LME wash, should I boil it?

[Jayjay1976]

I recently made up 12 gallons of 7.5% wash using liquid malt extract. I dissolved it all in RO water with my brew kettle, heated it up to 170 to pasteurize, then chilled and transferred it to my fermenters. I'm a bit worried now that since I didn't boil it, when I run it the hot break will cause foaming and puking. I dont have much experience with extract but I assumed it had been boiled in manufacture as part of the process of reducing it to a syrup. I have fermcap so I was thinking of adding some of that when I run it but was looking for some more opinions. I know butter or olive oil can help too, but I would prefer not using either in my kettle if I can avoid it.

 

[bernardsmith]

I suspect that unless the LME was made with a protein break you might find that as the mash heats up you will get a great deal of foaming inside your kettle and that foam will make its way through the condenser and gather in your collecting jar. Puking, I believe they call this. Now, whether LME (or DME) is produced in such a way to remove the protein, I don't know. But given the fact that most brewers will be boiling their wort (when they add hops) and given the fact that you can extract the LME without a great deal of heat (using vacuum and pressure) my money is on the presence of protein... but I could be very wrong.