Anti-foaming agents

So I was attempting to vacuum reduce so Guinness to use in a beer-flavored fudge, but there was no way to control the bubbles.

First the gas from the beer had to bleed out. I left it in the fridge for a week to let it get as flat as possible.

There was a lot of foaming still from what I think was residual carbonation, but once the beer heated up enough to boil under vacuum, the foaming kicked in to overdrive.

What can I do to fight this? The foam gets sucked out the hose barb at the top of the flask to the point I will lose most of the beer if I don't stop it. I can only seem to stop it by reducing the vacuum level, which defeats the point.

I'm wondering if some sort of anti-foaming ingredient could help with the reduction. As it stands now, it's impossible to effectively manage.

Any ideas?

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Comments

Johan_Edstrom_5586

I wonder if you couldn't use something like this?

http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/fermcap-s-1-oz.html

rene

Adding xanthan gum can reduce the amount of bubbles, but not entirely though

stenehjemj

I brew and sometimes need to degas beer I want to clone to check the gravity. I put it in a blender at room temp or warmer and gas comes out quickly. A stick blender works too. The volume of gas that stays in solution is determined by temperature and pressure. The warmer the liquid, the less gas can stay in solution. Just keep it below the boiling point of alcohol if you want to keep that in.

Stable foams form due to the proteins that make up the head on a beer. They usually form only once so if you pour it to produce as much foam as possible before blending it may help reduce foam later it in the chamber. Just blending may as well but I've never tested that.

The foam control agent suggested by Johan may help but I use a couple of drops for 5 gallons and I don't know if flavor at higher concentrations would be detectable. You can get this at any homebrew shop. It does control foam when fermenting but it helps with head retention. If those proteins are your problem it may not help. Would be worth trying though.

Hope this helps.