Filtering Wort from Boil to Primary

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richlong8020

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Hey all

Just wondering if it is recommended, needed, etc to pour the wort through a mesh screen to filter out the trub (spelling) before pitching yeast and primary starts.

As always your thoughts are greatly appreciated.

I am currently brewing a Cherry Wheat from MidWest. If its a good idea then I will incorporate it into my brewing process.
 
I leave most trub behind but that is just the way my setup works with my diptube I drain from. When I extract brewed I would just dump all that crap in there. Never was worried about it. Plus, if you get a really crazy vigorous fermentation all that stuff goes flying around in the carboy and it's fun to watch.
 
I filtered when I went from cooler wort to fermenter. I counted it towards my aeration! Actually I decided to do it somewhat last minute, so I had my grain bag I had just cleaned. I threw the whole cleaned bag in some sanitizer, rinsed it with some boiled water (my preference, not required depending on your sanitizer) and put the strainer over the top of my primary. I them poured the wort through the filter, pulled it off the bucket, then poured it a bunch more times to aerate it. Worked great and beer came out clear and clean!
 
I use hop pellets directly into my kettle without a bag, so when I transfer from kettle to carboy I set a mesh food strainer in my funnel to catch all the hops and any grains that got sucked through my manifold.

Before I used to leave about 3 cups of wort behind in the kettle, now I get every drop. Dont know if it's made a difference though, since I havent made a duplicate batch to judge.
 
I use mostly pellet hops and whirlpool before draining my BK through the CFC to my carboy. Some trub gets through but not much. Then I rack to secondary after fermentation is complete. Usually, 7-10 days.
 
Not needed at all. I use a hop spider to keep the majority of the matter from those going into the rest of the wort (to keep it out of my plate chiller). I get as much of my lovely wort into my fermenter as I can. That includes the stuff at the bottom. I run the wort directly from the plate chiller (in it's final pass) into fermenting vessel without any filtering elements at all.

There is a thread where someone let the wort settle in the kettle and pulled the clearer stuff off the top into one fermenter and then put the rest (all-in) into another fermenter. Using the same yeasts and everything else the 'clearer' batch ended up more cloudy in the end, with less flavor. The 'dirty' wort ended up clearing much better and had more/better flavor to it.

Basically put it all in and then RDWHAHB. :rockin:
 
There is a thread where someone let the wort settle in the kettle and pulled the clearer stuff off the top into one fermenter and then put the rest (all-in) into another fermenter. Using the same yeasts and everything else the 'clearer' batch ended up more cloudy in the end, with less flavor. The 'dirty' wort ended up clearing much better and had more/better flavor to it.

Basically put it all in and then RDWHAHB. :rockin:

That's pretty interesting, I wonder if there were any other variables involved. Personally I've only strained twice, and it didn't seem to make a difference, so I stopped worrying.

Which I suppose is why that's the best motto :D
 
Wow this is amazing. I will grab a strainer on my next visit to my LHBS. Looks like its a sound idea and a little less trub to clean at the end of primary. I also like the idea of a cleaner secondary (especially if dry hopping).

U guys are great.
 
That's pretty interesting, I wonder if there were any other variables involved. Personally I've only strained twice, and it didn't seem to make a difference, so I stopped worrying.

Which I suppose is why that's the best motto :D

You got it... IMO, those that think they need to go through all these extra steps (whirlpooling, filtering, straining, etc.) are just giving themselves more work for no better end results. Just as racking to secondary is not necessary for 99% of brews made with ale yeast. That 1% difference is for moving to an aging vessel for things like months on oak (or other woods) additions. Dry hopping is easily done either in primary or serving keg. I actually like the results when adding the dry hops into serving keg.
 
I just filtered my last batch on Monday. It caught a lot of loose hops and other matter. That being said, when I drained the wort into carboy, it was straight from boil pot, into funnel with strainer and then into carboy. It left a foamy head when I put the airlock on. Two days later I had a big mess inside my fermenter chamber,not sure if this was the cause, but it was the first time. I liked doing the straining part, but maybe next time I'll put a hoe on the bottom of the fumnnel so I get no splashing into the carboy
 
Well I primary in a bucket so I have never had a blow out that way. The only blow out I had was a ferocious IPA I did primary in a 6 gal carboy. What a mess. Either I don't make explosive brews or it's the carboy way of fermentation.
 
I listened to a podcast with Jamil and Palmer and they both recommend leaving as much trub behind as you can. I use whirlpooling followed by a 30 minute rest
 
I use 2 mesh balls for my pellet hops--some call it a tea ball, or a spice ball, or a hop ball. Both of them easily hold 3/4oz and leave plenty of room for expansion. 1oz and it turns into a solid ball of mush, so I have to be careful. For transferring to primary, I use a filter screen on the inside of my kettle on the weldless conversion. I put a LARGE strainer (sanitized, of course) in the top of my brew bucket. I also just picked up a reusable fine-mesh nylon filter that I'll use in conjunction with the strainer. This system will allow me to keep ALL the wort without all the trub. It also works to aerate the beer before pitching the yeast.

As far as extra work, I don't think it's significant. I load the hops into the s/s mesh balls and dunk them into my kettle for the boil at their respective times. The boil pushes the wort into and around the hop balls and gets adequate utilization based on what I can tell. The filter screen is inside the kettle and filters without any work from me. The strainer in the bucket takes approximately 2 seconds to grab off my sanitized drying rack and drop in the top of my bucket.

I'm happy with the results and will continue to strain my beer.
 
I have only done 2 brews so far, so my sample size isn't great but, I have been decided to try a strainer for the transfer. For the first brew I just tried to pour slowly to keep the trub from making its way into the fermenter, and it was a huge pain resulting in a ton of trub that I feel like caused me to leave a ton of beer in the fermenter when transferring to the bottling bucket.

The second brew I jury rigged a strainer from a colander and my sanitized grain but it filled up so quickly that this process seemed to take for ever. I bought a strainer to use for my 3rd brew, so we'll see how it works out.

Is there any real benefit to having a ton of trub in the fermenter?
 
Cicada said:
I have only done 2 brews so far, so my sample size isn't great but, I have been decided to try a strainer for the transfer. For the first brew I just tried to pour slowly to keep the trub from making its way into the fermenter, and it was a huge pain resulting in a ton of trub that I feel like caused me to leave a ton of beer in the fermenter when transferring to the bottling bucket.

The second brew I jury rigged a strainer from a colander and my sanitized grain but it filled up so quickly that this process seemed to take for ever. I bought a strainer to use for my 3rd brew, so we'll see how it works out.

Is there any real benefit to having a ton of trub in the fermenter?

Ive made about 10 batches so far and have not strained out the trub. I was inquiring about this to see about reducing the trub in the bottom of my primary. Less trub might mean slightly more beer??? Maybe.

Haven't tried it yet but will try it for a few batches and see what happens.
 
Why not make filtering a moot point and use a fine mesh straining bag to keep most of the hop matter from getting into you wort in the first place? I started doing this on my third batch, and won't go back to not using one. I still get some sediment in the bottom of my kettle. More often than not I dump sediment and all into the primary with no ill effects.
 
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