The Hop Stopper - boil question

[brewpunk]

I bought the "hop stopper" from ihombrew solutions. It works really well on filtering out hops and other material when transfering to the carboy, but my boil has changed. Because the large screen on the bottom of the boil kettle it reduces the surface bubbles from the boil. The boil is rolling and is at 212F, but the boils I have without the hop blocker is a lot more vigorous. Is this hurting the boil and the dms being released during the boil, or anything else?

I've experimented with the burner and the flame, but no matter how high I make the flame, the boil does not get more vigorous.

http://www.ihomebrewsolutions.com/index ... &Itemid=54

[Cliff]

Don't worry, Be happy.

So long as you are boiling you are golden.
I get a rolling boil on my range top but never a roiling or furious one.

[Bugeater]

The hop stopper is indeed affecting the appearance of you boil. A violent boil is simply the formation of large bubbles of steam where the liquid is in contact with the bottom of the kettle. The hop stopper screen is breaking up those bubbles into smaller bubbles, thus you don't see the violent disruption of the surface that larger bubbles normally cause. Take a look at your boil off rate compared to what you got before the hop stopper. If you are evaporating the same volume per hour, you are good.

Wayne

[PSUHomebrewer]

In reality a boil is a boil. You will be driving off dms and what not more due to the temperature and not how vigorous the boil is. A rolling boil is actualy preford over a vigorous boil. I try to just bring my brews to a gental boil, and I also use a kettle screen. I've actualy have seen an improvement in the boil since starting using it. The boil is more dispersed in the kettle instead of just in the center. ( I'm using a high presure burner so the area being heated is just in the center) Jamil and Palmer talked about it in more detail on brew strong..