New to All-Grain Brewing...

Good Afternoon!

This is the first time I am attempting to brew an all-grain stout recipe. I have made several batches of wine these past few years and since this is my wine off-season, I have decided to delve into the beer world.

My question has to do with the usage of hops and moss that I am using. After boiling the wort with the moss and hops for x minutes as per my recipe, do I discard them before I cool the wort - or do I leave the hops and moss in during the cooling stage and if so, do I go even futher and transfer them to the primary fermentor? My gut tells me to discard them after the boil, but I would like some clarification.

Please forgive my ignorance on the subject - any guidance would be appreciated!

- John

I don't know what other people do, but I leave everything as-is while chilling. After chilling, since I'm a big strong dude, I have a friend hold a strainer as I dump the whole wort from the boil pot through the strainer into a bucket. Slam dunk! You've removed most of the large particles and you've managed to aerate a bit too. Then I dump it back and forth between two buckets three or four times to aerate. Then I siphon with a metal racking cane that has a filtering tip to ensure nothing larger than something the size of pencil shavings will be transferred to the fermenter. If you run your fermentation schedule properly your beer will finish up clear and pure as the wind-driven snow (unless you added wheat to your mash).

I am far from an expert, but you need to be very careful about introducing oxygen to the wort while it is still hot. After that the more oxygen the better. But I leave everything in my boil kettle and just try to be extra careful when I siphon my beer into my fermenter.