Filtering wort

Hi All,

We're using a truebrew kit (red ale) and have used cheese cloth over a funnel to the carboy (primary) to remove excess hop sediment. Was this a good idea? I'm sort of worried that the hop sediment should have actually been in the carboy for fermentation. So is it ok to strain hop remnants out?

Not a problem. many of us use hop bags during the boil to make hop removal easy. Others just let them settle in the fermenter. You will make beer either way.

sure, thats a fine way to do things. Assuming your wort is cool, it will also aid in aeration a bit.

Hop matter is not really wanted in your fermenting vessel. Don't stress too much about it, but it can inhibit yeast health.

Your methos sounds good to me as long as the cheesecloth is at least clean if not sanitized. I've used a fine mesh strainer with the same idea just because its pretty easy to hit with no rinse sanitizer/heat sanitize.

thanks guys for the feedback, makes me feel better!

also on this topic, curious about why the wort would need to be cool (obviously not boiling, but how cool?)

cdif911 said:

also on this topic, curious about why the wort would need to be cool (obviously not boiling, but how cool?)

Click to expand...

It needs to be cool so you can pitch the yeast. You want to add the yeast when the wort is about 70 degrees. The faster you cool, the better. Bacteria thrive in the 80-140 degree range, so you want the wort to get quickly out of that danger zone and get the yeast it there. Once the yeast gain a foothold, they can outcompete most other stray yeast or bacteria that might have found its way into your wort.

cdif911 said:

also on this topic, curious about why the wort would need to be cool (obviously not boiling, but how cool?)

Click to expand...

The wort needs to be somewhere around 70 degrees to pitch the yeast.

thanks makes sense (the 70 degrees) what I was getting at is if you go through the cheesecloth first into the primary, wait til 70 then pitch, is that ok?

i have been filtering my wort for years. once the wort is cool i dump it into my fermenter i then put a sanitized 5 gal. paint strainer (from lowes) over my pot & pour it back then with sanitized hands i lift up the strainer and push out all the liquid leaving the sludge in the bag. as philrose pointed out this is a great way to aerate the wort.. // the wort needs to be cooled so you dont kill the yeast...

cdif911 said:

also on this topic, curious about why the wort would need to be cool (obviously not boiling, but how cool?)

Click to expand...

Another concern with aerating your wort above 82 degrees is hot side aeration.

This can lead to a wet cardboard flavor and/or a reduced shelf life.

Bull

cdif911 said:

thanks makes sense (the 70 degrees) what I was getting at is if you go through the cheesecloth first into the primary, wait til 70 then pitch, is that ok?

Click to expand...

This is the process I have come up with.

My boils are about 3 gal. I set my pot into the sink filled with cold water and toss bottles of frozen water into the sink. I also use a homemade wort chiller and can get the wort down around 70 degrees in 10-15min. I then rack the wort into the carboy through a funnel with a mesh filter.

Since I need to add around two gallons of water I put about 2.5 gallons of water in my sanitized bottling bucket the day before and cover it. I let it set out so it warms up to room temperature, which is close to 70 degrees. I add this water on brew day until the wort comes up to the 5 gallon line I have marked on the exterior of the carboy. I then use my plastic wine thief to mix the wort before I take a gravity reading.

After all of this my wort is close to 70 degrees so I pitch the yeast and shake the he** out of the carboy. Then - into the fermentation chamber for three weeks.

There are probably better ways of doing this but it works for me.

There are lots of ways to cool the wort, but I found that an ice bath in the sink to get the wort to 80 or so, and then adding to your fermenter and topping up with cool water seems to be the fastest and most easily done. If you add cold fridge water, you could have the wort be too cold. If you don't chill enough in the sink, the wort could be too warm.

Another benefit to fast chilling is a good "cold break". When the wort chills from boiling to 70 fast, gobs of precipitated protein will congeal together, leaving you with clearer wort and clearer beer (no chill haze) in the end.

I am not someone who strains my wort, so I can't give you advice on cheesecloth vs. a strainer. It all settles to the bottom in the end, so no need to stress about a bit of hops debris or hot break material in my opinion.

It is okay to have hops in the primary right? I love adding hops to the primary, even the secondary to age. Doesn't the acidity help control bacteria?

I use a 2 stage fine mesh strainer and pour the wort through.

YooperBrew said:

There are lots of ways to cool the wort, but I found that an ice bath in the sink to get the wort to 80 or so, and then adding to your fermenter and topping up with cool water seems to be the fastest and most easily done. If you add cold fridge water, you could have the wort be too cold. If you don't chill enough in the sink, the wort could be too warm.

Click to expand...

Yooper - I tried this my first two batches and I had a heck of a time trying to figure out the cold water vs the wort temp ratio to get it to 70 degrees. The water out of the tap is around 36 degrees at this time of year. I would end up with the wort too cold.

JefferyL said:

It is okay to have hops in the primary right? I love adding hops to the primary, even the secondary to age. Doesn't the acidity help control bacteria?

I use a 2 stage fine mesh strainer and pour the wort through.

Click to expand...

Dumping your wort into the primary with the hops in it from the boil won't harm the beer. Adding hops to the primary won't be of any benefit, though. The act of fermentation will "scrub" out any hops aroma that the hops could give. Adding hops to the secondary is dryhopping, though, and that works great!

If you are using an imeersion chiller in your wort, if you stir the wort while cooling this will create a whirlpool effect and bring a cone of hop matter and break to the center of the kettle. this would prob eliminate the need to filter the wort(this is assuming you have a valve on your kettle and not just dumpnig your boil kettle into the fermenter)I tried filtering wort with a funnel with a screen when i brewed extract...however I found it would get clogged to easy and slow the pour WAY down.and before i had valves holding a pot with 3 gallons in it above a funnel for any length of time sucked!! good luck dont sweat the details,I havent filtered wort since then and no problems related to hop material,trub,or break...What style of beer is it maybe if it is a light lager type you may want to stick with filtering if it works for your setup.