To strain or not to strain, that is the question

Hi all, a noob general question here.... When we made our 1st batch (made with extract), we poured the wort into the carboy using the funnel that came with the kit, the funnel has a small removable strainer which we used. The strainer had to be cleared every few pours. The recipe didn't say anything about straining the wort, we just assumed it is the done thing. I've just read a recipe that says no need to strain. So to my question, does it matter if you strain the wort or not, does it have any effect on the fermenting process or on the flavour of the finished product or is it personal preference if you strain the wort or not ? I'm just curious as will be starting our second batch soon.... Thanks

Ive made some great beers without straining. I dump everything in. It will give you more trub, but i see no problem with that.

Really, it just depends on what you're looking for. I don't strain, but I do all of my hopping in nylon bags, and I siphon to my fermenter, leaving some of the crud behind.

in the end, it shouldn't affect flavor in most beers. But it can affect clarity, if you care about that.

Personally, I prefer only my wort in the fermenter, not the crud. If your strainer is small in your funnel, you can pour through a metal mesh kitchen strainer (smaller, handheld varieties can be had at Target or Walmart for just a few bucks.

I strain for a couple reasons one is to remove the hops from the wort since I don't use a bag. second is if your using a fine mesh strainer it helps big time with aerating the wort when putting it in the fermenter. Its really up to you on how you want to brew everyone does things differently but in the end get the same results: BEER

Straining is straining. I never had a strainer that didn't clog.

Trub in the fermenter is not a problem. Dumping the whole thing is fine. You're not going to hurt your beer.

I've seen a few tests comparing trub and no trub. Results are contradictory. Sometimes trub is cloudy and tastes funky. Other times it's clear and has better flavor. My conclusion is there are more important things to consider.

You can syphon to greatly minimize trub to the fermentor. Whirlpooling can make siphoning cleanly much easier. You will most likely be happy with the results. You can siphon with your racking cane.

You don't need to put anything over your syphon tube.

Nope. Don't need it. You can get very clean wort to the fermenter by syphoning without any sort of straining or filtering

I definitely recommend whirlpooling if you are going to filter. You stir the wort to get a fast circular motion going and then let it sit for a few minutes. This concentrates all the trub/hops in the center of the pot. Then when you siphon or pour, the filter will not get clogged until you get to the last bit of wort.

That's really one of those things that is a matter of personal preference and nothing else. Some dump everything in, without straining, just pour it in the bucket or in the funnel....Some use a big strainer that fit in the funnel for a carboy, or a sanitized 5 gallon nylon paint strainer bag in the bucket...

I have done it all ways. It really doesn't matter...anything will settle.

In other words, there is no wrong way to do it, or better way, or way that will make the best beer...they all work...the choice is what will work the best for you. That's how you develop you own unique brewing process. By trying all ways and deciding what works best for you.

What I do with my IC, is chill the wort, then I lean the bottom of my autosiphon about two coils up from the bottom on the metal of the siphon. That rests it above most of the break material and trub, then I rack it to the fermenter until I'm down to that and carefully lower the siphon down into the gunk, just trying to get as much of the wort as possible without letting in the hops and break matter.

A whirlpool helps.

But pretty much up until I got my immersion chiller I just dumped for the majority of my batches. And I still managed to do well in contests...

I find that long primaries render my beer just as clear, and crisp tasting regardless of whether I dumped it all in or not....so I just do what works for me.....

Tried our first straining last week, it takes more time because it clogs some when it gets full but I'll see how it turns out.

I've strained some and not others. I do bag my hops, so I don't get too much trub. I find it a total PITA to try to strain, so I only do it to get a little more wort into the fermenter. I never strain anything after fermentation. Careful siphoning is all that is needed then.

I found a strainer like this at a restaurant supply store. Very fine mesh that forms ridges on the inside. By swirling the strainer the trub and hops sort of clump into a quite dry ball ball in the bottom of the cone. I used it for a few batches and then read about whirl pooling. Have bee trying that without much luck. Thinking of going back to the strainer.

eric19312 said:

I found a strainer like this at a restaurant supply store. Very fine mesh that forms ridges on the inside. By swirling the strainer the trub and hops sort of clump into a quite dry ball ball in the bottom of the cone. I used it for a few batches and then read about whirl pooling. Have bee trying that without much luck. Thinking of going back to the strainer.

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http://www.sears.com/update-interna...-SPM6389676905?prdNo=5&blockNo=5&blockType=G5

Updated with link

Another big kitchen strainer in a funnel guy here. Makes all kinds of sense to me.

Here are a couple pics from my last brew day. Strainer measures 10" diameter by 9" deep. The small lump was from an 11 pound grain bill with 2 oz pellet hope in the boil plus 1/2 tablet of whirloc. Larger lump was a 1.080 imperial black ipa. About 15 pounds of grain plus some sugar, 2.5 oz pellet hops, 2 oz whole hops in boil, no whirlfloc.

When I use the strainer it will eventually start to clog. At that point I shut off the beer flow and then swirl the strainer in a counterclockwise fashion over the fermentor (I use 6.5 gal buckets). The trub and hops rapidly clears from the pores of the filter letting the beer through. The trub and hops accumulate into the lump shown in the pics and I can continue transferring. At the end of the transfer I am able to swirl again, forming a nice compact lump that actually seems to squeeze the last bit of beer out of the trub/hop mass and into the fermentor.

Probably not necessary but I am imagining the swirling technique is not clear above. I don't spin the strainer like a toy top on its point, instead I hold it in the same orientation, and move its point around the inside circumference of the bottling bucket counterclockwise. Don't know why counterclockwise works for me and clockwise doesn't but that is the case. I can do this holding the handle of the strainer only, leaving the other hand free to hang onto the transfer hose. I rest the strainer on the bucket when transferring or opening/closing the ball valve.

Another thought. This is a lot easier to do with pellet hops only as I don't have a way to keep the leaf hops out of my valve and the plugged me up almost immediately. Had to switch to a racking cane which was a PITA.

And one more...before I build my mash/lauter tun I used the strainer for partial mash brewing. It holds 4 pounds of grain permitting a decent batch sparge, I mashed in a 9qt dutch oven (heavy pot) on the stove top and got efficiencies in excess of 85%. I say batch sparge because there was really no way to control the flow of wort through the strainer. I would load it up with grain from the pot, pour everything back through it as sort of a gheto vorlouf, and then dump all the grain back into the pot with sparge water and repeat. I went ahead and used almost a full boil worth of water on the sparging since it goes through so fast I wasn't concerned about extracting tannins.

Very nice. Simple, effective, and relatively cheap. My guess is you found that at a restaurant supply store for about 30 bucks.

I use whole leaf hops and pour into my bucket through this:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001VZERX4/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

It does not clog, but it does fill up with hops and big chunks. I usually have to stop and empty it once - takes about 10 seconds.

I quit using my carboy and went to buckets to simplify my brewing.

itsme6582 said:

Very nice. Simple, effective, and relatively cheap. My guess is you found that at a restaurant supply store for about 30 bucks.

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