buy a water heater pan, they come in different sizes and materials put it underneath your buckets,brewkettle burner,etc it will keep the floor or driveway free of stickyness and ants.a 22" will fit under a turkey fryer burner stand.they are built for water heater overflow so boiling water is ok.can even pipe it away if outside in the drive.
most boil overs happen right after the boil starts. called a hot break. another good way to keep it from foaming over is a spray bottle full of clean water to spray the foam down
great solution is fermcaps - and it is cheap.
http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/fermcap-s-1-oz.htmlworks great in boil and/or fermenter. no more boil overs, even with a 5 gal pot filled with 4.75 gal of water…
an expensive solution, but a big BK solves 99% of boilovers. i got a 60qt pot and haven’t had to worry about it since.
A) when the pot is too full
B) When I’m not paying attention
C) When I went downstairs to get a homebrew
D) When the phone rings
E) All of the above.
I still have the occasional brain fart and the pot boils over. I like the idea of the water heater catch pan. Still have to clean up the brew pot and the propane burner but at least no sticky puddle in the middle of garage.
[quote=“cjtboy”]great solution is fermcaps - and it is cheap.
http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/fermcap-s-1-oz.htmlworks great in boil and/or fermenter. no more boil overs, even with a 5 gal pot filled with 4.75 gal of water…[/quote]
Yeah, I’ve heard that stuff is great but it never seems to be in stock…anywhere!
[quote=“Duxx”][quote=“cjtboy”]great solution is fermcaps - and it is cheap.
http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/fermcap-s-1-oz.htmlworks great in boil and/or fermenter. no more boil overs, even with a 5 gal pot filled with 4.75 gal of water…[/quote]
Yeah, I’ve heard that stuff is great but it never seems to be in stock…anywhere![/quote]
Even Northern Brewer? I bought two bottles about a year ago and still have 1/2 of the first left. Not sure how long it’s good for. I haven’t used it for boilovers, but it works good for blowoffs.
Fermcaps is the best solution in my book - cheap and highly effective
Another vote for the fermcap; don’t have to pay too close of attention to the kettle during the boil which frees me up to do other tasks and I like not having to deal with blow off in my fermenters.
I’ve found that even with only a modestly-sized kettle (8.5 gal, with 7.2 gal of wort) I don’t really have to worry about boilovers as long as I keep the burner turned down. I’ll run it wide open until the wort gets to about 190°F, then throttle it way back and leave it there for the boil. Most home brewers are using burners that are over-powered for their wort volumes anyway.
I’ve had some MASSIVE boilovers despite using Fermcap at several times the recommended concentration. On the other hand, it does seem to be very effective at keeping down krausen in the fermenter.
Seems like scraping the guzz that forms right before/ during hot break helps keep the foam down.
I still use fermcap after scraping.
Helps calm down those 90 min additions of C hops.
Ice cubes work great. 1 or 2 will do the trick everytime it gets too close for comfort.
I’m with you…me and my 40 qt BK laugh in the face of 5 gallon batches…boilover, what’s that?
I have a 15 gallon BK too. I also have an aluminum water heater pan under it, and yes I have cleaned the water heater pan a few times. It’s a lot easier than cleaning what’s under the pan. YMMV. Cheers!!!
the plastic pan i bought was only $11.way cheaper than the divorce would be.my kettles will boil over even half full,my luck i guess,or maybe its the home malted grains im using…lots of proteins at the break.
always 
Oddly enough I was at Lowes yesterday and saw for the first time an aluminum water heater pan. Never knew such a thing existed, they didn’t install one on my water heater. I looked at it and knew it had to be useful for something brewing-related (like all things). I boil on a wooden deck, I think this would both catch boilovers and reduce the chance of something happening and causing a fire.
+1 to fermcap though.
[quote=“tom sawyer”]Oddly enough I was at Lowes yesterday and saw for the first time an aluminum water heater pan. Never knew such a thing existed, they didn’t install one on my water heater. I looked at it and knew it had to be useful for something brewing-related (like all things). I boil on a wooden deck, I think this would both catch boilovers and reduce the chance of something happening and causing a fire.
[/quote]
i also boil on a wooden deck. and i always wet the wood under my burner (probably not necessary but i am paranoid). i didnt even think about it, but the pan would relieve worry, great idea!
once the wort is boiling just turn your temperature down a notch…thats how i cook, thats how ive been brewing. havent come close to a boil over. water only needs to be 212 degrees to boil, why have 4 or 5 hundred degrees heating the bottom? that probably scorches some of the malt sugars…on my stove top i start at high(1 oclock on the dial) once its boiling i switch to med/high (3 oclock) and it works great. still a rapid boil, just not over boiling! hope that helps someone.
