I've been doing it lately, assuming it will reduce the amount of crap I have to filter out after the boil, and it seems to reduce the amount of head I get during the boil (less chance of a boil over).
Does anybody else do this or does anybody have any insight as to whether or not I should be doing it and why?
Palmer recommends throwing a couple of copper pennies into the pot to prevent boilover.
I tried doing it for a couple years. I found it made no difference whatsoever to the beer quality so now I don't bother. The only valid reason I've heard for doing it is to help prevent boilovers on small kettles, but I find Fermcap far more effective for that.
I don't. Mostly because I'm lazy, but I think it also serves as some extra nutrients for the yeast.
Geeks Mental is a community that publishes articles and tutorials about Web, Android, Data Science, new techniques and Linux security.