used to use it in his brewery, but have ceased just because of the stuff.
Still haven't tried it and am sick of boil overs, but a bigger pot would fix.
I guess if you want to keep the foam down, use the stuff, but if you into keeping the beer as natural as possible then don't. Yah if anyone knows that chemicals that go into it, I am curious as well.
@Mike,
Fermcap is Dimethylpolysiloxane, it's a food grade safe silicon. It doesn't deter from head retention but actually increases head retention. The silicon attaches itself to the yeast, which in turn, feeds the yeast cells and promotes cellular growth. Because of this, the lipids and proteins actually stay in the solution more, providing greater head retention. I couldn't believe myself, but after pouring some beer after using this stuff, I get huge rocky heads on them that linger forever. I hope this helps.
This stuff sounds pretty legit. I would have been a bit skeptical of this stuff, too. Glad you were able to try it out. I'm just excited to be able to do something else while the pot is heating. I wonder how many batches I will forget about, while I'm not paying attention! Thanks for the review!
I use it all the time...great stuff!!!! No off flavors...great head retention...no boilovers...no blowoffs....but, probably causes cancer lol. Something this great has to have some sort of side effect, its just nature to have a equilibrium.
Actually this stuff is totally legit. I did a lot of internet research on it today and discovered that it's used by large drink companies for similar process purposes. It's also the active ingredient in anti-gas pills (Gas-X, Mylanta), aka simethicone, which is a polymerized version of Dimethylpolysiloxane in a silica gel. Totally harmless and widely used in the food industry.
Hey thanks for posting. Because of this post, I have purchased some FermCap and used it in one boil. Worked great so far.
My assumption is that if you use it in the boil, you do not need to add more to the fermenter to control overflow there. Is that right? Or should I add more to the wort after the boil? I do not think it mattered on this batch, but sometimes on really high OG batches, I have that issue.
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