Anyone else strain like this?

I guess I can't post pictures. Anyway, instead of siphoning from the brew kettle to the fermentor I have been using a different technique. The idea is similar to straining through a funnel with a screen into a carboy. Except I use a 24"x24" fine mesh nylon bag and strain into a 6.5gallon bucket. The bag is doubled up, by that I mean it is closed not open and the wort passes through two layers of nylon. The bag is secured using four big black file clips to the edges of the bucket.

So far it has been working wonderfully for me. After dumping 5 gallons of wort through the bag, I am left with a nice pool of trub on top of the mesh bag. There is usually no splashing. The bag and the clips are sanitized before I use them, duh.

I did that with one of my first brews.

I've done that quite a few times. Works great.

I don't bother to strain anything. And cooled wort SHOULD be splashed, liberally, going into primary, lest your yeast fail to have enough oxygen to replicate for a good fermentation.

I often have trub, hot and cold break in primary. My beers taste great and are very clear without any filtering or additional finings besides irish moss at 15 mins to flameout.

glad its working for you, but it seems like a lot of work that might not be necessary.
/shrugs

By splashing I meant splashing out of the fermentor I am pouring into - as in losing beer.

If deathbrewer says its cool, its cool. I started on his partial mash stovetop, and now I upgraded to allgrain. I would still be buying brewersbest crap kits if it weren't for him.

I have never used a siphon to transfer to my fermenter. I try to splash it around as much as possible.

Talloak said:

By splashing I meant splashing out of the fermentor I am pouring into - as in losing beer.

If deathbrewer says its cool, its cool. I started on his partial mash stovetop, and now I upgraded to allgrain. I would still be buying brewersbest crap kits if it weren't for him.

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I love DB but... lol

How are you splashing OUT of the fermenter? Poor more slowlier.

SRSLY...I don't see a problem with this method. I've filtered my wort before moving it to the fermenter in many ways, and this one is just as adequate as any. There's no reason to have that crap there, despite how little you think it affects the beer. And all it does is take up space. Even gives great aeration if you pour it through a bag like that.

I take from your original post that the splashing isn't a major problem. As long as you use good sanitation practices, including sanitizing the bag, I say go for it.

I love you too, Aleforge.

I don't mean to crap on your method. If it works, then great. I just seems to me like an extra and unnecessary step. Not to mention something else to clean.

The more I brew the more I try to find ways to eliminate unnecessary steps. I find that a good whirlpool of the cool wort will pool the trub into the middle. Then I carefully siphon to leave the gunk behind.

After fermentation is complete, It spends a couple of days in the fridge to cold crash and compact the yeast cake,then another careful siphon into the keg or bottling bucket, and my beer is usually very clear.

In the past I have just dumped the whole thing in the bucket, gunk and all, and after two to three weeks in the bucket it all settles to the bottom. But, now that I'm doing mostly ten gallon batches, the "dumping" method isn't much of an option. So, since I'm going to be siphoning anyway, I may as well leave the crud behind.

Also an excellent method. Both work fine. A hose is something "extra to clean"...bags are easy. Just spray them off, hang them up, let them dry, and knock off the dust.

When I do ten gallons, I use my keggle and I run out of the boiling vessel using an in-line filter.

Many would say that cold-crashing is an unnecessary step, seeing as with enough time the yeast will compact anyway.

I'm not a fan of siphoning, myself. I agree that some splashing needs to be involved, or some type of aeration. A very slow runoff that splashes down from my keggle provides perfect aeration.

Talloak said:

I use a 24"x24" fine mesh nylon bag . . .

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If you're looking for easy, a valve on the pot is the way to go. For straining, I tie a sterlized muslin bag to the valve. Catches most of the hops and break that don't stay in the center after whirl pooling.

There has to be a juice joke in there somewhere.