CHIP WALTON: What's going on, everyone?
It's Chip Walton.
I'm here at Northern Brewer HQ once again, and I would like to introduce you to my little
friend, Fermcap-S. Oh, you don’t know Fermcap?
Well, you should, because it’s one of the most handy tools to have in your homebrewer's
toolbox for fighting foam.
And, I’m about to show you four ways it can make life easier and less messy – on
brew day, during fermentation, even with yeast starters.
First, a quick look at the tech specs.
Fermcap-S – also referred to as just Fermcap – is a non-soluble, anti-foam agent that
generally comes in a 1 oz eye dropper style bottle.
It’s a silica polymer used by brewers to control foaming in the kettle and during fermentation;
it does this by breaking the surface tension of the wort and collapsing the foam.
It is food-safe and non-toxic, and its shelf life is nearly infinite as long as you keep
it refrigerated, and remember to always shake well before use.
As weird as it might look going into your wort, FermCap will have no negative effects
on your final beer as long as you properly follow usage guidelines on the packaging.
Before we look at the several ways Fermcap can save your brew day, if you want to see
more FAQ and product demo videos like this from Northern Brewer, be sure to like, subscribe,
and share this video.
Now, let’s fight some foam!
The first place Fermcap comes in handy is in helping to prevent a boilover on brew day.
Whether you brew extract or all-grain, I'm sure we all share the same fear of the dreaded
and potentially dangerous boilover, especially if you’re pushing the volume limit of your
kettle.
As the sugar-filled wort comes up to a boil, you’ll generally see foam forming on the
surface.
This is caused by proteins in the malt foaming as wort reaches a boil.
Wort and water also contain dissolved gasses that are forced out of solution with heat,
which is why they are prone to boil over.
If this foam and the quickly rising wort temperature go unchecked, you are setting the scene for
what could be an epic boilover.
This is made all the more risky with the first addition of hops as those hops create even
more nucleation points to further surge the foam.
At this point, if you drop the recommended amount of Fermcap into the kettle and stir
it, you’ll see the foam dissipates rather quickly.
As the wort comes to a full boil, there will be less foam than you’re probably used to
seeing.
Also, as you add your first hops you’ll definitely notice less aggressive post-hop
foaming.
To further cut down on the chance of a boilover, some brewers suggest first wort hopping or
at the very least adding a few pellets of your bittering hop addition, along the anti-foam
agent, to help get the wort acclimated to those new hop oils slowly, instead of in one
huge burst.
You can also use FermCap at the end of your brew day.
Here, you might have aerated your wort by shaking the fermenter vigorously or oxygenated
the wort using pure oxygen with a sintered stone and wand.
Either of these methods will likely kick up a layer of foam inside the fermenter.
Some homebrewers prefer to knock this foam down before pitching the yeast (especially
dry yeast) so that that yeast goes directly into the wort instead of sitting on top of
the foam for a while.
Drop the recommended amount of Fermcap on the foam and gently stir it with a sanitized
spoon.
As you can see from this Legend of Lutra extract beer kit the foam collapsed fairly quickly
and left the surface of the wort flat and foam-free.
Pitch yeast and you're ready to rock and roll!
Speaking of rocking and rolling, this brings us to possibly the most popular use for Fermcap,
and that is to keep rambunctious fermentation from creating an aggressive amount of krausen
or foam – possibly blowing out of your fermenter.
What you see here is an extreme example of a double pitch of yeast in a high-gravity
beer – our Thiolized Swig of Sunbeams; that combo made an absolute monster of a mess!
Even with a less intense fermentation, you might find the krausen is at risk of blowing
off and out of your fermenter, or causing a clog in your airlock.
There wasn’t much risk of that happening in this six-and-half gallon Big Mouth Bubbler,
but for the sake of example, I dropped Fermcap directly onto the krausen of this Legen of
Lutra.
It’s optional, but I like to gently stir the wort with a sanitized spoon to help distribute
the FermCap throughout the fermenter.
When you do this you’ll see pretty much immediate results, as the foam dissipates
– or is at least greatly reduced – at the surface of the wort.
Remember, this does not hurt, halt, or impede fermentation at all.
You’ll see the yeast still in suspension, chewing away at all those fermentable sugars.
Fermcap will not affect the finished beer’s flavor, appearance, or head retention.
When fermentation is complete, the insoluble Fermcap compound will settle out with the
rest of your yeast and trub.
If you want to make double sure, you can also crash and/or fine the beer, get everything
completely out of solution, out of suspension.
And then be sure to not pick up any of that trub when then rack the beer to keg, bottling
bucket, or secondary fermenter.
Lastly, FermCap can be used to tame an overly energetic yeast starter.
Surely, I’m not the only one who’s created a volcano of foam swirling the starter as
all the CO2 rushes out of solution through the narrow neck of the flask.
"Woah!
Bloopers!
Holy mole.
That can happen!"
I just love this outtake from a previous video we produced where a starter pretty much popped
like a firecracker on our R&D brewer in the Brew Cave.
I made a starter just for this video in a 1,000 mL flask using our Fast Pitch canned
wort plus 16 oz of clean drinking water.
Obviously, a 2,000 mL flask would be a better option here, but I wanted to push the volume
limit just so I could show you what could happen.
As you can see, adding the Fast Pitch and water alone kicked up a good bit of foam.
But, I’m also concerned about krausen that will form eventually during the starter’s
fermentation.
Prevent this by adding just a single drop of FermCap into a one- or two-liter starter.
Just a little bit will do since we’re not talking about full gallons of wort here.
Again, it will not inhibit the mini-fermentation that is key to making a healthy, active starter,
but it will help make sure you don’t have a small geyser of wort gush all over your
countertop.
After 8 hours at room temp, upon swirling, the yeast starter that had no Fermcap certainly
foamed up and out of the flask.
The starter that did have Fermcap added was swirled rather aggressively and barely kicked
up any foam.
Quick note: This is really only applicable to starters that are made with the swirling
method on a countertop or table, as a yeast starter made on a stir plate should never
foam over due to the constant agitation of the stir bar releasing CO2 more slowly and
consistently.
If you don’t use Fast Pitch, but instead boil water and DME to make your starter wort,
you can also use FermCap here if you are worried about a small-scale boilover on your stovetop.
And there you have it, four ways the Fermcap can come to the rescue and save your brew
day or save your fermentation.
Fermcap is something I think everyone should have in their arsenal for fighting the good
fight against what is often unexpected and unpredictable foam.
With StarSan they say, "Don't fear the foam."
In a lot of other scenarios I say, "Do fear the foam and use Fermcap to knock it down."
As always you can get Fermcap at Northern Brewer.
Check out the link in the video description below.
And if you like product demos videos and FAQs videos like this out of Northern Brewer -- we
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